Real Life Super Hero Arrested 590
First time accepted submitter Pat Attack writes "In an ironic twist of fate, Phoenix Jones, a self-styled super hero from Seattle, has landed in jail. Jones happened upon a group of people fighting in the street and tried to stop the fight using pepper spray. He was arrested by police on four counts of assault. The New York Daily News quotes Jones: 'I've been shot once and I don't really want it to happen again. I've been stabbed twice, hit with a baseball bat and had my nose broken,' he says. 'But in all those incidents I helped someone who was in danger. If someone is going to take that punishment it should be the guy in body armor,' he said."
Darmok and Jalad at Seattle (Score:5, Funny)
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>If someone is going to take that punishment it should be the guy in body armor,' he said."
His eyes wide open!
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I don't blame them for wanting to run over the dude with a car.
This superhero dude doesn't seem to give a shit.
Uh what? You don't blame a bunch of guys for trying to kill someone?
Re:Darmok and Jalad at Seattle (Score:4, Informative)
I hate it when I can't remember which NG episode that is from... Brilliant!
Darmok [memory-alpha.org]
HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Interesting)
For those wondering about these new "superheroes," it's actually a movement [wikipedia.org] of sorts. There was an excellent HBO documentary [imdb.com] on them a while back. They're even forming groups now. When I heard about the documentary, I just expected to laugh at these guys. But it's actually a very interesting portrait of some well-meaning, though often a little deluded, guys who really do want to make the world a better place. I ended up feeling both sorry for them and a little envious of them at the same time.
One of the best points they made was that they are "patrolling" areas where the cops really don't give a shit. For example, at one point in the documentary a homeless guy gets run over by a car during one of the superhero group patrols. It's the "superheroes" who stop to help him. But when they call the cops to report it, they don't even show up. Even when they try to flag down a cop car as the guy is still laying on the ground bleeding, the cops just keep driving. It's the "superheroes" who take him to the hospital and then even track down the car that hit him (driven by an obviously intoxicated driver). But, again, when they call the cops on the drunk driver, they're basically told to fuck off.
As crazy as these guys are, I can't say that I don't understand why they do what they do. It's not just a bunch of losers wanting to be the comic book heroes of their fantasies. Some of them really do look around and say that the world NEEDS superheroes, especially the neighborhoods where no one else (including the cops) seems to give a shit. Part of me wishes I could have their faith in humanity. They may be deluded, but they're certainly not do-nothing cynics.
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Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
If I got jumped by a bunch of guys, I would rather have someone in body armor show up with mace than no-one at all.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, one of the most poignant lines in Kick Ass is where he's valiantly trying to fight off a bunch of guys kicking the shit out of someone (and him too). One of the assailants says "The fuck is wrong with you, man? You'd rather die for some piece of shit that you don't even fucking know?" and he replies "The three assholes, laying into one guy while everybody else watches? And you wanna know what's wrong with me?"
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish that movie had stayed with the tone established in the first half by scenes like that one, instead of turning into a Matrix-y kung-fu movie with the appearance of Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Good characters, but really ruined the promise the movie had up to that point. But I guess you can't go the semi-realistic hero-gets-beaten-to-shit route once you involve a 10 year old hero... which is why they shouldn't have...
With these real-life costumed vigilantes, I understand where they're coming from, but I don't really agree with where they go to. They put on costumes to protect their identity, but it also grants anonymity (up until they get arrested) and a sense of being separate and special. So they're more likely to intervene in cases where they really shouldn't. Like, perhaps, this one.
By the way, I heard on the news the 911 call Phoenix Jones made to report the fight. The dispatcher asked "What are you wearing?", and the awkward pause before he answered "A yellow and black rubber suit" was precious. :)
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Granted, I have not listened to this call, but this just lends further weight to my thought that there is some kind of (misplaced?) animosity between these "superheroes" and the police & dispatchers. If I call in an ongoing crime, I wouldn't normally expect the 911 operator to inquire on my current dress.
The dispatcher didn't know the caller was a costumed crime fighter, or at least maybe not until they mentioned the rubber suit. They probably asked about clothing so that when the police arrive they can find the person who called.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, but the problem is with vigilantes is that there's no guarantee they'll agree with you what an "asshole" is in less clear-cut cases. Sure, if a vigilante rescues me from being beaten up, I'd be grateful. But what if he "rescues" me from buying liquor, or porn, or having an abortion? The fantasy of being a vigilante isn't limited to doing good, it includes getting to decide what *is* good to do. And without somebody looking over your shoulder, it's easy to screw that up.
Take this case. If you watch the video (http://vimeo.com/30307440), you see a bunch of people -- probably drunk -- standing around while a couple of guys are doing the bear-hugging drunk fight thing. Then Mr. Jones wades in with his Jumbo-sized can of pepper spray. Who's to say he didn't do more harm than these guys were going to do to each other?
When we imagine ourselves as superheroes, we imagine ourselves with superhuman traits to go with it. Even if that doesn't include obvious superpowers, it includes non-obvious ones: superhuman judgment (always being right) and superhuman luck (always winning in the end). The reality is that people are fallible. Of course the cops are fallible too, but they have one big advantage: numbers. Even if they don't arrive in force, even a single cop has the promise of dozens of others at his call. The best way to end a fight like this is overwhelming force, which Mr. Jones does not possess. He has to bring a weapon into the fight, thus *escalating* the conflict.
Everything you don't like about cops can be true of vigilantes, except they don't regard themselves as accountable to anyone else even in *principle*.
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Give me a break Mr Lawyer.
Oh NO. He's saving me from buying liquor! How exactly are you seeing that happening? He charges into the store and points and you, shouting "Stop!"
You worry about super heroes doing things that so far, only the government has been successful at.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
Cops have an extreme disadvantage as opposed to vigilantes: lack of local knowledge. Vigilantes, whether it be these 'superheroes' or community policing organizations or just a bunch of neighbors, KNOW who is the bad guy because they live there. They're not coming from some precinct house ten miles away, they're not driving in from their homes in suburbia, they live down the street and see the crack dealer on the corner every evening, see the pimp smacking 'his' girls around, talk to the neighbor who saw the little weasel crawling in the broken window. They're not cruising down the main street in a squad car, they walk down the alley and stand at the bus stop, they ride their bike down the hill and shop at the grocery store, have a drink at the bar, hang out at the ice cream stand. No police force in North America (and damn few elsewhere) will ever have the local knowledge necessary to do their job adequately, they're just not set up that way.
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What separates a "vigilante" from other people is that they take justice into their own hands. Breaking up a fight is legal. Making a citizen's arrest is legal (provided you do it legally - there's laws). In some jurisdictions, holding a rioter down until the cops get there is legal (detention to prevent a breach of the peace). Walking around with a mag-light and a mobile phone, and calling the cops if you see a crime is legal.
Breaking up a fight using excessive force, then kneecapping the guy you think was
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Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not watching someone beat the shit out of his girlfriend in a car across from a crowded bar patio screaming loud enough you can hear him two buildings down with the windows closed and the AC on. Not fun coming upon that and realizing that people have been watching doing nothing.
That's not watching a bunch of guys beat on a single person. That's not even watching any number of the hit and runs I see out front while I'm standing on my balcony smoking.
I don't know about 'super' heroes, fancy costumes, or 'martial arts', but I do know this: The world needs heroes of some sort or another. The world needs good people who are not willing to stand around saying, "Well, I've got mine, and he's got his." The world needs people that THE CHILDREN (yeah, I know, I know) can look up to, outside of their parents. Right now, the only people they have are sports players, politicians, and what's presented to them via television. Not exactly the kind of role models I would want for my kids.
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However, in cases of violence in public, stepping in isn't so much "being a superhero" as it is just being a good Samaritan.
Whether the situation is violent or non-violent makes a HUGE world of difference.
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It doesn't help that she is 87 and sometimes looses it a bit.
Let me tell you another story of a "Super Hero". He is a Slashdot poster most days, but on his day off he got involved and tried to illustrate a counterpoint without knowing how to spell.
Actually, my favorite superhero is Spellmaster. He has a 6th sense to know when someone has just fiddled a few letters and can jump in the situation in a moments notice using the super speed of his OC-192 connection, usually posting anonymously because he's a superhero after all so he doesn't need to take credit for his deeds. And he doesn't take shit from no one. Usually he's as nasty as possible to make sure that evil spellers don't return.
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I would say we need these guys a lot more than we need thugs assaulting each other or random people in the streets.
I only half agree. If groups of thugs want to kill each other off, I don't have a problem with that. It's only when they start attacking other people that it's a problem...
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It wasn't until I read your comment that I realized the guy you replied to was describing the bad guys.
I thought he meant the police.
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Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:4, Insightful)
No they aren't. Some are.
I know far too many police officers who do there job to help uphold the law.
They are a group of people. Do they need strong control? yes. Do they need solid regulations? yes. Are they perfect? no.
Saying the police are the bad guys is like saying blacks are the bad guys. It's complete nonsense.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:4, Interesting)
Have they ever turned a blind eye to another copy doing something wrong? Then they are just as bad.
It would be pretty difficult to be a cop without being bad, I suspect you can only arrest your fellow officers (and superiors) so many times before you either leave or accidentally get shot.
But "The X *are* Y" in English (unlike in mathematics) doesn't actually mean every single member of X is a member of Y. It just means overall they average out to being in Y.
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If you think that every (or even just the majority) of cops join for that reason, then I don't envy the view you must have.
A few bad apples and all that. You damn well know it's a bad minority ruining it for everyone.
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Obviously, this is anecdotal. I am sure there are literally dozens of police officers who did it for the right reasons.
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Superhero oversight comittee of one (Score:3)
Really? Someone is trying to do what they do, but isn't actually bothering to go through the steps to become a cop? All the responsibility and power of being an a arbiter of justice, but without any vetting or checks? Does that really sound like a good idea?
This guy has a record of being pretty level headed and all, but how long before someone with a short fuse and a chip on their shoulder decides to join i
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What vetting or checks? I don't see much vetting of cops, and certainly no checks: once they're in, they get all kinds of perks and no consequences if they screw up, and for instance kill someone while driving drunk (it happened here in AZ a few years ago).
It sounds like at least the superheroes have the sense to only carry pepper spray and not lethal weapons like the cops, who are frequently known to shoot unarmed people in the back, like Dan Lovelace here in Chandler AZ who shot an unarmed woman in the b
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I would say we need these guys a lot more than we need thugs assaulting each other or random people in the streets.
If I got jumped by a bunch of guys, I would rather have someone in body armor show up with mace than no-one at all.
Then I would say you and these self anointed "super heroes"are supremely ignorant of the laws governing the use of force, deadly force and self-defense. There is centuries of well established law (dating back to medieval England) governing when it is appropriate for civilians to use force and deadly force against assailants.
Anybody who likes to consider them a well informed citizen should read
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Going out dressed up trying to find people to "bring to justice" isn't a good idea. Batman itself addressed his, he was constantly in trouble with Gotham PD. As well he should be. A rich man waging a private war is a plan for disaster.
But that said, when people are being violently hurt in public, SOMEONE needs to step in, immediately. Sadly between the bystand
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't vigilantism. "any person who takes the law into his or her own hands, as by avenging a crime. "
This is not avenging (judge, jury), this isn't even crime prevention. This is people stopping actual crimes in progress. If you try to break up a fight, is that vigilantism? If you stop a robbery is that vigilantism? If you stop a little girl from being kidnapped?
People like you who confuse stopping a crime in action with vigilantism are just stupid idiots who need to be shouted down and humiliated for being idiots.
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You might be pretty happy to see them if you were in trouble and the cops just kept driving. I'd rather have some well-meaning, if a little deluded, "superhero" help me out than some lazy-ass cop who acts like I'm waking him up from nap-time when I dial 911.
Fortunately I live in the kind of neighborhood where I can dial 911 and the cops will show up in minutes and call me "sir" to boot. But not everyone does.
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Depending on the city and the police force you call even nice neighborhoods get ignored. I live in a relatively nice middle class neighborhood in one of the top 5 cities in the US by population. Cheap houses are $200K and expensive ones are $300K-$500K (after the bubble collapse). We have a deal with the local county cops where we pay them or donate to police charity or something and they patrol our area (which IMO ought to be illegal but apparently isn't and no I'm not talking about taxes) but we are al
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The problem is that basically this equates to having hired guns protecting you, except that they're also employees of the government. The government is supposed to provide us with police services (not hired thugs), at all hours, at no cost except for the regular taxes you pay. If you're having to pay cops overtime pay to get police services you're supposed to have by default, then society has broken down, and we really aren't any better a country than Mexico or Somalia.
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yup, much better to have cops with tasers 'running around' using only their own judgement.
hey, at least those thugs are better dressed and all in same-looking gang attire, too! they don't go by name but instead by number (although their friends know their real names). hmmm, yeah, is it kind of gang like, isn't it?
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Oh wait, too many of the donut eaters couldn't survive a single, serious martial arts workout. So we give them Tasers and guns. But that didn't do anything about the delusions. And yes, many of them are more deluded than the "superhero" group.
You look down on these guys and call them deluded when the are helping others. The folks they helped are exceptionally grateful these guys are around.
Hopefully you never need someone bigger and stronger to defend you. If you
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Interesting)
There should be a legal way of being a "superhero", which lets face it, unless they have something wrong with them means the person is not a vigilante but just wants to help.
For example, I live in London and here we have something called special constables who get regular police training and donate their spare time to being a police officer with all the privileges and titles of that role. For this they get free travel and expenses (basically lunch/dinner). Would it be so hard for cities all over the world to have similar programmes? If someone can pass the training AND they're doing it for free, they can be that superhero patrolling the neighbourhoods that career police aren't interested in, hell; if you keep patrolling the same neighbourhood you get attached to it and the people to you which means you can learn more as well about what needs to be done. We also have something called Safer Neighbourhoods for this as well, it can work in places outside of London I'm sure.
Spoken as an ex- community support officer in London so I might be biased for police slightly. /Maq
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There should be a legal way of being a "superhero", which lets face it, unless they have something wrong with them means the person is not a vigilante but just wants to help.
Contact you local police force and find out if they have an "Auxiliary"
I don't know about London but lots of US police forces have Auxiliarys that citizens can join. They usually volunteers, they get some weekend training, but nothing on the level of an actual office, and some more limited police powers, depends on the state and local laws.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:4, Informative)
The Specials (not the yellow bus type) - full body amour, full powers, part timers, normally attend Friday and Saturday night pissed up punch-ups and football matches. Hated because they do it for free - it's all about gaining power and gold stars.
Community Service Officers - no power, only report crimes. Jumped up little Hitlers. The next step up from a traffic warden. Useless waste of money as they get paid a wage.
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For example, I live in London and here we have something called special constables who get regular police training and donate their spare time to being a police officer with all the privileges and titles of that role.
Contrary to (their) popular belief, in the US cops can't beat the shit out of people because they're breaking the law.
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There should be a legal way of being a "superhero",
Perform a citizens arrest on Lloyd Blankfein, and you'll be a real super hero.
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For most of humanity's history, it was perfectly legal, and even expected, of common citizens to prevent legal wrongdoing. They weren't supposed to punish offenses, but what we today call "citizen arrest" was par for the course. The notion that only professional police force should deal with criminals in all matters, and regular citizens should just call the police and then mind their own business (extending to the point where self-defense itself becomes borderline criminal in some countries) is a relativel
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Full video here: http://vimeo.com/30307440 [vimeo.com]
And yeah, given the response we're seeing in these articles by the police even after seeing the video ourselves it just shows precisely what these guys are trying to change.
From another article I read they wouldn't even hear about the hit and run you see on the video let alone everything else that's clearly an altercation going on.
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The most venome you'll ever get in life will be when you point out that someone, who claims to deserve a high wage for being a professional, is worthless, by doing the same job off-handedly as a volunteer.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:4, Insightful)
The homeless guy obviously. It really isn't difficult or complicated.
Showing tax payers that there aren't enough resources is the only way you are going to get more resources. So do that, while still doing your damn job.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
Superheroes my ass. These people are not superheroes. Superheroes are people with special powers they use for good.
These guys are better then superheroes. They are real life heroes. They do good things, just to help people, and not because they have special powers, they do it without special powers! Calling them superheroes like they are from a comic book with special powers doesn't do them right.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
Superheroes are people with special powers they use for good.
*nerd hat on*
What about Batman or the Green Arrow? Unless 'having lots of money' is a special power, they didn't have any. They just put on body armour and went and helped people - making them a much better role model than someone like Superman who is basically invulnerable.
*nerd hat off*
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
*nerd hat off*
If you're posting on Slashdot, I'm pretty sure that hat doesn't come off ;)
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Batman's being able to do what he does for more than one season is already a superpower.
Any normal human being, even with the extreme training and the suit, would have stopped in 6 months or so. They would fall bad and get a sprain. They would accumulate small traumas on the head. Those things pile up. He either has super-damage-avoiding, super-regeneration, or simply super-luck.
Not to mention that in addition to being extremely fit, he's allegedly extremely intelligent and cultivated. I'd call that super-g
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"Having lots of money" actually counts, in my eyes. At least, if it's inherited. It's still something that just happens to you, that most people aren't blessed with. It also makes the decision to fight crime a lot easier, since you can afford proper equipment.
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Batman had super money. And a super chip on his shoulder. I guess that's not a super power, but well above ordinary joe that wants to help people.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, I never got the love for Superman either. Nothing can hurt him, so how is he heroic?
It used to crack me up when the old black-and-white Superman TV show had him stand there chest out while the bad guys shot at him, then when they ran out of bullets and threw the gun at him HE WOULD DUCK to dodge the thrown gun!?
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Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:5, Insightful)
Reading the news lately feels more and more like reading the Onion
Not very smart "superheroes" (Score:3)
"Some of them really do look around and say that the world NEEDS superheroes"
They may even be right, but they seem to have forgotten a core tenant of super-heroing: the secret identity. Spider-Man and Daredevil and Batman don't go on TV shows, use their real names, or wait for cops to arrive. They wear a mask, keep their identity secret, kick the crap out of bad guys, and then get out of dodge before the police arrive (a heavy subplot of the early days of Batman is that the cops were trying to nab him as ha
Re:Sounds sort of like a militia (Score:4, Informative)
Well, in the U.S. at least, the Guardian Angels [wikipedia.org] have been around for decades.
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Bicyclerepairman (Score:2)
he's a superhero. I recall he had superhearing abilities for one. And useful for the community.
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"vigilante militias" usually said by people who think government should have all the power, not the people... unless they are protesting Wall Street, then they think the government shouldn't have any power ... until health care is mentioned and then government should have all the power.. until ....
As I've said before, stopping a crime in progress is NOT vigilantism. I would hope we all try to stop crimes in progress, be it a street fight or a little girl getting kidnapped. Vigilantism is specifically acting
Why Shaktiman did not save him? (Score:4, Interesting)
[*] Desi is a better term than Indian. Thanks to Columbus' misnaming, native Americans are also called Indians. Desi is not a derogatory reference. Use if freely and get it into OED.
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BTW you should look up how you ended up with the monicker Indian. It is named after the river Indus, which is the European pronunciation of the Desi name "Sindhu". So you should fight to be called Sindhi or Sindhian. And "S" becomes "H" in Persian compared to Sanskrit
Ironically or maybe sadly (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ironically or maybe sadly (Score:4, Informative)
Officer Anthony Bologna has yet to be given his comeuppance.
Re:Ironically or maybe sadly (Score:5, Funny)
I think you mean Tony Boloney.
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what's good for Wall street is good for America! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ironically or maybe sadly (Score:4, Insightful)
The women were penned in, standing still with their hands close to their own bodies, and one of them were saying "oh my god!". Saying that at least Tony Bologna only sprayed them in the eyes instead of taking them down physically is as reasonable as saying that at least he didn't shoot them, or at least he didn't rape them and then murder them. Yes, that would have been worse and no, that is irrelevant. Would Tony Bologna let a protester go who mased him based on the reasoning "at least he didn't physically take me down?" The answer to that is obvious. It doesn't matter what he might have done, it matters what he did. It is only by fortune that this was all caught on camera. If a high ranking police officer feels comfortable casually attacking people who are no threat from behind a barrier in full view of the public, then something is very wrong at the police department.
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You can hear another cop in the video saying to another cop, "I can't believe he just maced those girls."
Re:Ironically or maybe sadly (Score:4, Insightful)
From the video it looked like he was trying to shut them up,
Ah, so he's trying to deprive them of their freedom of speech. Deprivation of rights under color of law is a federal crime. (Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242)
I'm sure some comeuppance is on the way, but lets not go nuts about the severity of the macing.
Assault is assault. If I were to mace a police officer without cause, what do you think would happen to me? Why should this officer get off any lighter?
Walter Kovacs responds: (Score:4, Funny)
Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No." They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father or President Truman. Decent men who believed in a day's work for a day's pay. Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody Hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth-talkers... and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.
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*Woosh!*
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You got whooshed!
This was a Rorschach test. (Score:2)
Your response seems odd to me.
Must have missed it.
Who watches the Watchmen?
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Seen... Movie?... Read a comic book.
It's a Bird... (Score:2)
Bound to happen to this guy sooner or later. (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously. I understand what he's trying to do and "say".
In the society we currently inhabit, people are encouraged to be complete assholes to one another. As such, he was going to get arrested sooner or later for something like this.
Jumping on someone to stop battery is, itself, battery. So all one of these drunk little hooligans needed to do was tell the cop they wanted to press charges.
Sod super heroes (Score:2)
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Florida Elected a Lex Luthor clone as governor, his name is Rick Scott. Defrauding medicare, kicking puppies and trying to get rid of aliens like superman.
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What about Scorpio? Didn't he conquer the east coast in the 90s?
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Phoenix does NOT represent us... (Score:5, Interesting)
Phoenix Jones does NOT represent the typical "real life superhero". He is sponsored and equipped by media companies, he "patrols" with reporters and cameramen in tow, and he is a professed "outsider" who claims to be "better" than the rest of us, even thought he is among the newest of us - he's only been around for a year or so.
SOME of us don't go for the publicity, don't dress up, and don't wear masks, but we still patrol our neighborhoods and help people when we can. Some of us don't even call ourselves "heroes", just concerned citizen patrolmen, extreme altruists (X-Alts), and other less-lofty titles. Some of us have been doing this under your collective noses for as long as 20 years, and have never been in jail, or had any complaints. Especially from those we help. Some of us dress in colorful costumes and do nothing but homeless outreach, keeping people alive on the streets (like Thanatos in Vancouver, look HIM up!). The costume is used to draw attention to the cause. Some of us simply do outreach or neighborhood crime fighting without costumes. Some of us are animal right activists, some are environmentalists, some just help by shoveling snow off of people's drives.
A great many of us are trained in relevant fields - we have tons of soldiers, cops, EMT/Paramedics, nurses, security guards, firefighters, private investigators, high-level computer geeks, etc. Sure, we have our share of basement-dwelling kids and thrill-seekers, but those tend to get weeded out pretty quickly if their heads and hearts aren't in the right place. Phoenix stands apart, both by choice and consensus. Most of us predicted he'd end up in jail, and unfortunately, he has.
Point is, we come in all flavors, from quiet and in the background, to media-hounding insanity.
So while you guys are yukking it up, try to remember that this man is NOT typical in our group.
Find out the real truth for yourselves.
Article is Wrong - Guy Has Become a Pest (Score:5, Insightful)
Officer at scene says there was no fight. Friends involved said there was no fight. This "super hero" in fact is just a self-filled Super Pest, who is becoming obnoxious and running up to people being boisterous and having a good time and spraying them with pepper spray. This character did some good in the past but now he's delusional and a nuisance. Police have warned him before that if he continues to jump into situations of which he has no understanding, he'll be arrested for assaulting people with pepper spray. Add to this that this "super hero" is a mixed martial artist, that makes him dangerous to the public. He should be locked up, he's crossed the line.
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The issue I think stems from the very beginning of the video. He sees a large argument and jumps in the middle of it and apparently sprayed pepper spray early on to break up the group. People then follow and harass him for ten minutes because they were upset they were sprayed to begin with.
The people arguing in the street to begin with might have been friends that got drunk and starting screaming/pushing. It wasn't necessarily a mugging, or some random guy getting beat senseless by a group. It looks like he
Cosplaying Whackjob Assualts Group of Friends (Score:3)
Who watches the watchmen? (Score:3)
Human nature + anonymity + enough time = unpardonable act of vigilante "justice"
Watch and wait.
Superhero saved my life (Score:5, Insightful)
I know, sounds as cheesy as it can get.
Still - I, for one, already got into a fight with bad people. 6v1 with knifes kind of bad people, who just wanted my belongings and more likely, just something to hit, because I'd gladly leave my belongings and keep on living like anybody else.
As it was inside a moving train, I "resisted" for a few minutes, and people just went away (mind you, no one called for help, police, guards, etc), leaving me with my problems. It became bad when they took out the knifes.
Well, lucky day, that's when a super hero came in and kicked them out. An ex military, and the kind you just see in movies. It was easily won 2v6 (and I'm no fighter).
I'm glad he was there. Next time he'll call 911 instead and watch me die, right? Thanks for the tip police it sounds like the right thing to do!
I'm telling you, in any situation like that where you know you're actually able to help (obviously this guy was) - fucking do it. If you're not, then do call 911.
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So do all the liberty-loving bad guys. The net result is an escalation in the level of violence and a greatly increased risk of death.
All your gun-loving place has achieved by this is a populace that is perpetually scared that the guy next to him on the train has a gun and intends to use it. Therefore, he better get a bigger gun! And so on and so forth.
Guns have no place in the modern world.
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Re:Getting maced isn't THAT bad. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Getting maced isn't THAT bad. (Score:5, Insightful)
a) There was no reason for him to do that.
b) You are telling me it didn't hurt when you got sprayed? if you are, you are a fucking liar, and a disgrace. Pepper spray hurts, a lot. You had to undergo special training to deal with it, civilians do not. I also have undergone training, and have been maced, and tear gassed. It hurts and takes someone right there telling you not to touch your eyes.
c) There was no situation to pacify.
There is nothing wrong with proper use of pepper spray, that is NOT the issue. Abuse is the issue.
You are basically saying "Hey, he abuses people in the least abuses way possible, so no big deal."
This particular person has a recorded history of abuse.