Self Defense Superhero Saves the Day

ATTENTION SEATTLE THUGS: Self defense superhero's are protecting a neighborhood near you! Thinking of committing a crime on the streets of Seattle? You better watch your back! On behalf of Guardian Self Defense we salute you. When a guy tried to steal a party bus last weekend in Belltown, it wasn't the cops that thwarted the attempt. It was self-appointed Seattle crime fighter Phoenix Jones, his wife and sidekick Purple Reign, and their fellow costumed-colleague Myst. Phoenix tells 97.3 KIRO FM's John Curley Show the trio was on patrol in Belltown when they saw a guy jump on the bus and try to drive away. The driver tried to stop him and a struggle ensued. Jones jumped in. He says he sprayed him in the face with a high powered pepper spray. "He went down, I went to grab him and the bus starts to roll backwards. It rolls right into the middle of First and then gets nailed by an oncoming car," Jones says. The guy took off. Jones and team stayed behind to help. While felony carjacking isn't a common occurrence, fighting crime on the streets of Seattle certainly is for the trio along with the other members of the Rain City Superheroes. "Usually there's at least one crime per night that we intervene on, on a good night there's three or four. Well, not a good night, but a bad night," says Purple, clad in her black leather jacket and purple baseball cap protruding from her black ski mask covering her face. They all remain anonymous. Phoenix wears his black and yellow helmet mask and Batman like body suit complete with sculpted abs. But underneath it's all business: And they aren't messing around. "All of us are wearing bulletproofs, we've all taken some self defense class, we all call 911 the minute the crime happens," says Phoenix. The group defends its crime fighting, despite criticism from some quarters included the Seattle Police Department, who officially would rather they left it up to the pros. But they insist they are actually a help, not a hindrance. "Recently, the cops ended up apprehending a guy that we were watching closely," recounts Phoenix. He says they were keeping an eye on a guy who looked like he causing problems. The suspect was making advance on another man's pregnant wife, and punched the husband in the face when he objected. The man ran off. "I called Purple, and she had actually alerted the police for me <...>the police roll in and I tell them 'hey this is what the guy looks like, and we see the guy across the street.' We take off, tackled him in the parking lot of a bank and the police took him out," Phoenix says. As for his age, Phoenix will only say he is in his early 20's. And his speed? "Faster than most criminals," he says. But they use their brains as much as their brawn. The group tracks crime trends from the Seattle Police Department and patrols areas based on the data and their own intuition. They also videotape all of their encounters. "Knowing that we have a camera guy that catches you being a criminal on tape, a lot of guys don't like that," Phoenix says. Some suspect it's all a massive stunt aimed at gaining wealth and fame. They insist they aren't looking to get rich. But Jones admits they do need to raise some money to keep up the crime fighting. His shopping list includes a new crime fighting car and a certain kind of cell phone to help protect his identity. "It's very hard to roll anonymous these days," he says. Thanks to Josh Kerns/97.3 KIRO FM