No different than the Guardian Angles
http://www.guardianangels.org/
They just wear a red beret instead of a cap.
A Seattle self-styled “superhero” has been arrested on four counts of assault after intervening in a fight early on Sunday morning. Phoenix Jones, aka Benjamin Fodor, is well known in Seattle for wandering the streets in a homemade superhero costume seeking out wrongdoers. But he appears to have bitten off more than he could …
Yes, his description certainly fits an organ that gets inserted regularly!
Perhaps the Hooded Dingbat or whatever his name is, has no idea that alcohol has a tendancy to polarise the mind and leads to the only three phrases you can manage to say when you're pissed. "The best mate in the world!", "Alright love, d'you like what you see, eh? or "OI, what's you're problem pal?!", depending upon how well you recognise the other person!
I'm all for have-go-heroes but dressing like a pillock and leaping into every situation feet first is simply asking for trouble. You start having a go at the mate of a group who've just rolled out of a club after a night of drinking, and you're going to get your head stoved in!
While I can not approve of this guy´s tactics...or strategy...or costume for that matter, I can´t stop thinking: How much damage/injury/public outrage/threat to U.S. homeland security has he actually caused?
Unless he is a chronic offender, a jail time for what he did seems a bit....harsh, or not?
I stand ready to be corrected. Harshly, if necessary.
The US has the largest per capita jail population in the western hemisphere, sending people down for crimes that most countries would choose to hand out fines is normal practice. There is a fascination with sticking people in jail here and having spent time in the big house seems to be something that the majority of the adult population have done. It usually goes like this.
1/You commit a crime, the severity or actual harm done is of no real relevance
2/ You are then given a public lynching by media, which usually includes the inane droolings of someone like Nancy Grace, who has been given celebrity status for shouting the bloody obvious on CNN - eg "KILLING BABIES IS BAD".
3/You go to court which is televised live, the media then feeds angry-mob-inciting comments straight to hotel rooms juries will be staying at.
4/If you killed a baby you go home (remember people like Nancy Grace need something to shout about), if you smoked weed, used pepper spray or walked on cracks in the pavement you go to jail for the number of years the judge discovers in his big book of punishments. Those terms may seem odd to some, after all who knows what we were angry about yesterday, but there is usually something for everyone, maybe using a garden broom in a threatening manner will get you 20 years because a bully used one to poke a child in the eye - stuff like that. Common sense is not permitted in the US justice system, because they don't have any in this country. Attempts at common sense in the US usually end up in murderers being paid compensation and school children being put in the electric chair.
The video was shown as the outro on Newsnight last night. The guy came across as being somewhat pathetic. He barged in to a group of people "hanging" and started attacking them. Then he was shown being chased off by a girl in heels (the girl was wearing the heels, not the guy fantasizing about being a superhero, just to be clear)
Rather than being some sort of public benefactor, he appeared to be someone who needed therapy and treatment rather than an award.
Never been the same here in the UK since the GPO was killed off and British Telecom arrived to dismantle all the phone boxes that hadn't previously been dismantled by evil wrongdoers.
More than ever, this country needs a caped crusader so that the next time I'm jostled in a pub by a dumb neanderthal, I can invite him to step outside so we can Seattle this.
This could only happen in one country in the world, when a Homo Sapiens emulates a (sarky) movie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick-Ass_%28film%29
Plot quote: "... an avid comic book fan, wonders why nobody has attempted to become a real-life superhero, and bitter that people do not intervene when a crime is being committed. He purchases a bodysuit and, after making modifications, embarks on a campaign to become a real-life superhero, despite having no superpowers."
There is a saving grace though, the comment from the police:
"If you see something that warrants calling 911, call 911. You don't need to dress up in a costume to do that."
Calling 911 does not guarantee an immediate response. Minutes and seconds do count.
When I was much younger, I had the crap beaten out of me. Someone intervened to stop the fight. He was under no obligation to do so. If not for him, then I would have sustained far more serious injuries than I did. I might be typing this with my tongue.
When I was younger, I saw something suspicious. I drunkenly asked, "Are you OK?" The victim said "No" and ran off in one direction. The aggressor cursed me and walked in the other direction. If I had called 911, worse things would have happened before the police arrived.
I am not encouraging anyone to intervene when illegal actions are taking place. Doing so can be extremely dangerous.
I applaud his intentions, but from what the police and bystanders have said, there wasn't a fight in the first place. Which is what he's being charged for. If you walk up to a bunch of people and spray them in the face, it doesn't matter whether you're wearing a costume or not. If they were doing nothing wrong, it's still assault.
Even if they were, it's still assault, you just have more options available as a legal defence.
HTH.
I could not tell with certainty what was happening in the first seconds of the video that I watched. At least two men were moving around in close proximity. Fighting? Dancing? Goofing around? Then Phoenix Jones broke up whatever was happening.
Apart from that, the video shows Phoenix Jones being repeatedly attacked by a woman with a shoe, a car hitting a pedestrian, a second altercation when the camera stops recording because (allegedly) the cameraman was slammed against the wall by someone, and the arrival of the police.
Google around for the conflicting stories and viewpoints.
The thing is though, if you're going to wonder up and pepper spray people, you need to know for sure they're breaking the law.
If they were fighting and he sprayed them, fair enough. If they were goofing around (which I for one know I have done before with a group of friends) then that's not on.
Everything should always be intelligence led - if you're going to wonder into something, make sure you know what you're wondering into.
"Like the costumes the cops don't wear, then"
Actually the police wear 'uniforms' the difference is that: -
a. They have to wear them (It's part of the job rather than for fun or to feed a delusion).
b. The purpose is to identify them as police officers to members of the public.
Mr Jones wears a costume. The only way the same conditions could apply is if: -
a. He has to wear it because the voices in his head tell him to.
b. The purpose is to identify him to the public (as a nutter).