Tag Seattle

Originally posted: http://publicola.com/2011/11/02/phoenix-jones-loses-job-barred-from-working-with-children/
By Jonah Spangenthal-Lee

Originally posted: http://sundial.csun.edu/2011/10/vigilantes-should-be-able-to-fight-crime-without-being-interfered-with/
By Ron Rokhy
Since its inception, America has had its fair share of criminals — and people who fight them.
But before there even was a Supreme Court to combat crime, one group did: we, the people. In 1760, citizens in North Carolina took up arms against corrupt officials, marking the first known instance ofvigilantism in America’s history.
Branded as vigilantes, citizens who skip due process and punish criminals in the name of justice are seen as heroes by their peers, but many times, their actions are deemed unlawful by the government — and could land them in hot water.
But should their actions be illegal? Is it wrong for private individuals to take matters into their own hands and fight for what’s right when it can’t be done through legal means?
Absolutely not. Vigilantes, in a way, are like a bandage. When the legal system’s armor cracks and people like OJ Simpson use loopholes to get away with murder, or when victims get hit with frivolous lawsuits from burglars who injure themselves during break-ins, they step in and try to  glue everything back together.
America has a certain law that makes little sense: If someone witnesses a non-violent crime, such as a break-in or a theft, they’re not allowed to physically interfere. Putting their hands on a criminal could result in assault charges, such as the case of the Phoenix Jones, the real-life Seattle superhero, who pepper-sprayed two people he said were fighting.
Crime-fighters like Jones and his rag-tag group of criminal fighters, who patrol streets donning capes and costumes, shouldn’t be arrested for stopping criminals, they should instead be given medals for supplying the public with the swift kind of justice that our government can’t always provide.
People shouldn’t be forced to sit idly by and wait for police to show up. If they feel they can stop a criminal in the process of an illegal act, they should do so without the fear of getting hit with excessive force charges.
In 2010, a man in Washington was brought up on assault charges because he kicked a burglar in the face as police arrived and witnessed the event. Indicting people for forcefully punishing those that wronged them is counterproductive because it shows tolerance towards crime.
Criminals caught in the act shouldn’t enjoy protection just because a citizen busted them instead of a police officer — they should have little to no rights at all.
Don’t want to get beat? Don’t do something stupid. Simple, really.
However, some people argue that vigilantes risk getting the wrong person, violating the “innocent until prove guilty” presumption. For example, Michael Zenquis was wrongly beaten in the summer of 2009 because a group of people thought he was a child rapist.
That being said, it’s important to note that the legal system faces the same kind of downfall.
Alton Logan spent 26 years in a prison after being falsely convicted of a murder he did not commit. If mistakes are grounds for deeming something illegal or immoral, then our justice system fits the bill as well.
As a society, we should embrace self-policing and actively be involved in it, even if it means cracking down harshly on criminals.

Originally posted: http://www.forcesofgeek.com/2011/10/running-after-phoenix-jones-man-on.html
By Tea Krulos
Editor’s note: Tea Krulos regularly wrote about RLSH for FOG! before stepping back to concentrate on his book.  He was with Phoenix Jones during his arrest last weekend and shared his experience with Forces of Geek.
At some point last year, I felt like I was pretty much done with travel and research for my upcoming book, Heroes in the Night. I kicked my feet up on my desk and reflected on all the interesting things that had happened to me- over a dozen patrols in Milwaukee, two trips to Minneapolis, a Real Life Super Hero (RLSH) conference in New Bedford, Massachusetts. I went to Brooklyn and met the New York Initiative and traveled to Vancouver for a meet up during the Winter Olympics. It was an adventure.
But last November there was a big development to the story. A costumed crime fighter had emerged in Seattle named Phoenix Jones, leader of the Rain City Superhero Movement (RCSM). Jones began grabbing a lot of media attention, which became perpetual as more and more wild stories about him came in- Phoenix Jones got his nose broken in a fight, Phoenix Jones stopped a car break in, Phoenix Jones let Rainn Wilson taze him to show he could take a taze.
With all of this attention, I soon realized that readers would expect me to write about this individual, that a serious book on the subject of RLSHs could not bypass the road to Phoenix Jones. I established contact with him and did an interview with him via phone for the Heroes in the Night blog.
I realized that in order to do a proper job writing about him, I would have to take a trip to Seattle to hit the streets with Jones in person.
Last week, I flew to Portland, where I met some of the local RLSH. I then took a train up to Seattle for the weekend. On Friday night I was picked up from a friend’s house by Phoenix Jones and his team mate, Mist. Jones was wearing a baseball cap and sweatshirt over his “super suit” (as he calls it) to disguise his disguise while driving. We drove to the University District where his team mates Ghost and Pitch Black joined us. Also along for the patrol- Seattle writer A.J. Roberts and Ryan McNamee, who shot video.
The patrol was a long night of walking around, and somewhat uneventful. In the U-District he was mobbed for pictures everywhere he went. He encountered a man so drunk he couldn’t really stand, so he flagged down a taxi and got the man into it. We all parted ways around 3AM. There had been no action.
Saturday night was different.
I met up with Jones around 8PM at the Space Needle. We walked around the area near the Space Needle and I recorded an interview with him as we walked. After that, we headed to a café to have a meeting with his wife, Purple Reign, who gave us a crime report based on crime stats she had found online. Jones also showed me some bullet proof shields and collapsible batons he had, unfurling them with a loud SNIK sound. It raised a few eyebrows in the café.
We then headed out to patrol. McNamee joined us again in the Pioneer Square area- an area I gathered is known to have problems with brawling outside of its bars. We encountered our first incident of the night pretty quickly.
I saw a crowd commotion in front of a bar and yelled to Jones that there was a fight. He immediately barreled into the crowd towards two men fighting. I lost him for a few moments so it isn’t clear to me if he pepper sprayed the men or if the club bouncer did or if both did. Jones took a man sprayed in the face to a nearby food stand, bought a bottle of water and poured it on the man’s eyes, instructing him to blink.
The other man had been sprayed on his shirt and took it off and was extremely irate at Jones. He was across the street yelling- “YOU AIN’T NO REAL(N-bomb)- YOU WILL NEVER BE A REAL (N-bomb)!” He yelled this several times and then switched his mantra to “GET OUT OF HERE YOU WANNABE SPAWN-ASS (expletive)!” and then to “STAN LEE NEVER DREW YOUR BLACK ASS, YOU FAKE ASS SUPERHERO!” At one point he yelled simply, “I (expletive) HATE SUPERHEROES!”
Police arrived and were clearly familiar with Jones. They detained the man for questioning. Later, outside the same club, Jones pepper sprayed another group of men who were fighting- one was bleeding down his face. There were some moments of chaos and the police, who were nearby, showed up quickly. They spoke to Jones and the men fighting and told everyone to go.
We walked around without incident, but then around 1:30 or 2AM, Jones decided to hang around near a suspicious looking group of males that looked kind of gangster. One of them said something about him being a “fake ass Batman” and something along the lines of “you think I care about your pepper spray- look what I got.” He lifted his shirt to show a gun he had in his waistband. Jones got us out of the area and then ran across the street to tell police. Police detained the man.
The famous incident of the night happened around 2:30AM. This has been reported on in news sources around the world, and I gave a detailed report on my blog. Basically, we saw a fight and Jones ran into it. He pepper sprayed a couple of the men fighting, but pepper spray is not an exact science. Others nearby felt the spray and it made them very angry. One woman hit him repeatedly with her shoe. The men grouped together to try to attack him and he pepper sprayed them again. They even jumped into their Escalade and tried to run him down before the police showed up. When they arrived they detained Jones and he spent the night in a holding cell, charged with assault. They confiscated his “super suit.”
On Thursday he made a court appearance in his spare super suit. The prosecution did not file charges, but still could at a future date.
None of this has deterred Phoenix Jones. He has continued to patrol and on Saturday, Oct. 15, he led a community patrol inviting the public to walk alongside him.
Jones has long been a controversial member of the Real Life Super Hero world and it looks like it will remain that way.

Originally posted: http://www.openpr.com/news/197842/Unmasked-The-Detailed-Account-Of-Phoenix-Jones-By-Ken-Goldstein-Debuts-At-WizardWorld-com-Wednesday.html
(openPR) – Phoenix Jones, the “citizen superhero” who has gained fame for his efforts in fighting crime in the streets of Seattle while dressed as a masked crusader, will reveal his true story for the first time in an expansive interview with author Ken Goldstein, exclusively at WizardWorld.com, on Wednesday. The site will also feature exclusive video excerpts from the interview and the debut of the first official photo of Benjamin Fodor by noted movie photographer Peter Tangen.
Tangen is among the most renowned entertainment publicity photographers in the world, having photographed one sheets from the three SPIDERMAN films, BATMAN BEGINS, HELLBOY, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED and other blockbusters.
“Unmasked: The Detailed Account of Phoenix Jones by Ken Goldstein,” a first-of-its-kind interview, details Jones’ motivation for creating the character and aspects of his life that have never before been told. The wide-ranging discussion, according to Goldstein (author of “The Way of the Nerd” series) has an intense feel reminiscent of the famed “Frost-Nixon” interviews of the 1970s.
“Many aspects of Phoenix’s personality come through in the interviews,” said Goldstein, who as a confident of Jones prior to his unmasking on October 6 in Seattle was able to extract many intimate details of his subject’s life. “He is Phoenix Jones the superhero, Benjamin Foder the husband and father, and ‘Flattop’ the MMA fighter. The real man is way cooler than just Phoenix Jones.”
“This is the kind of story that gets me really excited to be in the superhero business. Phoenix is a real life version of what we’ve been reading about for decades,” said Gareb Shamus, Wizard World CEO.
Goldstein was also able to speak with Purple Reign, Jones’ wife, also a member of the Rain City Superhero Movement in the Emerald City. This is the first in-depth sit down interview with Purple, who speaks directly to the Wizard fan base.
Wizard World produces Comic Cons and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate graphic novels, comic books, movies, TV shows, gaming, technology, toys and social networking. The events often feature celebrities from movies and TV, artists and writers, and events such as premieres, gaming tournaments, panels, and costume contests. Wizard World also produces Wizard World Digital, an online publication covering new and upcoming products and talents in the pop culture world, and is distributed on a weekly basis to online and iPad users worldwide.
The full Wizard World event schedule can be found at www.wizardworld.com.
1350 Ave of the Americas, 2nd Fl.
New York, NY 10019
Jerry Milani, Wizard World, 646-380-2479 [email protected]

Originally posted: http://publicola.com/2011/10/25/opa-investigated-leak-of-phoenix-jones-info/
By Jonah Spangenthal-Lee

Originally posted: http://news.yahoo.com/support-phoenix-jones-americas-first-costumed-crime-fighter-191900549.html
By Donald Pennington
It just goes to show what police consider a priority. A real-world costumed crime fighter breaks up a crowd of people reportedly ganging up on two others, one in the crowd reacts violently by hitting him over the head with a shoe and the police arrest the odd-looking guy? Are the police there to enforce the law or aren’t they? Is hitting someone over the head with a shoe not assault if you’re hot?
America’s first costumed crime fighter goes by the title of “Phoenix Jones,” but his real name is Benjamin Francis Fodor, a 23-year-old husband and father. Apparently, he’s taken up this cause after his own son was a crime victim. Face it. The police are only human too. They can’t be everywhere at all times.
In spite of allegations of spraying folks with pepper spray, not everyone is down on the man. In an interview on Fox News, Jones explains his side of the incident, stating he opted to let the un-named woman assault him with a shoe, rather than exert his physical strength against a woman smaller than himself. He also explains that when he enters the situation, he instructs his cohorts to call 911, then takes action. The more I hear from this man, the more I like him.
Hold it! Did I just say “cohorts?” Why, yes I did. It seems Jones is not only gutsy enough to don a crime fighter’s costume and show troublemakers a bit of vigilante action, he’s not alone. One quick trip to Facebook reveals That Jones is the leader of what’s called the “Rain City Superhero Movement.” On their info page we find the quote “I symbolize that the average person doesn’t have to walk around and see bad things and do nothing.” Odd-looking? Yes. He may even be crazy. Aren’t the greatest people in history always called crazy? His point is valid. As long as nobody’s rights are violated, I’m on his side. Besides, what’s so crazy about encouraging people to report crime?
While I won’t call him a “Superhero” (Superheroes have super-powers and only exist in comic books, after all.) I will agree that it most certainly is time for people to take action when they see bad things happening. We don’t need to dress up, but we all would do well to emulate his courage. Thank you, Phoenix Jones, for reminding us.

Originally posted: http://www.depauliaonline.com/opinions/gives-us-a-superhero-spare-the-outfit-1.2660760#.TqYq23KaKSo

Occupy movement could learn from tacky vigilante, ‘ Pheonix Jones
By Peter Dziedzic
Last week, a self-proclaimed superhero, Phoenix Jones (also known by his birth name, Benjamin Fodor), was arrested in Seattle after an alleged pepper spray attack against four people exiting a Seattle nightclub. Clad in a latex superhero costume and mask, Jones claimed that his attack against these individuals was a response to crime rates in his neighborhood. Identifying these individuals as instigators of violence in his community, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Jones’ story, albeit rather comical and a bit embarrassing, offers a rare jewel of wisdom. While his context and approach was pathetic, poorly executed and ill-informed, Jones’ attack on the four individuals speaks to a very deep-seated issue of our time. That issue is individual and collective apathy, and it’s a pervading reality for many individuals of the modern world.
I do not agree with Jones’ attack, but I admire his spirit of assertiveness and action. In a world where many people feel their issues and identity are lost in a profound system of anonymity and inhumanity, we have often succumbed to believing that taking matters into our own hands will lead us down the proverbial labyrinth of failure. Jones directly challenges this mode of thought by asserting his agency as an individual who is weary of a lack of change in his community. He denied the apathy that was expected of him.
Jones’ situation can also be easily related to the Occupy movement that is sweeping across many American cities. The Occupy movement is allegorically represented by a pre-meditating Jones about five minutes before his attack. He has his pepper spray in hand, his anger’s fed and reassured and he’s carefully watching the opposition, ready to strike. The Occupy movement is at a very critical juncture in its journey. It has the opportunity to turn into a flurry of blind rage expressed through uncoordinated efforts, cyclical efforts of various committees, and uncoordinated dance parties and love fests. It also has the opportunity to meditate and calculate and seek a bold and reasoned response to the seething waves of angst that are propelling the groups forward.
The Occupy movement must carry out its mission of social and economic change with tact and care. We can’t have mobs of Joneses that are blindly attacking the bulwark of corruption in the world. We must not let the spirit of misguided angst and apathy that has become so prevalent in our world become the guiding spirit of this movement and the spirit of the generation that is seeking a different world.
We must make sure that we recognize and contextualize our deep, profound sources of our angst. We must confront it, embrace it, and handle it with immense responsibility and care. While we must continue to be bold in our attempts, our rebuffs and challenges to critics and our presence in our city streets, we must also embody a responsibly coordinated boldness. We must foster a spirit of sincere, perceptive community. We must recognize our limitations, our presence and our power.
In doing so, we embody the courage of Phoenix Jones, but we deny the lust of blind rage and force that accompanied his attack. In this spirit, the Occupy movement will develop a more solid existential base, embrace the diversity of people who have accepted the call to democratic involvement and avoid the employment of metaphorical (and perhaps even literal) tacky latex superhero outfits.

Originally posted: http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/10/21/phoenix-jones-to-give-talk-on-how-to-be-a-superhero/
This may be a first for Seattle’s geek community: A real live superhero is showing up at a Con to reveal the secrets behind his powers.
In the case of Seattle’s so-called superhero Phoenix Jones, it’s the clothes that make the superman.
Jones, revealed to be Seattleite Ben Fodor earlier this month, is known for patrolling the city streets — and for posing for pictures in a black and yellow costume. This weekend, he’ll join a panel at zomBcon to talk about creating an effective alter-ego persona.
Also on the panel is cosplayer Linda Le. It happens Saturday at 2 p.m., and attendants must be registered to attend the Con.
Here’s what those registered will find out from Jones:

Phoenix Jones (is) the leader of a ten-member real-life superhero group called the Rain City Superhero Movement, which operates in Seattle. He talks discussing the surper hero costume from a survival point of view and what goes into protecting yourself…even against the occasional Zombie horde.
The two talk Zombies and super heroes with Geekscapes’ Jonathan London  about what goes into designing your alter ego on Saturday afternoon.

Does this mean Seattle will be overrun with aspiring superheros wearing elaborate  costumes next week? Wait and see.

Originally posted: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Woman-who-hit-Phoenix-Jones-Nothing-gives-him-a-2214912.php
A woman who admits she hit self-proclaimed superhero Phoenix Jones with a shoe says he used pepper spray on her friends for no reason.
It was “the most horrifying experience in my life,” she told Mynorthwest.com.
The incident early Sunday has been investigated by police, who arrested and jailed Jones, whose real name is Benjamin Fodor.
City prosecutors are supposed to decide this week whether to charge Fodor with assault in the incident.
Police say Fodor, 23, used pepper spray on a group of men and women early Sunday near the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Video of the incident shows two women chasing after Fodor and a man with face paint, hitting them and telling the self-proclaimed superheroes to leave.
Fodor says he was a victim in the case.
Now one of the women who was with the group under the viaduct has told her story.
“We were just walking down to our parking lot after having a good time in Seattle, when a little argument broke out between our group and the other group, and all of a sudden we were attacked. I turn around and we’re being attacked by these guys wearing Halloween costumes,” she told Mynorthwest.com
The woman, identified only as Maria, told KING/5 that the man declared himself to be a superhero.
“He says, ‘I’m a superhero’ and sprays everyone,” she said. “Nothing gives him a right to do that. That’s harassment and assault.”
She acknowledged in the interview that she hit Fodor with her shoe.
“I started hitting him, saying, ‘Who are you? What are you doing? Leave us alone, we didn’t do anything!” said Maria.

Originally posted:

When Seattle-based masked crusader Phoenix Jones was arrested last week for pepper spraying a group of people he claims were fighting, he piqued the curiosity of thousands across the nation. A real-life superhero? Stopping crime in the dark of night? Suit, boots, mask and all?
It turns out Jones isn’t the only ordinary guy whose nighttime is filled with crime-fighting, caped adventures. The Web site RealLifeSuperheroes.orgboasts 720 members. Posts on the site suggest there are dozens, if not hundreds, of real-life superheroes currently in action in St. Petersburg, Fla., New York City and Milwaukee, among other cities.
But though these superheroes have attracted thousands of adoring fans, city cops don’t count themselves among them.
“Just because he’s dressed up in costume, it doesn’t mean he’s in special consideration or above the law,” Seattle police spokesman Detective Mark Jamieson said of Jones.
Other police say vigilantes like Jones risk hurting themselves and others.

Mark Wayne Williams, a.k.a. Michigan’s “Batman.” (Image via YouTube)

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.

As the movement has grown, it has also sought to become more organized, with some members proposing a uniform set of standards, others publishing tutorials on how people can join, and a few even considering a sanctioning body to oversee it.
There are now many sub-movements within the movement, such as the Rain City Superhero Movement in Seattle, of which Phoenix Jones is the leader.
“The movement has grown majorly,” Edward Stinson, a Florida-based writer who advises real-life superheroes, told MSNBC. “What I tell these guys is, ‘You’re no longer in the shadows. You’re in a new era. … Build trust. Set standards. Make the real-life superheroes work to earn that title and take some kind of oath.’ ”