THE STATESMAN GIVES FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF RIOT

BRITISH REAL LIFE SUPERHERO ENTERS BIRMINGHAM RIOTS- HELPS COUPLE REACH TRAIN STATION SAFELY, NABS LOOTER, HELPS CLEAN UP AND MORE

On rare occasions I like to invite members of the Real Life Super Hero community to share a write up of a first hand account of something going on in their world for Heroes in the Night readers. I have been following the story of the spreading rioting in Britain, and noticed that the Birmingham area RLSH known as The Statesman was posting occasional updates on his Facebook page. I asked him if he could share his story of what he is seeing on the streets and how he has tried to help out as a RLSH. His account, in full, follows.

This is a fairly stripped down, blow-by-blow account of my experiences during the riots currently affecting the major cities of the UK. I’m offering it here at Tea’s request, because I feel that it offers a ground-level story of the kind crisis situation that will, I believe, become increasingly common during the difficult years ahead of us all. There will, obviously, be areas that concern “superheroes” directly, but I’d like to take a moment before I begin to make two points clear.

Firstly, I am under no illusion that hundreds of men and women from our police forces, many of whom have worked tirelessly over the last 48 hours to make safe our homes, have done more than I could ever hope to. They are often vilified, and I sometimes question some of their actions as much as any free-thinking person, but have been exemplary throughout these few days. I for one am incredibly grateful to them all.

Secondly, I have done nothing over the last two days that I couldn’t have done in normal clothes. I have, however discovered a benefit to some of the very soft media that I have been a party to: In the middle of a large crowd of rioters, all of which are of a similar age, all with masks and scarves on their faces, both police and civilians recognized me for who I am and what I do. I cannot over-emphasize how much this helped me to get around; at one point, even allowing me passage through a police cordon.

If there’s anything that you would like to know, any questions that you want to ask, any comments that you would like to offer or any criticisms you feel need to be made, then feel free to add them after this article.

I found out about the escalating situation in Birmingham city centre through my iPhone; a fellow RLSH who goes by the name Citizen Obsidian sending me a heads up that things there had turned nasty. I was, at the time, in the neighboring town of Dudley, enjoying a meal with my girlfriend. I had heard about the “protests” during the daytime, but as I was at work and carrying a painful injury to my left leg I had decided to stay clear. I explained that I felt that I had to go, and we paid up and left for home.

I used the ride home to make a few phonecalls; to check on family and friends in the area, and to get an idea of what was happening, and where. At this point, things were just starting to get heated; police had formed three lines blocking the main access ramp into a shopping precinct called the Pallasades, with “protesters” who had started to throw bottles and bricks. I got home, geared up, and jumped in a taxi to head into town. It was quite an odd sight; floods of taxis and buses were streaming away from the centre of the city, but we were the only people heading in. The time now was around 9.30pm.

As I arrived in town, it was obvious that something had happened. The heavy internet rumour-mongering had, if anything, underestimated how much damage was being done to the city. After leaving the taxi, I jogged down to the most obvious police picket line outside New Street train station. Some eight or nine officers were spread across the roadway entry to the station, trying to stop the steady flow of out-of-town commuters from wandering into the uncontrolled parts of the city.

I introduced myself, and after a shared laugh about my outlandish dress, they soberly advised me to take myself home. “Have you got enough bodies on the ground as it is, then?” I asked. They answered, of course, no.

My first sight of the rioters came soon. As I was talking to these first officers, a group of 30-40 youths in hoodies, wearing scarves around their faces, boiled up from a stairwell across the street. They were chanting, “Fuck the pigs” over and over, and the officers radioed in support from their reserves inside the station.

A young Scottish man and his girlfriend stood behind the lines, loaded with wheeled suitcases and duffel bags. I approached them to see if they were okay, and they told me that this was their first night living in Birmingham; they were literally straight off the train, on the way to their first apartment together. They were scared; they had no idea how to get to the next train station- Snow Hill- which was located on the opposite side of the “Hot Zone”.

I explained that my name was the Statesman, and Craig (the young man) grinned and said that he’d seen me in the paper and recognised my moustache! We shared a laugh at that, which seemed weird with bottles starting to shatter on the road behind us. I took one of their bags, and led them off down a sideroad towards the other side of town.

The town was a wasteland. Shops were dark and empty, windows shattered with the tills and furniture strewn around outside. We came past the Information Centre, with a clothes rack still wedged through the security glass of it’s frontage.

I led them up a stairwell, and in the curve of the first landing, had to wade almost shin-deep through a huge quantity of clothes hangers. Looters had taken pretty much everything from the Primark store on the main high street, and dumped the useless hangers here. There was an underpass nearby, and I assume that they had parked a series of cars, stripped the clothes, and loaded up here; out of sight of passing police, and near enough to the main streets that they could make return journeys to the shops.

I raised my shield and shouted a warning twice at threatening groups as we crossed Corporation street. Groups of rioters in twos and threes, some riding bikes, were roaming around at will. I could see about three hundred yards down the main street, where a man was running away from a small group who jeered and threw bottles after him. It became clear that the police were holding a small cordon around each transport hub, and the church in the centre of town, but everywhere else was essentially the Wild West- gangs roamed at will, casually wandering through the smashed-open shops and helping themselves to whatever they wanted. It was not a safe place for an individual, and I was glad to have accompanied my erstwhile companions. I dread to think of what could have happened to two strangers, lost in this kind of environment.

I changed tack at this point- moving towards the nearest cordon by the quickest route. A policeman saw us coming, and I explained that I was escorting these people to Snow Hill. He nodded, joked that I should draw a wage, and let us through the cordon. We made good time, coming out almost on top of Snow Hill station- the police there had been informed via radio that we were coming through, and took the two visitors to where they needed to be. They said their thanks, and I said my goodbyes.

I spent another hour ferrying individuals and small groups between the two train stations.

It was now around 11.40pm, and all transport services had stopped. The central police cordon had expanded through most of the town centre- police in riot gear were now more apparent, having been drawn in from nearby towns. The main body of the mob had been pushed down through Chinatown, and I followed in their wake. My only violent confrontation took place here.

A young afro-Caribbean man of around twenty was smashing a rock into the store-front of a Sainsbury’s Local near the Mailbox shopping centre. I kept quiet, making as to walk past him. All night, I had been avoiding confrontations with bigger groups of rioters that I couldn’t hope to confront safely. As I drew level, I saw him do a brief double take at my appearance. I grabbed his arms, forcing them back and down. He twisted, and we struggled. It is INCREDIBLY difficult to grapple someone down who doesn’t want to be. My sleeve rose up, and he raked his nails down my forearm. I got his hands behind his back, and after a further struggle, he eventually gave up the fight. I zipped his wrists, tight over his sleeves, and took his by the arm to the Gala casino. Police took him off me there; although for a long while, they were going to apprehend me, too. I explained that it really WAS a citizen’s arrest, and prompted them to check for any CCTV in the area.

It took a long time. Resources must have been spread pretty thin, but after about twenty minutes, I was told to leave. They took my guy to a waiting minibus with a half-dozen sullen-looking figures inside. I headed towards Chinatown.

Around this time, people were leaving the Hippodrome Theatre in large numbers; families in smart clothes, who did not seem to be aware of the situation outside. I couldn’t believe that in the middle of the crazy situation that was developing, such a large group could have missed what was going on. I stood, waving my arms, directing them away from the Arcadian shopping mall, where a huge group of 100 yobs were still smashing up the bars and clubs, towards the safer roads that were now to be found towards the centre of town.

The night went by in a blur; I passed a liquor store being looted by six men, and not fancying my chances in a confrontation, ran to flag down a patrol car. All six were arrested. I paid for a taxi to take a Polish woman to the address she had written on a piece of paper, who did not speak a single word of English and was lost and alone. I helped three riot police, drawn in from Wolverhampton, to secure a burnt-out record store while youths jeered from across the road. My gear, when the mask is covered by a hoody, turned out to have an unexpected benefit- several times, mobs of rioters would run away as I passed, apparently thinking in the darkness that I was an off-duty cop. It turned out to be very useful!

I ended up on Soho Road, in Handsworth, trailing the last large body of the original mob. The police station here, though unmanned, had been petrol-bombed. It became apparent at this point that I was never going to start fighting against these kind of numbers, so I called a cab.

In the cab ride home, we passed a police car as it skidded to a stop on a petrol-station forecourt, and two policemen chased off a dozen thugs behind stealing fuel from the pumps. They ran to the back of the street, and started filtering through the alleys back towards us. I got out of the cab, and blocked a roadway between two buidings as one of the gang was running towards me. He balked, turned back, and the following copper clattered into him, bearing him to the ground. He gave me a nod, before I jumped back in the cab and, having a bit of a laugh with the driver, headed home.

The morning after (my day off from work) I headed back to Birmingham. A volunteer cleanup crew had gathered at around 10 o’clock. Work was already underway replacing windows and the major structural damage. We got to work sweeping, nailing up boards, and bagging up broken glass into rubble sacks.

All was clear until about 3pm, when the city-centre banks and offices closed early. There was a rumour of further violence… but none yet materialised.

I stayed into town til about 6pm, and while there were a few moments of tension when a group looked likely to charge a police picket, but the cops charged and they scattered.

I left the city centre as the night got on, instead heading out to Aston and surrounding residential areas. I talked to as many people as I could. There was growing anger against the rioters, and the general consensus was that any intent to “protest” was swiftly lost on day one; we were now looking at thugs and fools trying to steal whatever they could and get something for free.

The mood was tense, and at least once my patriotic style of costume caused suspicion with a band of asian youths who had formed to protect their street. There were rumours going around about the three men who had been killed with a car; anything from an attempted car-bombing of a mosque, to a revenge attack by the proto-fascist English Defence League under cover of the mayhem. It took several tense minutes of explaining before the situation cooled, and I took my leave.

All in all… I still don’t feel that I have adequately explained the extent or severity of the damage done by the crowds. This account was typed over a quiet afternoon at work because, frankly, I’ve been out almost every spare minute trying to help out. I’ve filled three pages and haven't talked about the emergency homeless shelter, pushing broken down cars off the expressway minutes before a mob arrived to smash windows in. Or the old woman who was walking up and down the street, trying to talk the younger guys into going home.

It is clear that without either gathering new recruits to the cause or joining an official body, one person can make a minimal impact. It also made me think about the need for more protection than I’m currently using. Anyway. I’m running out of time, so I’ll leave it there.

MEET THE JUSTICE UNION

Photo by Rob Greig

Note: The following article was written by me for a UK publication titled Delayed Gratification, which is a quarterly almanac that examines the prior three months worth of news in a brilliant way and with a dynamic lay out in a style they call "slow journalism." I absolutely love the publication. The article focuses on the UK's newly formed Justice Union and gives a run down of a few others in the RLSH world. Editor Marcus Webb also contributed to the article.

Delayed Gratification's website can be found here: www.dgquarterly.com

MEET THE JUSTICE UNION

On 13th March, five men tired of the crime they saw around them banded
together to make a stand. Is this an example of the Big Society at work?
Only if Cameron’s vision included martial arts, face masks and outfits ordered
from eBay. Tea Krulos meets The Justice Union, the UK’s real life superheroes.
Portraits by Rob Greig. Additional reporting Marcus Webb.

Outside a McDonald’s somewhere in Salford, a speeding Land Rover screeches to a halt, and two suspicious characters exit the vehicle. Something isn’t right – they feel like they’re being watched, as if someone’s eyes are piercing them. Looking around, they spot a young man wearing a blue Lycra hood, a black eyemask similar to Zorro’s and a black leather trench coat.

He is Knight Warrior,
a “Real Life Superhero.”

“I stood a fair distance away getting ready to do something because it looked like a robbery was going to happen,” Knight Warrior says of this incident. “They looked around and saw me watching. As they saw me they drove off.” If this was a potentially bad situation thwarted by Knight Warrior’s presence, then he has achieved what the Real Life Superheroes are all about: small victories.
The Real Life Superhero (or RLSH) movement started as an American phenomenon, but has since spread to include costumed thrillseekers looking to help out their fellow man around the world. Over the last couple of years, a handful of British citizens have got in on the act with their own larger-than-life personae. Some, such as The Statesman and Lionheart, operate independently, but a group of five new superheroes have formed their own “super team”. After months of discussion, they decided to call themselves ‘The Justice Union’ and opened the closest thing they have to a hideout – a Facebook page – on 13th March.

The group includes Terrorvision, a man from Kent in his mid-thirties who does graphic design work and is co-owner of a music recording studio. He is married and has a family. Dark Spartan patrols town centres and residential areas around Torbay at closing time. He too is married, “outing” himself as a hero to his wife after a series of packages – including a police riot shield, body armour and a cast iron Spartan helmet – started arriving at their house. Rounding out the team are three superheroes in their late teens: Man in Black, Knight Warrior and Blackvoid.
Blackvoid has a part-time job at a comic-book store in Plymouth, wears a Spandex mask and makes his own weapons, including a spring-loaded contraption that fires what looks like golf tees. Knight Warrior also has a Spandex mask and is secretive about his personal life. Man in Black has adopted a classic film noir look – a suit, a fedora and a scarf covering the lower half of his face. What these superheroes and crusaders like them around the world define as their mission varies. Some hit the street looking to stop crime, others have a more humanitarian or charitable focus, and some a balance of both.

“My goal is to squash the socially acceptable apathy our country has adopted. I want to motivate “normal people” to help others,” Dark Spartan says. He tries to connect with the public by handing out his business card and fridge magnets to people while on patrol. Like the rest of the heroes, he also has a Facebook page. His day job is spent working in finance where he says he also encounters a fair amount of corruption.

“I hope to achieve lower crime rates and help the homeless to have more of a chance at life,” Blackvoid says, explaining his goal. “I do also want some public interaction.”

There may be anywhere from ten to 15 active RLSH in the UK, but keeping a headcount on a secret society is a hard task. The Justice Union is not the UK’s first superhero team. A couple of years ago there was a short-lived team with a similar name, the Union of Justice, featuring heroes like Captain Champion and Black Arrow, but those RLSH have since “retired”, moved on, or disappeared into
the night.

Superheroes: a secret history
When people hear of the RLSH, many erroneously believe this is something new, probably inspired by films like ‘Kick-Ass’. The reality is that the concept goes much further back, to at least the 1970s, where we find some of the earliest recorded prototypes. Included in that line-up is The Fox, a shadowy environmental activist and Captain Sticky, a rotund man who drew attention to issues he was advocating with his flashy superhero costume.

The first known usage of the term “real life superhero” can be found in a small-press book by a mysterious individual named Night Rider. The rare book was titled ‘How to Be a Superhero’ and was published in 1980. Since then, occasional crusaders have popped up here and there. Super Barrio, of Mexico City dressed as a luchador wrestler and championed working and housing rights in the mid-’80s. Captain Jackson, meanwhile patrolled the small town of Jackson, Michigan, from 1989 onwards.
The notorious Angle Grinder Man, angry at heavy-handed parking laws, spent the early 2000s sawing through wheel clamps on the streets of London. Motorists could get in touch with the vigilante through a hotline and soon Angle Grinder Man would arrive on the scene, firing up his namesake machine. There is no record of him after 2005.
The year 2005 is also when what is now considered the modern Real Life Superhero Movement began to develop rapidly. Hundreds of people have since signed up for the idea. Anyone can become a RLSH: there is no central organisation, list of rules, or membership dues, which has led to a wide diversity of participants in the movement.

On the streets…
This wide range of RLSH, of different political, religious, social, and economic backgrounds, has networked across America.
Phoenix Jones, the catalyst for a lot of media interest, seemed to appear out of nowhere late last year, and for unknown reasons captured the media’s attention. He patrols the streets of Seattle up to five nights a week with his team, the Rain City Superhero Movement.

North of him, in Vancouver, Canada, is Thanatos, a 61-year-old Vietnam vet. Thanatos hands out supplies to Vancouver’s large homeless population, in addition to doing some detective work. Motor Mouth, of San Francisco, leads the Pacific Protectorate who swung into action attempting do-it-yourself crowd-control during riots in Oakland, California last July.

One of the largest teams out there is the New York Initiative, which was started with four members living together in a small Brooklyn apartment. The team now has more than a dozen members who do community outreach and patrols throughout the city’s five boroughs.

The Great Lakes Alliance is a team of superheroes of the Midwest. Team members include Razorhawk and Geist of Minnesota and The Watchman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin plus his associate Blackbird. All four of these RLSH do patrols that are the equivalent of a costumed neighbourhood-watch group, as well as charity fundraisers and other events.

The Justice Union
Now joining this roster of American teams is the Justice Union. Like most RLSH, they seem to agree about what has motivated them to join forces: they are tired of seeing reports of crime and feeling helpless.

“I’ve seen a lot of bad things happen where I live,” The Justice Union’s Knight Warrior (of Manchester) says. “People getting beat up at the bus stop and handbags getting snatched and people standing by and doing nothing.”

The newly formed team admits that collaborating in person will be a challenge, since there is a fair distance between all five of them, although Blackvoid and Dark Spartan are planning on teaming up in late April, and a full team meeting to hand out supplies to the homeless, followed by a patrol, is scheduled for August, possibly in Manchester.

“I would like to see the whole group do a patrol in a well-known crime area at the same time,” says Man in Black. “If we’re in different areas of that town we can have a greater chance of stopping crime. The main obstacle I see is the distance between our areas.”

To prepare for this fight, most members say they have been training in martial arts. Unlike their American counterparts, there are very few legal weapons they can carry, so their arsenal consists of torches, first aid kits and binoculars. The most heavily armoured is Dark Spartan, who dresses from head to toe in police riot gear and carries a riot shield. Knight Warrior is looking into getting a bulletproof vest.

The superheroes have encountered police a couple of times while on patrol, and report the meetings as positive exchanges.
Knight Warrior says he posed for a photo with an officer, who suggested he should call if he needed help. Dark Spartan crossed paths with police four times in one night. “They were really supportive and thought it was a great idea,” he says.
In the States, police reaction has been mixed. Some appreciate the effort; others are concerned about the heroes getting in over their heads. The standard line is usually something like, “We appreciate citizens helping the police out, but leave the crime-fighting to us.”

In the UK, The Statesman reports that he and his fellow heroes Barns and Vague (both of whom now seem to have vanished) actually helped police chase a criminal in 2009. The trio were hanging out in Trafalgar Square at 3.30am when they saw a man running from two WPCs.

“I’m proud to say that nobody hesitated,” Statesman recalled in a journal entry. “We were off after the getaway, pounding up the steps and away out of the square. I was right behind the crim as he ran, and we ploughed around the corner. The street ahead was empty. We stopped, and caught sight of our man, huddled in a shop doorway and trying to cram himself into the shadow.” The trio stared down the criminal. Statesman wrote, “After a cold few seconds of eye contact, the WPCs caught up and the crim gave up – he held his hands out for the cuffs and
was placed under arrest for a previous charge and failure
to appear.”

It was another small victory for the RLSH. When asked what their ultimate goal as a superhero was, all five members of The Justice Union gave an almost identical answer:
“To make a difference in society.”

It’s a sentiment that might be appreciated in Downing Street. Outlining his vision of the UK’s future in February, David Cameron said: “I don’t believe it is impossible to do your duty at the same time as having a sense of mission and purpose about what would make this country stronger, better, a nicer place to live.” They might not take the form he was expecting, but for vocal, active examples of the Big Society in action, the members of The Justice Union might just be the ambassadors he’s been looking for.

Heroes in the Night Featured in The Sun!

From The Sun: The Statesman with his mum and girlfriend.

It's been an action packed week for myself and Heroes in the Night. Last Friday we were mentioned in the Wall Street Journal...not for advice on stocks, but for an article that focused on Phoenix Jones and Real Life Superheroes.

On Sunday I was "visiting professor" on Crossfire the Crusader's internet radio show, Superhero Academy.

Yesterday, I posted a translation on an article that appeared in a Colombian magazine called SEMANA.

And today...the British tabloids?! Pretty weird, and hilarious.

As reported in a Hero Profile last week, The Statesman was featured in a flurry of stories in the British tabloids, particularly The Sun. The Sun is the top selling English language newspaper. In fact 3 of the top 5 best selling English language newspapers are British tabloids(the other 2 are USA Today and the Times of India).

The Sun followed up with an article centered around a phone interview with me titled:
"16 Superheroes on Streets of Britain" (a good headline, but not as good as say, "Katie Price has it Largie with Himbo Argie," a neighboring Sun story).

The only thing I'll say about this article is that true to form, The Sun's interpretation of what I said is very...creative.

As with any media wave, I've gotten further inquires from British media- The Sun wants to keep the story rolling, a documentary company and a "children's news programme" have contacted me saying they are "keen" to talk to Brit superheroes(so if you are one, send me a message).

Since the article is short, I'll just repost the whole thing here:

16 SUPERHEROES ON STREETS OF BRITAIN

A WHOLE army of masked crusaders is fighting crime on Britain's streets at night, The Sun can reveal.

At least 16 amateur super-heroes have been identified.

They have names such as Vague, Swift, Black Arrow, Lionheart and Terrorvision. But researcher Tea Krulos said many more operated in the shadows. He said: "Britain has more amateur superheroes than you'd guess."

We told last month how chubby bank worker (DELETED), 26 - known as The Statesman but dubbed The Phan-tum by The Sun - secretly dons a Union Jack outfit to fight crime in Birmingham.

US author Krulos has investigated such comic-style heroes for years in the States. And he said: "In America we have many, but they tend to seek publicity.

"In Britain it is a very secretive underground society. They do all they can to avoid publicity and communicate online. Whole forums are set up and often they operate in groups. I have spoken extensively to The Statesman, and he takes what he does very seriously."

Krulos - writing a book on superheroes - said he had spoken to six UK crusaders, and was trailing ten more. He said: "These are normal people wanting adventure and to improve communities. They achieve more than you'd think."

HERO PROFILE #64: The Statesman

Operates out of: Birmingham (UK)

Equipment: Notepad, first aid kit, cell phone, and flashlight (or as the British call it, a torch)

Activities: Night patrols

Quote: "While I am over that area, nothing bad is going to happen. You can't change the entire city, but you can make one small part of it better each night. Even if it's just for one or two people, then that's a win."

Author's notes: I've had some contact with The Statesman in the past, exchanging e-mails about himself and his British RLSH colleagues. I even sent a Chapter on International RLSHs for him to look over.

The Statesman story recently got a media whirlwind in the UK, with the story being picked up by News of the World (HERE), and then other tabloids rushing to jump on board- the Daily Mail, Faded Tribune, and The Sun all reported on it, among others.

Comicsalliance.com also did a pretty funny interpretation of the story (HERE).

In true British scandal sheet fashion, the Daily Mail followed up by revealing The Statesman's secret identity, then tracked down his mum and his girlfriend to get a react quote from them.

Fortunately, they seem to support him and all of them later talked about the superhero's double life to The Sun HERE. The article also has video footage of The Statesman in action!