Benjamin John Francis Fodor puts on a black muscle suit at night and patrols the streets as Phoenix Jones, Guardian of Seattle. He belongs to a whole group of super heroes in that city who call themselves the Rain City Superhero Movement, which itself is part of a global trend of real masked crime fighters.

And in his attempt to become a “real-life superhero,” he now shares an important milestone with Spider-Man, Batman, and the Green Hornet: being labeled a vigilante menace by the police.

Jones was arrested last week after allegedly using pepper spray while attempting break up a fight. Video of the whole event can be found online, though it doesn’t necessarily clarify exactly when or how pepper spray was used.

According to the police report, a sprayed woman claimed that she and her friends were just “dancing and frolicking.”

The report (obtained by The Smoking Gun) also states:

[Jones] has had a history of injecting himself in these incidents. Recently, there have been increased reports of citizens being pepper sprayed by [Jones] and his group. Although [Jones] has been advised to observe and report incidents to 911, he continues to try to resolve things on his own.

If Jones wanted to be a “real-life superhero,” his work is unfolding largely in the same way as the movies that inspired him. More recently, he has even partially inspired inspired some of these movies like Kick-Ass and Super.

But all these movies see serious problems with people putting on capes and masks. I couldn’t help but think of this scene from Super:

What do you think? Is Phoenix Jones a hero? A criminal? Doing bad things for good reasons, or maybe vice versa?

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