Seattle superhero arrested

On Sunday morning, Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones, whose secret identity has been revealed as 23-year-old Benjamin John Francis Fodor, was arrested for allegedly pepper spraying a group of people. Don't-miss-footage of the scene is above. From Reuters:

According to a police report, the group were walking to their car, "dancing and having a good time," when Fodor "came up from behind and pepper-sprayed the group."
Two men in the group chased Fodor, and police called to the scene "separated the involved parties," the report said. Fodor was booked into the King County Jail on four counts of assault and was released on $3,800 bail on Sunday afternoon.
Fodor has since sent out Twitter messages saying he was back on patrol and proclaiming himself innocent of wrongdoing.
"I WOULD NEVER ASSAULT OR HURT ANOTHER PERSON IF THEY WERE NOT CAUSING HARM TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING," he wrote in one tweet.

"Seattle "superhero" charged with pepper-spray assault" (Reuters)

"Woman who hit Phoenix Jones: 'Nothing gives him a right to do that'" (Seattle PI)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Guido

Seems somebody needs to read Watchmen
- hassenpfeffer
  
  Yeah, I think Rorschach would happily drop this guy down an elevator shaft…
- dculberson
  
  Seems somebody needs to get a camera with image stabilization.
  
  Also, it seems like they WERE fighting.
- sagodjur
  
  Actually, seems somebody needs to stop reading graphic novels altogether.
http://twitter.com/chrisfurniss Chris Furniss

I’ve seen this guy “on patrol”. He is completely ridiculous and probably delusional.
- http://profiles.google.com/mlashcorp José Côrte-Real
  
  Probably?
Conspirator

Is he really a “superhero” if he has no super powers, special abilities or cool gadgets?
joeposts

“THEIR JOYFUL REVELRY CAUSED GREAT HARM TO HUMANITY.”
http://twitter.com/zaren Jim Schmidt

Total time of the video clip: 13:37. ‘Leet.
flowergardenslayer

He’s like Batman, though closer to Kick-Ass truth be told. He’s got some gizmos + body armor, and the desire to use them.

“Super” hero? Probably not, but then you could say the same about Batman.
http://www.facebook.com/ted.mills Ted Mills

With great power comes great running about at the back of nightclubs.
Electro_Jones

There was a Capitol Hill, Seattle march scheduled to protest the SPD’s cold blooded murder of John Williams a few months ago. Phoenix here was keeping the peace, being interviewed by someone while walking about a hundred yards behind the protestors.
Dan Chambers

There needs to be some kind of motion-sickness warning on this video.
- teapot
  
  It baffles me why this fool would put his name on the tape, especially when it is so awfully shot. I also feel like the cops should be busting him because he clearly knows and was encouraging the suited idiot.
  
  That guy would’ve been bashed to a bloody pulp/corpse for behaving like that here. I thought Seattle was hardcore?
Brainspore

JUST BECAUSE COMIC STRIP DIALOGUE IS USUALLY IN ALL CAPS DOESN’T MEAN YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO TYPE THAT WAY.
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

IF YOU CAN’T TAKE THE SPRAY, DON’T GET IN THE FRAY, EVILDOERS!
wrybread

You are all perfectly SAFE!

DOES ANYBODY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRyuisjvP00
atimoshenko

Guy looks like a delusional ass.
ChurchTucker

That didn’t look like “dancing and having a good time” to me.
komradefox

while I really don’t know anything about his mental stability, I am still not willing to jump the gun and call him delusional.
Jeremiah McCoy

In the guy’s defence, it did look a lot like big fight going on and his first yelled instruction is to call 911. If I saw a big fight going on I might try an intercede and if I has pepper spray, I might use it on people that charged me or hit me. The only real difference is the guy walks around in a garish costume, and he looks for these situations. All in all, I am not certain that is a bad thing. It is not like he is breaking into peoples houses and threatening them or beating them with batons just for being there. I believe that is the purview of federal agencies and the police these days.
grimc

IF HIS TWEETS AREN’T IN COMIC SANS I AM DISAPPOINT.
William Ventura

I can hear Mr. Myagi from the beyond the grave asking me to comment for him, here goes. “You, too much tv”….

What does it mean!?
Drabula

IT’S THE COLLAPSE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION!
Marko Raos

This whole incident is absolutely dripping with parallels to american foreign policy in the past 10+ years…
scissorfighter

There’s a quote for the next Napoleon Dynamite movie: “I have body armor so I’m OK…”
samhandwich

I have nothing valuable to add to this conversation.
Isaac Britton

The police report is a bunch of shit.
I don’t like how cops expect people to just stand and watch crimes in progress, instead of doing something about it. Seems like they just love the bystander effect.
- Brainspore
  
  I don’t like how cops expect people to just stand and watch crimes in progress, instead of doing something about it.
  
  One could argue that in this case the intervention was not a big improvement over the crime he was trying to prevent. “I was worried someone might get hurt so I sprayed them with a painful, blinding chemical!”
  - cuddlysatan
    
    Considering what happens in the video; it starts as 4 guys kicking 2 guys on the ground, then goes to a hit & run, then goes to some of the guys attempting to run down Jones with a car, I’d say the intervention with pepper spray is better than kicking people on the pavement.
    - Brainspore
      
      Considering what happens in the video; it starts as 4 guys kicking 2 guys on the ground…
      
      If you say so. I tried pausing the video a few times to get a better look but it’s still not at all clear to me that this is actually what was happening at the time.
      - http://redesigned.com redesigned
        
        Really? It was clear as day to me, on the first watching. He obviously helped quite a bit. Any good cop watching the video would know that they were fighting, not dancing. Cops don’t like vigilantism justice, which is why they busted PJ the first chance they got and jumped at the opportunity to release his identity.
        
        Every time you release a superhero’s identity a child’s dream of becoming a super hero dies. :-)
      - Brainspore
        
        I agree that looked more like fighting than dancing, but at no point did I see two guys on the ground getting the sh*t kicked out of them. If Phoenix Jones saved anyone from a violent assault those victims haven’t yet come forward to express their gratitude.
        
        Cops don’t like vigilantism justice, which is why they busted PJ the first chance they got and jumped at the opportunity to release his identity.
        
        This isn’t the first time he’s been busted nor the first time his name has been publicized. In fact, for such a young guy he has a pretty long criminal record- 22 violations to date according to Wikipedia. And not “fighting for truth and justice” sort of stuff, either- more like “driving without a license” and other such activities unbecoming of a superhero.
      - http://redesigned.com redesigned
        
        “This isn’t the first time he’s been busted nor the first time his name has been publicized.”
        
        fair enough, I don’t know the dude personally or follow him in any way.
        
        cops do hate and intentionally crush vigilantism justice, whether or not it is in the public best interest. pepper spray is painful but does not cause permanent damage which is why it is used.
        
        The two guys getting kicked on the ground is later in the fight, after the hit and run, and the other attempted hit and run…i count 6 landed punches and 1 landed kick before he first intervenes in what the camera man refers to as a “huge fight” implying that there was additional violence not seen on camera. When I said it was clear as day, i was referring to the fact that this was a serious fight, sorry if I misread your reply…
  - http://redesigned.com redesigned
    
    “I was worried someone might get hurt so I sprayed them with a painful, blinding chemical!”
    
    There is a HUGE difference between feeling pain and being physically injured, possibly killed. He sprayed them with something painful but non-damaging. Hitting someone with a car, or kicking a guy on the ground on the other hand can cause real lasting damage… i suggest applying some perspective.
http://profiles.google.com/mkjonese Emma Jones

While I think the idea is cool, having someone calling themselves a superhero going around, spraying people with pepper spray is not safe. That stuff is dangerous and very painful. I was talking with a couple of cops once (got caught in the park after dark, drinking, whoopdeedo), and they both said they’d rather be tased than pepper sprayed. I’ve been tased (certainly not by a police-grade taser) and it’s not fun. I can’t imagine I wouldn’t be looking to kick this guy’s ass if he did that to me.

I have enough to worry about, the police not leaving me alone when I’m dealing with my own affairs. I don’t need some asshole who probably hasn’t been trained in any sort of criminal dealings thrown in the mix.
- http://redesigned.com redesigned
  
  Is Phoenix no relation to you, being a Jones and all? ;-)
Spriggan_Prime

“I’M NOT WEARING HOCKEY PADS.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tim-Escobedo/1043685245 Tim Escobedo

I like around the 4:00 mark, young woman yells at Phoenix Jones, “Get out of here! It’s not fucking Halloween!”
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O73GS2LP4ARSDL3DDRC4OZXMQI Keith

I wonder how many Apple products this person owns.
Antinous / Moderator

The really important question here is: how much of that muscle is him and how much of it is the rubber suit?
- MachineElf
  
  If his real identity of “Benjamin Fodor” is fighter Ben Fodor, then he’s not in bad shape. Certainly, I think the rubber suit adds something (including body armour) – but the guy certainly isn’t an overweight couch potato who knows nothing about physical confrontation:
  
  http://youtu.be/vwPcpePwnpw
  - Spriggan_Prime
    
    Holy shit! That looks exactly like a guy I saw at a Halloween party like 15 years ago playing Wesley Snipes character from The movie Demolition Man. He was cranked out of his mind.
BBNinja

The problem with most of these real life “superheroes” is most of them are deluded, narcissistic and jump into situations like Jones did (above) without knowing what’s going on. Just because you see some people in the street pushing each other doesn’t mean you can just run up and start pepper spraying everyone.

You can find more hilarity here:
http://www.reallifesuperheroes.com/
http://www.worldsuperheroregistry.com/world_superhero_registry_gallery.htm
http://www.reallifesuperheroes.org/
- http://redesigned.com redesigned
  
  I agree there are some potential and very real drawbacks to these “superheros” taking the law into their own hands.
  
  I’d suggest that some, but of course not all, police often handle things in a similarly poor manner with a similar attitude. AND they aren’t wearing costumes and don’t have catch phrases or gimmicks, that make the “superheros” so amusing…
  
  …so if the average joe can’t dress up as a superhero and take the law into their own hands, can we at least require the police to wear funny costumes and shout out funny catch phrases? please? pretty please?
Cowicide

Bunch of drunk assholes in that video (male and female).

So anyway… alcohol is legal, but pot is the big fucking problem and needs to be illegal?
Do have this straight?
Fart History Major

Well one way to break up a fight is to piss off both parties to the point where they both want to beat you up instead.
senorglory

How about just forming a neighborhood watch?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  How about just forming a neighborhood watch?
  
  How dreary.
Brad Koch

The woman hitting people with her shoe (purse?) should have been arrested. What an idiot. She chased two people, hitting both of them, and only avoided getting knocked out because she’s a woman. She was clearly NOT defending herself and was clearly the aggressor.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5CTVD2F5F2EBSRKIKU3M3EKKYI Carlton

Has anyone noticed that you never see this guy and Dick Cheney together? I’m just saying. . . .
Ben Burger

What the hell? Who is this guy?
http://twitter.com/MoonpieNobot Moonpie Nobot

Looked like some sort of fight at the beginning to me
http://twitter.com/dorksgetlaid2 It’s About Time

Don’t hang out with people who fight. Stay indoors and let it subside. And if you don’t like your neighborhood, don’t move in that area. As long as guns aren’t involved who cares what goes on behind a nightclub?

Notice how long it took the cops to show up? That’s because fights happen, and they aren’t that bad. These little PC nerds are running around the streets pepper spraying people trying to get a movie deal.

(c) please, fucking virgins.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the only one arrested. In law school you’d probably call the pepper spray “an elevation of force”. Obviously they never partied, you DON’T pepper spray drunk people, especially girls. My favorite quote: “I’d call them Russian, if I was going to stereotype.”
simonbarsinister

While I applaud the superhero’s motives… one of these days he is going to run into an actual criminal instead of some drunks and get shot dead.
Ceronomus

I think that the Gutters says it all..

http://www.the-gutters.com/comic/201-mohammad-f-haque
Alastair McKenzie

lol props to the super hero.
zorro869

Running around at night breaking up drunk’s fights is a good way to get shot.
Marie Lamere

That’s the problem with Real Life Superheroes, until they get Real Life Super-villains who want to be famous doing ridiculous crimes, they’re just going to end up breaking up stupid things.
- Trent Hawkins
  
  The guy in tights just fought a man who is habitually wearing clown makeup. How much closer to super heroes can you get?
shockertoys

Time to roll out the Phoenix action figures http://www.shockertoys.com
Guest

Yes, I bet it was SO HARD for that guy to not punch a drunk woman in the mouth. He should be given a cookie! What a Nice Guy. /s