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."
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.
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.
Ironically or maybe sadly (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:2, Interesting)
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 also covered by city cops.
I had someone (most likely joy rider car thieves according to the cops) shoot a round and hit my house a couple of years back. We called the city cops and reported it. I also called the county as well because my home owners group had drilled it into us that we were paying for them so use them. The cops we were paying showed up in about 2-5 minutes despite the fact that we clearly told them the danger had passed and no one was injured. They came rolling in with 3 cars, lights going, obviously making a show of responding and agreed to handle filing the reports and talking to the city cops (these guys were county cops) and getting all the paperwork straight. The city police woke me up 10 hours later and was irritated that I had called another group despite the fact that both are responsible for the area.
Now I'm not for the way my HOA has donated to have one set of cops on speed dial and I think it's just another example of how everything in modern society to some degree or another is corrupted by money but if I lived in a neighborhood where the police response time was 10 hours (like the official emergency service where I live) I'd be thankful that these deluded guys or even regular old neighborhood watch was trying to do something. When the cops start responding to all neighborhoods in a timely manner then I won't care what happens to these guys but its hard not to at least partially appreciate even a deluded idiot who is trying to do something that others won't even when it is their job.
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.
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.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:2, Interesting)
Vigilantism is illegal for a good reason. Vigilantism in a funny costume is still vigilantism.
Generally the people who get involved in vigilantism are either crazy or thugs just looking for an excuse (my guess is our Marvel/DC friends are the former). They either target the wrong people, or end up abusing their position of power, or end up using grossly disproportionate force. In areas policed by vigilantes (and counting militias, religious zealots, and lynch mobs, this is still common in many places in the world) you're often as likely to fall foul of a vigilante as a "criminal". We get around this problem in civilized society by handing out specific powers to specific people (police, rentacops, private eyes, bounty hunters, etc.), and tightly monitoring these groups to keep them in check.
It's all very amusing when it's some deluded guy dressed as a Green Lantern, but it doesn't make it any different- you've still got some (probably mentally ill) guy roaming around the streets with weaponry and "martial arts training", looking for people to fight.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:3, Interesting)
Obviously, this is anecdotal. I am sure there are literally dozens of police officers who did it for the right reasons.
Re:HBO "Superheroes" documentary on these guys (Score:2, Interesting)
When you start your screed with such a tepid, tepid example, you lose a helluva lot of moral steam.