Nation's superhero fixation

Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes, but we prefer them to be clothed.

Andrew Terefenko

Opinions Editor

Three British Columbia teens were, until recently, engaged in a pretty ‘super’ practice. They concocted the brilliant scheme of dressing as superheroes, luring child predators to a location, and capturing them on hidden camera for online videos, which would force the authorities to act on the information.

RCMP authorities, of course, discouraged the vigilantes themselves, strongly encouraging them to cease the practice, as it was unsafe for both the crime fighters and the criminals.

Vigilante justice is nothing new, though the public stance has shifted little over the years. The authorities despise vigilante interference, and the impressionable citizenship at large is in love with the controlled chaos caused by the would-be Robin Hoods.

The question at the present, however, is the validity of the results. Those teenagers did in fact expose a child predator with very small room for doubt, and did so in a trio, solidifying their safety in numbers in the event that the would-be criminal turned violent.

This trend is evidently even more popular in the States, where social networking is becoming a useful tool for organizing such amateur crime-fighting congregations. A Seattle-based organization known as Real Life Superheroes (RLSH) is heading a movement to fight petty and violent crime. A costumed RLSH member broke up a late-night assault using his trusty pepper spray, a heroic act he paid for with a public court appearance, ruining any hope he had for keeping Phoenix Jones’ secret identity secret. Another member, the Tri-Colored Crusader, feeds the homeless and patrols dark neighbourhood alleyways for muggings.

Is this right? Can we leave minor acts of justice to the hands of willing citizens who serve us not for glory or reward, but for the rush of anonymously aiding their fellow man?

I say there is more to be gained than lost in these scenarios. If a citizen follows procedure and dials 911, while another person and possible cohort is seconds away from a fatal wound or irreplaceable loss, they may be those few seconds too late when the police do finally arrive. Sure, there are risks, but risks are meant to be taken when lives are on the line, and there are times when the authorities just cannot respond to a pending catastrophe quickly enough.

While it’s true that the BC teens may have created the predator they sought to find, in their method of posing as an underage teen and arousing him in the process, proper precautions can keep these questionable elements at bay. Don’t seek out crime, but don’t ignore it when it happens ten steps away.

A time and a place exist to serve your community and stop a crime in progress, but perhaps the pageantry of it all is a little unnecessary. People can help others and stay anonymous without the hazardous addition of a cape. There is a fine line between a benevolent act of heroism and a cocky, costumed fantasy, but when that line is drawn between life and death, there is little room to deliberate and even less room to get our tights on.