With the city embroiled in another police violence scandal, it’s hard to know just how amused we should be by this news that real-life superheroes are patrolling Seattle streets — and driving a borrowed Kia to Capitol Hill:
In one instance, police say a caped crusader dressed in black was nearly shot when he came running out of a dark park. In another case, a witness on Capitol Hill saw the crusaders wearing ski masks in a car parked at a Shell station and thought they were going to rob the place.
Police got the license plate and found those masked characters drove a Kia Fate registered to one of the character’s godmothers, department staff said. She told police her godson goes around doing good deeds.
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CHS heard that 911 callout to the Broadway and Pike Shell station via the police scanner. Nobody was laughing at the time. Still, the effort put forth by these real-life Batmen Is pretty incredible. The Seattle PI story points to this Real Life Super Hero Manual site that documents everything from useful gadgets, to body armor to first aid. We also found the flashier, more marketing savvy http://www.reallifesuperheroes.org/ site complete with links to Facebook and Twitter accounts.
With the investigation into the latest allegation of Seattle Police Department brutality, it’s odd timing for the real-life superheroes to make their big media debut but there’s probably no stopping a story including characters like Thorn, Buster Doe, Green Reaper, Gemini, No Name, Catastrophe, Thunder 88, Penelope and Phoenix Jones the Guardian of Seattle. CHS certainly couldn’t pass it up. You can start thinking of your superhero name now.
The PI reports that one of the Seattle TV stations will be out on the streets with some of these caped crusaders Friday night.
Hey that’s a great plan! Let’s put on masks and run around like crazed drunken buttmonkeys in a town filled with trigger happy cops that like to kick the shit out of people! Cool!
It’s a Kia Forte’ not a Kia Fate.
Hey, are you part of the Hill beat? Drop us a line [email protected]
Whatever, it’s still a Kia.
Are they also delivering food to hungry people? Will they solve the financial crisis? Flashy, sure, but what about the everyday heroes: Nurses, Teachers, Big Brothers & Sisters, etc. Let’s salute THEM!
While I think nurses, doctors, firemen, soldiers etc. are great people, calling them heroes is going overboard. It’s their job, they are paid for it. Doing something heroic means going beyond your job description and what you’re expected to do, it’s not something you’re paid to do. It’s when your average Jane does something absolutely unexpected to help out their fellow human.
I think this is a really cool thing. Even if it is mostly PR it raises people’s awareness of police violence and what the citizens expect their police to be doing.
ummm…wrong “D”.
teachers, nurses, soldiers, big brothers & sisters do not get paid enough! They do that EVERYDAY because they are doing something for their fellow human beings, barely getting paid. That is the definition of a hero!
people could just dress up like these same heroes and start robbing every place and person around.
See this post: http://www.therlsh.net/patrol-logs-f27/skyman-and-the-rain-c
that is correct: jseattle, please please correct the mistakes that other media outlets (KOMO, PI) have made in linking the RLSH with RSCM. They are two separate organizations, one’s national, one’s local, and the folks at RLSH are specifically ‘respectfully disowning’ the upstarts running with Phoenix Jones.
Also: these aren’t superheroes. These are vigilantes. “Super” implies something ‘super’ like Bruce Lee’s martial arts prowess or Bruce Wayne’s wallet. SUPERheroes (tm, marvel and dc, btw) should be reserved for folks that are actually Super.
This is quirky news, but clearly the primary aim of these caped amateurs (I mean that in the positive, literal sense) isn’t crime stopping. If it is, I fear they’ve watched “Kick-Ass” too many times. Still, they mean no harm, are downright adorable in their naiveté, and I hope, sincerely, that none of them get hurt.
And D, whoever you are: You really felt that you had to correct someone for venerating capable, often well-educated people, who receive a fraction of the pay that so-called “engineers,” who pick up some C++ while whacking it to the zeitgeist, receive to produce unnecessary updates to dubiously valuable software? Clearly you’re an exemplar of the collective sentiment, given our collective valuation of teachers, et al., but your statement still makes me wish I could change your mind.
Intresting………..what I’m worried about is that some of these ” heroes” may have martial arts or military background but have not actually gone through actual training for this type of stuff. They could get hurt (already have) and maybe even worse one could die because of a slip up. And I know for sure that the RCSM and RLSH are not from the same organization. There is actually some tension between the two. There are two others who are actually known to be from the RLSH who aren’t getting any credit. I’m not sure though how much they actually patrol……and since cut off don’t actually know if the police know them yet……..what a mess…….*sigh*.
Sorry I meant there are three from the RLSH in Seattle who aren’t getting any credit……..