Who Watches the Watchmen: Real Life Superheroes

While I was searching the internet today I came across an interesting phenomenon that seems to be increasing in occurrence, real life superheroes. Much like the heroes of Watchmen or Kick-Ass these are ordinary men and women who go out night after night in costume and enforce their own brand of vigilante justice. This tends to include the use of mace, tasers, along with wits and knowledge of martial arts and self-defense techniques. Their code strictly prohibits the use of firearms or killing any criminals. While this is still fairly new, police forces are already being instructed to get educated about these masked crusaders and to find ways to work in tandem with them. While a good number of these real life superheroes are crime fighters, there are others who instead focus on enacting social change and environmentalism.

So, what does everyone think about this? Is this increase in masked vigilantism a product of a society that has lost all faith in law enforcement; people with too much time on their hands due to the high rate of unemployment; or simply people taking their love of comic books and movies too far?

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Many of them aren't vigilantes, so I wouldn't say that they've lost faith in law enforcement. They usually walk around in plainclothes when crime fighting, which usually consists of dialing 911 when they suspect or see something. The costumes are usually worn during social/community events, though some actually "patrol" in their costumes.

At least, this is what I've gathered from reading what seems to be THE forum to post on for real life super heroes. They stress self-protection and ironically to not play the "hero."

These "news reports" are fake... plain and simple.

If they are real, prove it.