I lived in NYC when Goetz committed those murders. A lot of people were disgusted and revolted by him. Both locally and nationally.

I could be wrong. It's impossible to know. I was a different person. I was a liberal. And it's not only is it a different era in time. Technology has changed everything. The net was a non-entity so everyone's world - including my own - was smaller.

Like anybody unaware - I consumed a lot of propaganda then without knowing it. My hunch is that if the net and social media had existed then - people who supported Goetz would be ridiculed and humiliated. Of course some Death Wish fantasists were liberals. But I doubt they'd voice those opinions in public.

There's been a huge lurch to the right in the decades since. Going more and more mask off has become more acceptable. I won't be surprised if some right-wing turd on the NYT staff (or guest columnist) writes a not-so-veiled op-ed with the gist being "people have a right to feel safe in public" and the text basically intimates that the death of a homeless person isn't that big a deal.

Also - if the murderer is smart - he'll set up a Gofundme and let right-wing media outlets know about. I bet he could easily raise a 100,000 (if not more) within the next few weeks.

Giving money and aid to murderer was wholly unacceptable in the 1980s. But it sure okay now to a huge percentage of Americans.