Seattle "Superhero" Arrested For Pepper Spray Assault

[Funcakes]

Those cops took their time showing up.

The only thing I see wrong with this situation is, instead of calling 911 and keeping an eye on the situation he ran in. I could understand that if a murder was taking place..but it was a drunken brawl. Either way, slap on the wrist and let him go.

On another note, daaamn that chick was drunk.

 

[synobal]

Phoenix Jones showed up in court this morning and the Prosecutors told a judge they needed more time to decide whether to file charges. Which pretty much tells me that they've seen the video and know that what ever they try to file won't hold up in court but want to wait until the media frenzy dies down before dropping the entire thing. If they had anything they could actually charge him with they would.

 

[jawakiller]

"They had a choice, all of them."

Comparing this joker in a silly costume with pepper spray to Rorschach is an insult.

Media portrayal. This guy is actually that bad-ass, we just don't hear about it. They cut the section out of the video where he hangs a mugger from a street light. With said man's own intestines. Don't believe everything they tell you on the internet.

"On Friday night, a mugger died in Seattle. Somebody knows why. Out there, somebody knows."

-Phoenix Jones
(talking to law enforcement after being questioned regarding hung thief.)

 

[Radoh]

Too bad, I like the idea of him.
It took what, fifteen minutes for police to get on the scene after a hit and run as well as disorderly conduct, drunken fights in the streets, and lots of jay-walking (through it in for fun)?
Hit and run guy? Golden.
Guy who stopped it from escalating by making them target him? Jail time.
Excellent work from Seattle's finest.

 

[synobal]

Here is a close of up the initial part of the video with some stabilization and zooming post processing done to it. In it you can see that there is a group of people assaulting someone and you can see Phoenix Jones run in disperse the people and spray two of the attackers.
This is the interview with the shoe girl from the video, who tells a story that doesn't match the video at all. But at least they drop the 'we were just dancing' part. She says he runs in shouting I'm a superhero and pepper spraying everyone and that they were all on the ground in tears.She was either too drunk to remember the incident or is just lying.


For the record the official police incident report says that they were 'dancing' it's strange but unless they were having an impromptu moshpit in the middle of the street then I don't buy that at all.

 

[Dody16]

We always complain that there is no good in people. When you see the video of the man getting his ass kicked, you look around at the bystanders and ask "why the hell aren't they doing something."

Now someone does, and you jump down his throat. Sad.

Out of all the comments I bothered reading, this is the one I ultimately agree with.
Who cares about the law. I'm too much of a coward (most of the time, not always) to help people in need through legal means. He may look like an idiot, but at least he's trying.

Although I also agree with the person who said that you don't have to dress up like a super hero to help people. Maybe the costume gives him the courage to do what he's doing, but I think it would be a lot better if he could help people by more "legitimate" means, for example, becoming a good cop and fixing the problems our law enforcement seems to have.

The real heroes of this world tend to be normal people anyway.

 

[Brumbsy]

From what I've been reading in these comments, I think people are only looking at it as "self-defense." There are multiple things going on here. To start off, he is breaking up a fight, with what looked like a guy on the ground. There is legal justification to go in and stop that--defense of others. We have laws protecting us when we try to help out in events like this, but nobody is ever really told about them.

Later on, the same people target him, then. By that point it is self-defense. After all, the one guy charged at him and, after being sprayed, swung at him as Phoenix backed away. They were even calling the cops as it was going on.

I'm not saying it's right to go around beating people up, but he didn't do that here. He had justification to do so. Also, the cops took a while to get there, even though there were fights breaking out and a hit-and-run. Who knows what would have happened if it wasn't interrupted...

 

[synobal]

Here is a close of up the initial part of the video with some stabilization and zooming post processing done to it. In it you can see that there is a group of people assaulting someone and you can see Phoenix Jones run in disperse the people and spray two of the attackers.

Well that is some pretty damming evidence against him.

*facepalm* There are laws in place that allow you to defend other citizens, and the use of pepper spray to break up a street fight is not illegal under Washington state laws. Even the worst civil defender could get any charge of assault dropped, by what is one that video.

 

[darthricardo]

Got to 2 minutes. Too embarrassing for all involved.

But hey, if I'm ever in need of a 6'2" human dildo, I know who to call.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking... I may need to watch it again (there was kind of a lot going on), but Pheonix didn't seem very... superheroish.

 

[synobal]

Well it's official prosecutors won't be filing charges at least for now. They still got a two year window to try though so we will see what happens but I doubt they will be able to do anything given the amount of evidence in Jones favor.

Check out the full story here Phoenix Jones Unmasked [http://www.komonews.com/news/local/131797613.html]

 

[PrototypeC]

The fundemental flaw with his situation is that drunk, stupid, angry people (his usual fare) are not going to be keen on a colourful crime fighter stopping them from being jerks (or anyone else for that matter, for example cops). The fact that he's a cape and sidekick away from being straight out of DC comics is not going to help. Drunk people already believe the world is making fun of them in some unspecific way, and then here comes a guy in latex armour to stop your fight... no wonder they attacked him.

I don't really see anything that he's done wrong, besides irking the real cops... if he were in street clothes people would call him a hero, or at the very least a nice guy. Personally the only thing about his whole persona that bothers me is that he insisted on having a camera guy with him and keeps paraphrasing fictional superheroes.

If it looks kind of ridiculous, well... real fights are, especially when you're trying to stay on the right side of the law.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

You know what this guy needs? A bullhorn. That way, he could make it very clear to these people that if they don't cut it out, he'll thrash them. Then he can hand it off to one of his sidekicks, and go kick some ass.

And once he's done, he needs to leave. Because going out and kicking some ass (however noble it may be) is very, very illegal. Also, it's cooler when you just vanish into the night.

This has been a Dr Snakeman vigilante lesson.

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

Apparently this is the face of Phoenix Jones.

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/641/phoenixjones.jpg/]

 

[Dr Snakeman]

We need to institute a superhero registration thing where people wanting to be masked vigilantes have to undergo some form of weapons and self defense training, register their real and vigilante name and their costume to be able to fight crime legally.

So... basically the police, but for free? Yeah, that'll catch on.

 

[Jegsimmons]

man, why people gotta be hating on jones because he's trying to do something good?

We need to institute a superhero registration thing where people wanting to be masked vigilantes have to undergo some form of weapons and self defense training, register their real and vigilante name and their costume to be able to fight crime legally.

So... basically the police, but for free? Yeah, that'll catch on.

i remember that plot in marvel's Civil War.....so....much.....blood....

how about without revealing your true identity, you give the superhero persona a badge with your signature on it. So that way if you fuck something up, only the person with that badge and signature will be arrested without putting family or fans in danger.

Here is a close of up the initial part of the video with some stabilization and zooming post processing done to it. In it you can see that there is a group of people assaulting someone and you can see Phoenix Jones run in disperse the people and spray two of the attackers.

Well that is some pretty damming evidence against him.

*facepalm* There are laws in place that allow you to defend other citizens, and the use of pepper spray to break up a street fight is not illegal under Washington state laws. Even the worst civil defender could get any charge of assault dropped, by what is one that video.

So basically it's about butt-hurt cops? If i was a cop id thank him.

 

[Jegsimmons]

'Call the cops, stay away from them' is the proper response. When you inject yourself into illegal activities, you are breaking the law also.... duh.

So tackling a mugger who is running away with a woman's handbag (an illegal activity) you are "breaking the law" just by getting involved?

I must have missed that part in the video. At what point does that happen?

it was one crime Jones prevented that got him famous, and preventing a car jacking.

Apparently this is the face of Phoenix Jones.

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/641/phoenixjones.jpg/]

OMG he's BLACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought he would be some middle aged white man

LOOK AT HIS HAIR!!!! DAMN!!! HIS HAIR LOOKS LIKE IT COULD FIGHT CRIME BY ITSELF!!!!

 

[synobal]

LOOK AT HIS HAIR!!!! DAMN!!! HIS HAIR LOOKS LIKE IT COULD FIGHT CRIME BY ITSELF!!!!

Ya his hair is kinda either really awesome or a crime of it's own, but it does look better than when he had the end of it dyed blonde and fought in the MMA ring under the name flattop

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

Apparently this is the face of Phoenix Jones.

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/641/phoenixjones.jpg/]

OMG he's BLACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought he would be some middle aged white man

I thought he would be Aaron Johnson. D:

 

[Clonekiller]

As interesting, if totally messed up, a movie as Kick Ass was, no. You shouldn't take it to reality. Nice thought, but just taking on bad guys is a bad idea.

 

[Beryl77]

So funny the comments here.
Most of the time when a group of people does something bad, for example beat someone up, most comments are like "This society is sick, why doesn't any do something, where are all the heroes?"
Then, when someone has the balls to actually do something (it's his own fault and decision if he puts himself in danger), the comments change to "Wow, what a moron, why does he act like such an idiot and do something so stupid."
Sigh, people just don't know what they want.

You're talking about two completely different scenarios, people say "why doesn't someone do something" when it's A - a group kicking the shit out of one guy.

From the video it just looks like a couple people in a group scuffling with other people around looking out for them. It was not four-five guys kicking one guy on the ground.

So the comments are not hypocritical

The comments I was referring to, were the ones which generally said he's a nutcase and he shouldn't do this but he does actually more that just what we saw here. This here was just one situation were he screwed up. I've seen videos were he actually helps people.
We don't know anyway what exactly the situation was here so we can't judge him based on this footage.