Tag Seattle Times

Originally posted:
By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY
Nov 25, 2011
Phoenix Jones, a self-proclaimed superhero who roams Seattle streets to fight crime will not be charged for pepper-spraying a group he said he thought was fighting, The Seattle Timesreports.
Jones, who calls himself the leader of the Rain City Superhero Movement, faced a possible misdemeanor assault charge after the people he sprayed said they were dancing, not fighting.
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said one factor in the decision not to prosecute is a state law allowing a person to use force if they reasonably believe another person is about to be injured, The Times reports.
In addition, two of the alleged victims fled the scene and have not been located and interviewed, Holmes said.
As for the mission of the 23-year-old masked crusader, whose real name is Benjamin Fodor, Holmes said he “is no hero, just a deeply misguided individual.”
Jones, whose comments appear on his Facebook page Phoenix Jones & the Rain City Superhero Movement, says, ?”I symbolize that the average person doesn’t have to walk around and see bad things and do nothing.”
Jones could still face civil charges, the newspaper notes.

“This is our neighborhood not yours”, That is what my neighbor told me in a confrontation we had today. I am in a Superhero Metal band called Jack Havoc we have no place to practice, we have been run out of every place in town. We need to practice to play the Charity shows we agreed to rock, to fulfill our being a superhero needs. We only play wed. and sat. afternoons for two hours and we have worked on soundproofing my garage as we go, we are not rich, and i have one neighbor who just cannot tolerate it, he comes over almost every other wed. to tell us he wants it turned down, which we do, but no matter what we try he still always threatens to call the cops, we have spoken with the city and formed an alliance with Lisa Hopper of the city council and she is doing everything in her power to help us even going as far as to now divert his complaints to the police directly to her office. When he came over today he threatened that he already or may call the cops (he did not) but when i told him that we  used to be bad guys but now we are clean and rockin our music to stay out of trouble, he said He’ll be watching me and that this was there neighborhood not ours! I said,” Sir this is all of our neighborhood not just yours and we need to work together so we can all enjoy our freedom”. I even pulled the” This is America” bit, i know very cliche but i think he got the point. My point is I did not lose my cool once, i remind myself that i was a Superhero and never lost it once. I killed him with kindness, than made my point clear. We are not stopping. We do this at a reasonable time and stop before two hours go by, we all have to work together, and sometimes put up with things that we usually wouldn’t to ensure the happiness of others, I never complain about someone working on there house with a nail gun, The city parades, or running the lawnmower, hes like 70 but if he had a bit of a noisy career to practice for, like an old man band, i would be happy to put up with it cause he’s my neighbor.
The Ded Beat of Jack Havoc
www.facebook.com/jackhavocsuperheroes   [email protected]