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."
Incorrect title. (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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.
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)
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:0, Insightful)
They have super powers. They have the power 99.99% of us lack to actually try and do something about it.
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)
Reading the news lately feels more and more like reading the Onion
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 ;)
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.
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.
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.
Re:Getting maced isn't THAT bad. (Score:4, Insightful)
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: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?
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: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.
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. :)
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.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course -- the frothing ones, at least. They're all about having the 'freedom' to corrupt everything with money, because they all have or assume they will have the money so it will work out in their favor. They don't consider the ramifications of having the "freedom" to be at the mercy of criminals because they can't afford police protection -- that won't be them, so they don't care. Even though it will affect them, in their walled-off and policed enclaves. Just like the lawlessness in northern Mexico affects us here.
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!?
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.
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*.
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.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:3, Insightful)
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 responsible is not.