{"id":958,"date":"2008-04-29T02:02:37","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T09:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=958"},"modified":"2008-04-29T02:02:37","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T09:02:37","slug":"feature-slc-superheroes-the-black-monday-society-keeps-an-eye-out-for-street-crime-so-you-dont-have-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2008\/04\/29\/feature-slc-superheroes-the-black-monday-society-keeps-an-eye-out-for-street-crime-so-you-dont-have-to\/","title":{"rendered":"SLC Superheroes: The Black Monday Society keeps an eye out for street crime so you don\u2019t have to"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blackmonday\"<\/a>By Paul Constant<\/a><\/span>
\nThey hide their true identities behind elaborate masks and costumes, patrolling the streets of downtown Salt Lake City in groups of two and three. People react to them in various ways: Older folks tend to ignore them. Drunken young adults want to pose with them for photos. Teenagers tend to hiss, growl and shout in their general direction, while children walk right up to them and ask what they are doing. Despite the masks and secret identities, they\u2019re completely open about their purpose.
\n“Inferno,\u201d one of the newest members of the group, is unfazed by the evening chill. He passes by a group of teens. One of them shouts: \u201cHalloween\u2019s not over!\u201d Inferno winces, rolls his eyes, and responds, in the bored tone of someone who\u2019s tired of hearing the same joke over and over again, \u201cNope, it\u2019s not.\u201d A girl of about 14 breaks from the mass of tittering boys and bravely approaches Inferno. He\u2019s wearing a red hood and tunic, thigh-high pleather boots, and a matching black pleather mask that covers his eyes and nose. She breaks the awkward silence: \u201cCan I ask about your costume?\u201d
\nInferno nods, unconsciously touches his red goatee and answers: \u201cI\u2019m part of the Black Monday Society.\u201d
\nThe girl cocks her head. \u201cThe Black Monday Society?\u201d
\n“Yeah,\u201d Inferno begins, a little more comfortable now, getting into a well-worn groove, \u201cWe just walk around, you know, patrol the streets.\u201d
\n\u201cLike Citizens on Patrol<\/em>?\u201d adds the girl, invoking the title of the fourth Police Academy<\/em> movie. Her friends seem to get the reference and break into laughter.
\nInferno brightens. \u201cYeah. \u201cCitizens on patrol.\u201d
\n\u201cCool!\u201d says the girl, and despite the fact that her male friends are still hanging back\u2014way<\/em> back\u2014and giggling, she seems to be genuinely happy about the idea. Inferno smiles and hands her a business card.
\n\u201cWe have a Website,\u201d he says. \u201cLook us up, it\u2019ll tell you more about what we do. That\u2019s pretty much what it\u2019s about. It\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d
\n\u201cOK,\u201d she says, waving goodbye with the card and running back to her friends, \u201cHave fun!\u201d
\n\u201cYou, too,\u201d Inferno says. \u201cBye.\u201d
\nAnd then he goes back to patrolling the streets, keeping his eye out for danger, wherever it lurks.
\nWe Need Another Hero
\n<\/strong>
\nThe Black Monday Society started five years ago, when a Salt Lake City-area tattoo artist and lifelong comic-book fan named Dave went exploring on MySpace. \u201cI always told my wife, even before we got married, that if I ever see a real superhero, I\u2019m so<\/em> going to be one,\u201d he says. \u201cCome on, just the idea of wearing a mask, going out, doing something good? Being somebody else for a little bit? Doesn\u2019t that sound a little enthralling to you?\u201d
\nAfter doing a search for comic-book-related fan groups, Dave happened upon the Web pages of two Indianapolis men who go by the names \u201cMr. Silent\u201d and \u201cDoktor DiscorD.\u201d They called themselves Real Life Superheroes, and they went on patrol on the Indianapolis streets searching for wrongs to right.
\n\u201cSo,\u201d Dave says, \u201cI set up a MySpace page, made an identity for myself, just to talk to them, and it kind of evolved from there. It was really inspiring.\u201d
\nDave couldn\u2019t believe this was happening, that his childhood obsession was taking shape, and that people all over the world were a part of it. \u201cI went home to my wife and told her about it and she said, \u2018Wow,\u2019 and then she said, \u2018Is this for real?\u2019 and I said, \u2018Yeah,\u2019 and she said, \u2018So, when do you go out?\u2019 and I said, \u2018As soon as possible.\u2019\u201d
\nLike all Real Life Superheroes, Dave, 37, uses only his first name, and he\u2019d rather go by his character\u2019s name anyway. His first superhero identity was \u201cThe American Corpse.\u201d He dressed in an Israeli army gas mask, fedora and a suit and tie, much like classic DC Comics superhero The Sandman. Dave\u2019s good friend, a very tall man with a lazy Johnny Cash drawl, says he\u2019s \u201calways been fascinated by ghosts and goblins and demons and things of that nature,\u201d so he decided to call himself \u201cGhost.\u201d He made a costume of a rubber Halloween skeleton mask adorned with a shock of white hair and a matching ribcage on his chest. Ghost is 32 and works in real life as a concrete finisher. Quiet and unassuming, he explains his unusual hobby by saying, \u201cIt\u2019s every little boy\u2019s fantasy to be a real life superhero.\u201d
\nGhost sums up his passion for the street with a comment on his blog: \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter how many people snicker at us. What matters is we are out there doin\u2019 our duty for justice.\u201d
\nRecounting their first night out on patrol in 2001, American Corpse and Ghost say they were standing by their car on a city street having a smoke. A Salt Lake City cop on patrol approached them and pulled over. American Corpse says he decided to slowly approach her to explain their costumes and superheroic intent. <\/strong>She firmly told them, \u201cPlease stand by the hood of the car.\u201d American Corpse kept walking toward the officer, then reached into his jacket to pull out his wallet and identification. <\/strong>Reacting to Corpse\u2019s decision to keep moving, the officer put her hand on her revolver and shouted, \u201cStand by the hood of the car, now!\u201d American Corpse says he wasn\u2019t even really thinking but decided to try and calm the situation by saying, \u201cIt\u2019s OK, ma\u2019am, don\u2019t worry. Relax; I\u2019m a superhero<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong>
\nThe cop eventually let them move on, but the heroes claim the Black Monday Society is on the Salt Lake City Police Department\u2019s official list of street gangs. A spokesman for the SLCPD would not confirm that statement.
\nWhen Flats Need Fixing
\n<\/strong>
\nIf a healthy number of Websites and blogs are any indication, there are hundreds of Real Life Superheroes around the world, mainly operating out of urban areas. One of the best known is \u201cCitizen Prime,\u201d an RLS from Phoenix. Prime is a husband, father and office worker who puts on a costume (or uniform<\/em>, as the RLS community prefers) with intent to fight crime. Though Prime does carry a pair of intriguingly named \u201cstun-knuckles\u201d in case he has to protect himself or others, most of the work he does fits neatly within the category of good Samaritanism\u2014flat-tire repair and making speeches to elementary-school students about the dangers of drug use. But in the past year, buoyed by increased media attention, Prime has also started a successful toy drive to help needy children.
\nPrime, an office worker in his 40s, has a certain charisma, the kind usually seen in community organizers and old-fashioned politicians. In conversations, he\u2019s prone to wholesome expressions like, \u201cOh, my gosh,\u201d and \u201cGee,\u201d sounding like a real-life Jimmy Stewart. He vouches for the Black Monday Society, implicitly. \u201cThey\u2019re really good guys. I\u2019ve had contact with them for a while now, and they seem like the real deal.\u201d Prime visited the Black Monday Society over the long winter, but\u2014human as they were\u2014the heroes decided it was too cold to patrol. Still, one hero wrote on his blog that \u201cwe did suit up and take some photos,\u201d and that \u201cmore team-ups will happen when it gets a little warmer.\u201d
\nNew Real Life Superheroes seem to appear every day. They add their photos and biographies to Websites like RealLifeSuperheroes.com and share their thoughts on weaponry, good deeds and other topics on blogs such as Heroes Network. There\u2019s the Justice Society of Justice, based in Indianapolis; The Boise Brigade, and, from Washington, D.C., the Capitol City Super Squad. \u201cZetaman\u201d patrols the streets of Portland, Ore., wearing a utility belt loaded with a first-aid kit, a baton and a Taser, among other gadgets.
\nPolarman shovels the snow-covered sidewalks of Iqalulit, the capital city of Canada\u2019s youngest province, Nunavut\u2014located north of Quebec on Baffin Island. Entomo the Insect Man claims to protect Naples, Italy, and frequents superhero message boards with hilariously Roberto Benigni-esque broken English comments. His MySpace page boasts a mission statement: \u201cTo be a Real Life Superhero is truly the greatest deed a man can accomplish in a backwards world like this, where fiction is truer to reality than reality itself. On the other hand, the chance to fight for such a stunning planet is too significant to be turned down. Hear my buzz, fear my bite,\u201d and it ends, as all his posts do, with his tagline: \u201cI inject justice<\/em>!\u201d
\nWhole businesses have sprung up around the RLS life. Hero-Gear.net deals in costumes for Real Life Superheroes. Armories that produce chain mail and weapons for Renaissance fair actors have started to sell to the RLS community, as well. Dressing up like a superhero and going on patrol seems to be looking less like a bizarre pastime than it does a lifestyle choice, according to some of the heroes. Think teenagers going goth or animal-rights activists fervently volunteering for PETA.
\nThe media is giddily spreading the word about RLS. Some television stations have struck a gold mine in covering regional \u201csuperteams,\u201d packing their reports with references to Batmobiles and \u201cPow! Bang! Boom!<\/em>\u201d sound effects. A reporter from Rolling Stone<\/em> went on patrol with the Black Monday Society last fall (though the magazine has yet to publish the story) and several filmmakers are rushing to finish documentaries about the Real Life Superhero movement. Members of The Black Monday Society claim one documentary maker told them that, to be featured in his film, they\u2019d have to sign the rights to their superhero identities away to him. They declined. Another filmmaker and his subjects hosted a Times Square publicity stunt covered in The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> last October. Your Friendly Neighborhood Superhero<\/em>, a recently completed documentary, is scheduled for various film festivals this spring. See RealLifeSuperhero.com for a snippet of the film.
\nInternet reaction to the RLS movement is mixed. RLS and superhero fans are continuously posting words of encouragement on each other\u2019s blogs. But, as soon as a non-RLS site notices them, the general public, hidden securely behind a guise of anonymity, tears them to shreds. After a story about Silent and DiscorD appeared on comic-book writer Warren Ellis\u2019s blog, the posters unanimously decided that RLSs were endangering themselves, if not others. One commenter, Monk Eastman, summed up the feelings this way: \u201cI predict the following headline: \u2018Oddly Dressed Virgin Found Shot 1,123 Times.\u2019\u201d
\n\u201cA Little Gimmicky?\u201d
\n<\/strong>
\nDave quickly dropped the American Corpse persona for another identity: a tights-wearing street fighter named Ferox. Ferox is reserved for Dave\u2019s patrols farther north in Ogden. When in Salt Lake City, Dave is Insignis, a robed figure with a giant white cross across his chest. \u201cThe most easily recognizable symbol in the world is the cross,\u201d he explains, \u201cSo what better symbol to have?\u201d (The two names are derived from a large tattoo across his back that reads \u201cInsignis Ferox,\u201d Latin for \u201cMark of the Wild One.\u201d)
\nAfter those first few patrols with Ghost, Insignis\u2019 friends were quick to join them. The team grew to 13 members strong in a matter of months. The group originally patrolled on Mondays\u2014hence the name\u2014but \u201cthings are much more likely to happen on Fridays and Saturdays, so the Monday thing didn\u2019t last long,\u201d Insignis says. They stuck with the name primarily because \u201cit sounds cool.\u201d
\nNew identities are common with the Black Monday Society: Inferno took his name because of a fiery temper he admits used to get him in trouble before becoming a RLS. But the 33-year-old recently decided to focus on his sense of humor by becoming \u201cHa!,\u201d a clown-themed superhero.
\nOni, 36, based his identity on a Japanese demon. He\u2019s married to a woman the team calls \u201cMother One.\u201d She creates most of their costumes by hand. \u201cShe\u2019s very supportive of this,\u201d Oni says. Most of the team, including 38-year-old occasional member \u201cSilver Dragon,\u201d a thin man with a thick Southern accent, are married. They say their wives are proud of them but balked at a reporter\u2019s request to speak with the women. Earlier this year, Oni went on his first patrol with his daughter, who will take the name \u201cFrost\u201d as soon as she has a costume. \u201cI was very nervous and excited at the same time;\u201d he wrote on his blog. \u201cI hoped that nothing would happen on her first time out. I am proud that she wants to give back to the community and help people that need it.\u201d
\nThe heroes say they have been spending more time in Ogden lately because of what they perceive as increased gang activity. Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey takes issue with that claim: \u201cWe have had a seven-year decline of crime in Ogden and one of the keys to that is getting the community involved. Having neighbors be vigilant and engaged is a critical ingredient to safer neighborhoods.\u201d Godfrey adds that the Black Monday Society \u201cfits in\u201d with this push for community involvement. Although he finds them \u201ca little gimmicky,\u201d Godfrey allows that, \u201cWe will take their participation any way we can get it.\u201d The Salt Lake City Police Department had no comment on the Black Monday Society. Lt. Paul Jaroscak, spokesman for the Salt Lake County Sheriff\u2019s Department, says he has \u201cno knowledge or comment\u201d regarding the group.
\nIf the local cops are sketchy on their knowledge of the superheroes, it might be due to the group\u2019s lack of clarity. What, exactly, does the Black Monday Society do<\/em>? They talk about \u201chelping people\u201d and \u201chelping the homeless.\u201d But, on one evening this past November, the patrol\u2019s big events included a photo session with a gaggle of drunken college students, some heckling from passersby and a thumbs-up from an enthusiastic tourist from Minneapolis, who wished there was something like this \u201cback home.\u201d The patrol also handed out a couple of dollars to a homeless man with the telltale facial scabs of heavy meth use.
\nThe team contends the patrols are<\/em> its work, and that members curb crime simply by being seen<\/em>. And Silver Dragon says there\u2019s proof: \u201cI\u2019ve heard from friends that, after we patrol a particular neighborhood, there\u2019s no crime there for the rest of the night.\u201d That November patrol was one of the last crime-fighting excursions of 2007. The team has laid low for the winter, declaring Salt Lake City\u2019s long, harsh winter too cold to patrol. But they plan on taking to the streets again, now that spring has arrived.
\nOni, the only member of the Black Monday Society with extensive martial-arts training, recalls one time when he confronted a drug-addled man who was abusing his mother in a city park. \u201cThe first thing we do is call the cops,\u201d he says, \u201cin any situation.\u201d Most superheroes will, in fact, say the same thing. They strongly advise against getting directly involved in police calls.
\nAfter calling 911, Oni and Ghost approached the man. They say he promptly relented when confronted with men dressed as demons. Insignis also recalls a time they chased after a drunk man who was standing by the side of the road, trying to punch passing cars. The man got away, but Insignis says, laughing, \u201cHe probably won\u2019t be doing that again anytime soon.\u201d
\nOutside Salt Lake City, the superhero action is getting a little more feverish and a lot less law abiding. Rumors have spread in the RLS community that one of their own, a man known as \u201cNostrum,\u201d based in Louisiana, has lost an eye doing battle with a criminal. An RLS from Florida known as \u201cMaster Legend\u201d claims to attack evildoers, bashing garbage cans over the heads of crack fiends and kicking others with his steel-toe boots. Another man, known as \u201cHero,\u201d has quit fighting crime and is taking up ultimate fighting. \u201cThere is only one thing I can always count on, one thing that will always be there and that is the fight. The fight is all I have,\u201d he recently blogged.
\nThe Black Monday Society has set up an office, and Oni says they are working to gain legal status as a non-profit organization. \u201cAs soon as we do that, it\u2019ll open up a lot more doorways for us so we can start receiving money and we can help more people,\u201d he says, adding that \u201cI\u2019d like to do more than just help the homeless. I\u2019d like to start helping abused and battered women. Things like that.\u201d
\nIn a parking lot after the patrol, the team gathers to smoke cigarettes and share a laugh or two. Inferno refers to Insignis as \u201cFather O\u2019Malley,\u201d and asks him if his sidekick\u2019s name is \u201cAltar Boy.\u201d Insignis laughs it off but then snaps back on message, insisting that the Black Monday Society is seeking more than fun and fame: \u201cInstead of being the guy on the couch saying \u2018God, I wish somebody would do something,\u2019 I get to be the guy on the couch who says, \u2018Yeah, I did something!\u2019 or, \u2018At least I tried.\u2019 No regrets, no nothing. Just pure do<\/em>.\u201d
\nhttp:\/\/www.cityweekly.net\/utah\/article-6056-feature-slc-superheroes-the-black-monday-society-keeps-an-eye-out-for-street-crime-so-you-donrst-have-to.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul Constant They hide their true identities behind elaborate masks and costumes, patrolling the streets of downtown Salt Lake City in groups of two and three. People react to them in various ways: Older folks tend to ignore them. Drunken young adults want to pose with them for photos. Teenagers tend to hiss, growl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[142,322,542,696,764,856,1037,1122,1270,1272,1367,1620,1742,1760,1787,1924,2060,2173,2181,2289,2408,2652,2795,2987,3018],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}