After reading the news yesterday here on CBM that real life "superhero" Phoenix Jones had been fired from his very admirable position as a social service provider of 5 developmentally-challenged autistic children, and served papers informing him that he is now unable to to legally work with children for the State of Washington, I actually became rather angry. Here, I will discuss my views on the "RLSH" movement that anyone who has read/seen Kick-Ass knows was all but inevitable.
"I symbolize that the average person doesn't have to walk around and see bad things and do nothing."-Phoenix Jones/Ben Fodor
Phoenix Jones (born Benjamin Fodor, 1988) is the leader of a ten-member citizen crime-prevention patrol group who call themselves the Rain City Superhero Movement, operating out of Seattle and Lynnwood, Washington. He carries the legal defensive weapons, a tazer, and pepper spray. He also calls 911 anytime he is about to engage in a crime-in-progress, operating under the legal practice of citizen's arrest. But after an incident in October 2011 became public, it was recently announced that he had been fired from his job with his state.
"I had to leave work in the middle of the day,” Jones says. "It was embarrassing." Jones explained that he has worked with five developmentally disabled autistic children—who ranged in age from four to 18 years old—for the last five years at their homes and state care facilities, going shopping with them, teaching them to balance checkbooks, and going for walks.
Now of course there are undoubtedly some questions of sanity and true origin of intent when analyzing the real-life superhero. As we know, any good comic book hero has a fair share of demons and/or traumatic experience that leads to their decision to try to make the world a better place. Batman, haunted by the murder of his parents, certainly could be said to have a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder, narcissistic tendencies, and perhaps even survivor's guilt that cause him to put life on the line each night to fight the ultimately futile fight to keep the same thing from happening to others. The more romantic view is that he is turning his trauma into a weapon against the dark and seedy, and often maniacally evil underbelly of his beloved Gotham. I am of the opinion that both of these can be true. After all, many of the most influential people in history have had less-than desirable lives before going on to make a difference.
Many real-life superheroes, or "costumed activists", don't even engage in vigilantism. Many, like Superheroes Anonymous, which is an annual gathering of masked citizens (and sounds more like a recovery group for masks), actually spend their time cleaning public parks, providing food for homeless, and raising awareness of crime and crime-prevention within their communities. This is of course commended and it would take a true cynic to find anything questionable about these acts.
There are several examples of mentally-ill or delusional characters taking to the street in the real world, and occasionally getting themselves or others hurt. Just as the theme in The Dark Knight explored, the consequence of dressing up in tights and taking the law into your own hands is the attention you draw to yourself not just from local authorities, but from the very "bad guys" you intend to engage. And the frightening truth, as Joker displayed in TDK, is that bad guys are often much more extreme and dangerous than the good will of the average citizen.
But what about Phoenix Jones, aka Ben Fodor? This is a guy who in his day job was committed to serving his community in a way that most of us could not have the resolve to do every day. I have had friends who have worked with autistic and developmentally-challenged children, and it takes a very special kind of person to do this day to day. It's often a low-paying and thankless job. Much like being a superhero.
Now factor in his mixed-martial-arts background and admittedly pretty bad-ass costume, and you have the formula for what on the surface seems to be a well-intentioned and rather physically capable( 11-0-0 record in unsanctioned amateur mixed martial arts fights, a 4-0-0 professional fight record) candidate for self-appointed justice if I've ever seen one. And as for that origin spark, his comes from the incident in which his car was broken into, and after police apparently failed to do anything about it and his son was cut by the broken glass, he understandably decided to engage in vigilantism. Fodor doesn't seem to have any misguided intentions, serious mental deficiencies, or the like.
In this modern day of YouTube and social media, it was only a matter of time before an event like the one that occurred on the evening of October 9, 2011 was documented on video and shown to the world. In the video, which I saw the next day, my birthday(happy birthday to me!), it is apparent that there was an altercation among several nightclub patrons. After attempting in a non-violent manner to break up the fight, Fodor was then attacked by a few of the participants, at which time he deployed his pepper spray (which in my opinion is a far better and less damaging consequence than what he is likely capable of as an MMA fighter) in order to protect himself. Yet some of the brawlers, including at least one female, filed assault charges on Fodor, claiming that there was no fight and that Fodor began spraying them unprovoked. Fortunately we do live in this digital age, and the video uploaded the next day showed that there was indeed a fight and that there was a non-violent attempt to disperse the obviously boiling-over crowd.
When he appeared in court to answer to the charges, Fodor did so in costume, but was asked to remove his mask, to which he complied. After revealing his true identity it was discovered that he does indeed have an arrest record, comprised mostly of speeding tickets and not having insurance. So this raises the question of whether he should have the justification to "fight crime". After all, speeding could injure or kill someone. But seriously, who hasn't sped in the past? By that rationale, no one should ever stand up for their community against potential threats. This is a guy who has saved several people from being beaten, and has reportedly taken a knife, a broken nose, and even a bullet to his Kevlar vest by being somewhere that the police were not. I'd be willing to bet that the victims he has saved, including the two men being attacked by several offenders in the video, would forgive his speeding tickets.
It is worth noting that, after the events in the video revealed his innocence, no charges were actually filed by prosecutors in the incident.
Said Jones to the media after unmasking publicly, "I will continue to patrol with my team, probably tonight. In addition to being Phoenix Jones, I am also Ben Fodor, father and brother. I am just like everybody else. The only difference is that I try to stop crime in my neighborhood and everywhere else. I think I have to look toward the future and see what I can do to help the city."
In my support of this man and others like him, I fully accept that one day the Kevlar may not be enough, and that we could be mourning a real life person, which is very different from mourning Steve Rogers knowing he'll be back one day. But this is what makes people like Ben Fodor special, even if slightly delusional. He is willing to do what we are not. While we read about the struggle of good vs. evil and the heroics of men who refuse to allow the innocent to be harmed on their watch, he goes out and does it. After all, apathy is an ally of evil. Is this merely a dangerous and pointless case of life imitating art, or is it the true goodness within the human spirit rising up to make a difference? I wonder what the families of the children he has empowered and inspired through his social work would say.
What do you say?
Until next time,
HeroKiller