The self-proclaimed "superhero" known as Phoenix Jones, Guardian of Seattle, was arrested on suspicion of assault, police said.

Seattle Police Detective Jeff Kappel said officers were called to First Avenue and Columbia Street after 2:30 a.m. Sunday by a group of men and women who said the suspect had walked up behind them while they were "dancing and having a good time" on the way to their car and doused them with pepper spray, Seattlepi.com reported Monday.

"Two men in the group chased after the suspect. Responding officers arrived on scene and separated the involved parties," Kappel said.

Seattlepi.com said Jones is not the man's real name, but the newspaper has a policy of not identifying suspects until they have been formally charged.

Jones, whose escapades as a self-proclaimed "superhero" have garnered international media attention, was booked into jail about 5 a.m. Sunday and released on bond around 12:45 p.m., jail records showed.

Peter Tangen, a spokesman for Phoenix Jones, said video footage of the incident will reveal Jones was attempting to break up a fight and did not attack the group unprovoked.

"It'll be interesting what (police) have to say when the video comes out," Tangen told Web site Publicola. I'm very sure it's going to show a different story than what police are saying.

Copyright 2011 by United Press International

well a superhero being arrested??? more weird things are happening in life xD

ROFL

This is hilarious.

video of the incident

http://vimeo.com/30307440

Ahahaha! This is funny! xD He must have been watching Hetalia so much that he idolized the 'superhero' America. xD LOL, sorry, just having an otaku moment here!

bump

I give my respects to that man and hope he gets off easy.

What superpowers does the guy have? :>

whoa the hero was a loser
what other pheonix legonds are there? u kno legonds like celty was in drrr!

>>9
Pepper Spray Hands

btw, his court date for assault charges was yesterday

How come we can't do something like this? Like role out in a gang of 4 or 5 at night. Having ourselves a good time, laughing, bullshiting, and just having a ball. At the same time we watch out for suspicious activity and kick some ass when we see one of the bad guys. That is what a real gang is.

"We abhor violence and go out of our way to bring peace, justice and prosperity to our respective communities."

That would be why we don't go out and kick the living shit out of people who we think are suspicious. Report or prevent them from doing something sure, but not kick their ass.

I would like to be part of a massive group that went against crime it sounds cool. we could all report something. but im not for sprinting into a crowd of people and macing the shit out of them.

I would like to be part of a massive group that went against crime it sounds cool. we could all report something. but im not for sprinting into a crowd of people and macing the shit out of them.

I'm quite impressed! It was kinda funny that he was running everywhere, he sounded really out of breath at a couple points, but wow. That kinda thing takes a lot of courage. I hope he gets out with nothing against him.

bump

Wow

So I've heard of this and did research of my own on the R.L.S.H. (Real Life Super Heroes)...their pretty cool. Honestly if my town needed one I'd join...though I'd just as quickly join the Dollars and get a few of my friends together to join and help clean up the place and do some friggin' good around here. Obviously not start any fights or anything, but do our best to help out the area. It's so boring where I live...wish we had stuff like that...but I guess that's what I get for living in smaller towns. Oh well...I hope these guys keep doing what their doing, including Phoenix Jones. Super-powers or not these guys have some major guts to pull this s*** off sometimes. Some of them actually 'fight crime' and others just do good deeds in their neighborhood/town/city...it's really cool! Some dress up in costumes, but not all of them. There's actually a list of the 'registered' superheros! Really these guys are great for what they do...at least in my opinion.

How is this even debatable, if you watch the video you clearly see he stops the damn fight. Not only that but he gets a f'ing hit and run on tape and has the License Plate info. Then you see the group he broke up coming over and attacking him and he defends himself with what else but a self defense weapon pepper spray. If you gets convicted then Seattle's court system is incredibly stupid.

>>22 if that's true the man deserved a medal not prison sentence or any other crap.

>>23 Everyone in this situation was a complete fucking moron; Jones, the stupid teenagers, the court system, etc. He was committing an act of vigilantism, which is illegal. They decided to get into a fight (a certain crazy bitch beating him and others), making it assault/domestic disturbance. The court system totally overlooked the hit and run as well as the crazy shoe bitch and focused on the costume hero.

I object to the notion that if something is illegal then it is wrong, or something to be shameful about. It's a redundant idea that people seem to get attached to, and it's pretty sad - Vigilantism isn't illegal because its bad, it was made illegal with the intent to keep people from getting themselves hurt or breaking other laws by stepping in.

If said person is entirely okay with the possibility of getting themselves hurt, and acts in a self-defensive manner much like vigilantes originally did, then there is nothing wrong with it at all. For that matter, the nation could very much stand for a more unified vigilante movement - As seen by the recent riots in the british isles, and how well that was dealt with by the proper authorities.

As a simple fact, law enforcement - The people in charge of keeping order... Don't. Its no slight against them, but they simply cannot instantly be where they need to be. With rare exception, they will inevitably get to the scene far too late to be of any use in the matter and thus spend the majority of their efforts seeking to deliver a proper retribution/punishment to the culprit.

As opposed to the 'illegal acts of vigilantism', which provide the people around to jump in when they feel it necessary and help prevent or out-right stop things from happening when it starts. I'd much rather have a hobo and a bartender run up and help me if I got jumped by a group of people, than say... Get jumped, probably robbed, maybe even die, and then wait for the cops to spend a few weeks or so hunting them down and punishing them after the fact.

Not everything that is illegal is wrong, a fair portion of things which are illegal are simply that way to be more convenient to the ruling party. It becomes conviluted and ass-backwards that way.

"Can we accurately judge who is at fault if a vigilante steps in?"

No. Make it illegal, so we can then definitely tell who is the attacking party and who is the victim.

But in doing so, you cement the fact that there will be an attacking party, and their will be a victim. And all the assurance that the attacking party will be punished means little in face of the fact that to do so, you had to guarantee a victim in the first place.

As an ending note - This isn't to say Vigilantism is the end-all solution to law enforcement or what not, its just meant to illustrate that its not a morally unjust or socially wrong action to engage in. It is illegal for all of the wrong reasons, much like how marijuana remains illegal in most states despite it having very little negative effect compared to pretty much every other drug out there.

Woh, there, Tl;dr Man. I wasn't even making my personal statement on vigilantism or costumed crime fighting; I was simply stating a fact. If you want me to go into it, then I'll say this; the world would be a better place if we had a Batman running around, but that doesn't make it legal. He clearly broke the law, so he is justified in being punished for something. Do I think he should be the only one punished? No. Do I think the way he went about things was right? Also no. Which leads me back to my initial statement of, "Everyone in this situation was a complete fucking moron."

I fundamentally object to the idea that it is justifiable to punish someone for breaking a law enforced for convenience sake rather than any morally aligned issue.

The concept of following a law just because its a law is self-defeating and insult to human intelligence.

If you've got a problem with a law, work to change it. The, "It's a stupid law, so I don't have to follow it," argument doesn't hold up in court.

True enough, my sentiment probably won't hold up in court. Though I stand by my philosophy of refusing to follow laws that make no sense, so if push comes to shove I'd rather be convicted than let something happen when I could have done something about it.

Doing the morally right thing personally, I believe, far outweighs doing the right thing legally. And all the punishment or retribution that comes along with it, is thusly earned and shouldered without regret.

Come to think of it... This is probably similar to Jones' mindset currently.

Idiot.

bump for >>24 >>25 >>26 >>27 >>28 >>29
Good discussion. The problem is that Jones is breaking the law, no matter the moral standing and concepts of "right" and "wrong"; however, the charges of Assault being raised against him are arguable.

Yea this was weird and wrong -_-

I dont think he approached this all the right way but I dont think he is bad either. I think he generally want to help people. But I really like the idea of becoming a hero too the people. Saving the day bringing fiction into reality so I dont really blame the guy I mean he probally just wanted to change the world a little and he did it to the best of his abilities. Wouldnt it be cool if we could become are own supper heroes =)

Maybe they thought that he was someone from an Occupy Movement?

The should leave the man alone to live a dream that was crushed by so many who believe in reality is all and that there is no imagaination.

The should leave the man alone to live a dream that was crushed by so many who believe in reality is all and that there is no imagaination.

what if he is a member of the Dollars too guys...ever think of that?

Well If we had a R.L.S.H. He will have no sleep because Houston is one huge place

Also that would be awesome if he was a dollar member.

Oh God, my sides! XD

Anyone hear anything new about this-bump

I like this guy. :D

No news of this at all here in Ohio. T_T

Any new info on his case or how he's doing?

>>43 i liked him on facebook, occasionally he'll update with something like "i'm patrolling today, wish me luck" or something like that. i'm sure hes fine

Haha I remember when I saw him on T.V. that sucks he got arrested. It's awesome that he's doing this but of course things like this would happen.

bump

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Jones =D

>>44>>47 Thank You so much! My teacher was giving us an assignment on current events and i had NO leads. ^_^;
now i just hope i get at least a b-. and good luck to Phoenix Jones. ^_^

I wonder how long it will take before every city has it's own superhero team?

hahahahah this is funny as hell well everybody can be a super-hero
but this guy did it the wrong way i guess =)