First, as citizens we want to have communities which are safe and crime free. We as citizens do have a responsibility to aid in providing for that safety. Primarily in the manner of not committing criminal acts or to Police your own actions.
Second as citizens we empower agencies and those in the employment of those agencies to provide protection and to serve the public in the performance of those duties. Corruption within those agencies is another topic.
Citizens policing them selves and citizens empowered by the community generally by statute to enforce the code of conduct of the community.
In an ideal society the first would simply be enough, that a community gathers together, establishes expected conduct and everyone conforms to the rules.
However we do not live in Utopia or even a suburban part of Utopia. We need the second group of people empowered to enforce the rules, because there will always be those who are willing to break the law. Theory abound about why crime occurs but that also another topic or group of topics, for now it should be sufficient to say crime will occur in every society.
Crime occurs from the lowest classes to the highest echelons of our society. Watch the news any day, pick up any paper and you’ll see it is prevalent. You will also hear that our law enforcement community is failing in protecting the citizens, our courts are addled by loopholes and self serving attorneys, our law makers do not make laws that are meaningful and the critical voices go on and on.
What you don’t hear among many of those critical voices is how to make it better. Just that what is being done is not working and or isn’t the right answer.
Solon, Greek Lawmaker and Statesman circa 600 BCE, stated that a society to effectively combat crime every citizen must be as outraged about any crime as if it had occurred to them.
Given this idea, any crime regardless of the victim should be viewed as if it happened to you. We are very far removed from this idea. We don’t even report crimes, we don’t press charges when we are offended against, we don’t provide witness, we work harder at getting out of jury duty then most of us do at our regular jobs. Then complain that our streets are filled with crime.
In the current economic state localities are cutting budgets and are not always able to fill vacant positions. So how do we solve the crime problem.
The traditions of public safety have always been based in the idea that we police ourselves and our communities. To give out the hue and cry when cry occurs and to be a truthful witness to wrongdoing when it does occur.
If we ignore the problem it will not go away.
So this group of “Superheroes” may have read the issues of Kick Ass or saw the movie and heard the question. Why hasn’t any one ever put on a costume and become a crime fighter.
The answer in the comic and the movie was, because you would get your ass kicked. However one guy does it, and he does get his ass kicked a little bit or a lot. But the point is he made a stand. That stand was to say no more will I ignore injustice when I can do something about it.
This group of people calling themselves the Rain City Superhero Movement isn’t really a far cry away from Curtis Sliwa’s response to crime on the subways in New York City and founding the Guardian Angels. It isn’t ever that far from the neighborhood watch patrols in thousands of communities across the country.
Citizens have always been a part of keeping our communities safe from those who will abuse the laws and take advantage of the complacency of others.
Phoenix Jones and other members of the RCSM are taking a stand. That stand is to put on the personas of crime fighter in costumes and help make their community safer.
Now there will be those who say he and the RCSM have no business doing what they are doing and they are likely to be killed.
My argument would be this that most people on neighborhood watches and those in the Guardian Angels, which still exists, are not harmed serious in the performance of citizen patrol. I did say most. There have been those killed doing both neighborhood watch and Guardian Angel patrols. There are also uniformed law enforcement officers killed every year.
I’m not able to put on the cape and mask and go on patrol but I can do my part in fighting crime.
There is what I think is the real story, that we all need to be our own version of a super hero and not ignore the wrong doing in our communities and be an active part in making our communities safer however we can. Not that this is a strange event of 2010 but more a wake up call that we all need to be a part of solving the problems in our lives and not looking for other people to solve them for us without our help.
I can not say everyone should put on a costume and fight crime but I do admire those in the RCSM and see that this isn’t just a laughable story to be put on page 8 or at the end of a news broadcast. They are real people saying that they can make a difference in their communities. Can you?
In other news
Almost Christmas are you done shopping? I’m at 90%
Still in other news
Syfy plays some seriously strange movies on the weekends.
Triple-ly in other news
Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday
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That’s all for now other stuff tomorrow, have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.
Ciao,
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