Like any other comic book fan, I’ve oftentimes wondered if our “real world” (that is, if we’re not all plugged into some sort of Matrix already) could house the stories from comic books. What if there were costumed crime fighters out there, taking on the injustices of the world that the government cannot (or chooses not) to face head on. Would they succeed? Would they overstep their bounds? Would they be loved, or loathed? Would their identities be secret? What sort of person would do this?
Of course, thinking about it, is very different from actually trying it, something a band of citizens calling themselves “the Allegiance of Heroes” have taken on themselves to do (via WLWT news):
He calls himself Shadow Hare, and he wears a mask and a cape to conceal his true identity. He’s Cincinnati’s own version of a superhero fighting crime and injustice where he finds it.
“We help enforce the law by doing what we can in legal standards, so we carry handcuffs, pepper spray … all the legal weapons,” said Shadow Hare. “We will do citizen’s arrests. We will intervene on crimes if there is one happening in front of us.”
The man behind Shadow Hare’s mask is 21 years old and from Milford. Those are the only clues to his true identity that he will reveal. Shadow Hare said he was abused as a child and grew up in foster homes, perhaps leading him to a life helping others.
“My message to Cincinnati is that there is still hope and all we have to do is stand together,” he said.
It’s touching and refreshing to see that there are citizens who are not apathetic to the injustices around them and, in the case of Shadow Hare, not willing to inflict the scars they were faced in their upbringing on others. However, good intentions aside, I’m not too sure I can be supportive of this. It’s not that I don’t think the justice system has its own serious flaws or that I don’t want to encourage people to take action when they feel that something needs to be done. But, I am concerned mainly with accountability.
To take a very nerdy but pertinent example, recently the Marvel Comics line had a big story event called Civil War (the cover of the first issue is on the left) – which saw the US government, in response to a group of immature superheroes botching up a rescue operation and causing the deaths of many schoolchildren, pass a law to register every single costumed crimefighter in the United States. The idea? If you want to fight crime, you register with the government so that you can (a) get trained and equipped properly, (b) have some system be accountable for your actions and any damage you may cause, and (c) better coordinate the efforts of multiple crimefighters.
In the comic book, this was an interesting debate, as many of the superheroes that picked a side were those who were well-established (had been doing this for years if not decades), well-trained, and well-liked. Do Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, and Spiderman really need to register with the US government? Probably not. The government would probably slow them down.
But, I took a different lens to the issue – what about the many other costumed heroes that we don’t know? Who aren’t trained, aren’t accountable, and haven’t learned all the rules that keep guys like Spiderman and Iron Man responsible? After all, while Batman knows that he needs to collect evidence when he captures a criminal, and Spiderman knows that there are limits to what he can morally do, does the random 21-year-old who’s been bounced from foster home to foster home know? Has he or she been trained to minimize property damager or the consequences to innocent people, or how to collect sufficient evidence to put someone away? What if the well-intentioned, civilian misinterprets evidence and assaults an innocent?
When a police officer screws up, they are punished and either re-trained or dismissed. As a result, they follow rules that they are not only trained to follow but are better able to produce convictions which are legal (and ethical). It’s not the most exciting or even necessarily the most effective way to do it, but it is the accountable way to do it. No one can deny the good that Shadow Hare and his brethren have been able to do, but I hope they can extend that by joining up with the police or the legal system and share their unique insight and expertise that way.
(Note: if you’d like to read more about the Civil War, I’d strongly recommend Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War; the other issues of the story primarily deal with the conflict between the two sides, this one issue actually lays out the arguments and justifications between the two)
(Image credit – Justice League) (Marvel Civil War Issue 1 cover)
