zz
ISSUE #
33
OCT. 26, 2011
where pop-fi comes to life!
WORLD EXCLUSIVE: UNMASKED: THE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF PHOENIX JONES BY KEN GOLDSTEIN
UNMASKED: THE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF PHOENIX JONES by ken goldstein
I expected my sit down interview with Phoenix Jones to be cake. Before he was publicly unmasked, I was one of the few people in the world to know who he really was. We are actually friends. He’s been to my home in Los Angeles, slept in my guest bed, played my Xbox; we’d even gone on a plainclothes patrol together in Hollywood. Technically it was just a long walk to the 101 Diner for dinner but still; every walk in a city is a patrol to Phoenix Jones. In fact, a month ago I added him and his wife, Purple Reign, to my family pack and those are my smartphones they use on patrol. But to the Phoenix Jones who sat before me this past Sunday, one week to the now infamous night when he went from mystery man to “23 year-old father Benjamin Fodor,” I was the enemy because I was the media. Jones’ kryptonite, it seems, is the press. When journalists are kind to him he hardly pays attention; but when they make fun of him it cuts deep. He is, after all, human.
PHOTO: Peter Tangen
T
he first hour or so of our oncamera talk on Sunday was rough. He hated me and I didn’t particularly like him either. It’s hard to explain the feeling of sitting across from an angry Fodor in his Phoenix Jones cowl (let alone a happy Fodor), mostly because your mind starts doing cartwheels as you try and process what you’re looking at. He is, for lack of a better word, Batman. “Not Batman,” he tells me as the interview gets under way, “Nightwing.” “Batman sucks,” he explains, “He has millions of dollars at his disposal and does nothing good with the money. And he’s got all these resources where he could just buy up all the real estate where the bad guys hide out and condemn the buildings. Instead he’s like ‘Oh, Joker is held up on the 30th floor; I’ll Bat-a-ram the building and stop him.’ Batman is a joke; which is why I connect to Nightwing.” I tell Phoenix he’s just solved the reoccurring problem of the Joker by suggesting Bruce Wayne become a slumlord. I laugh; his expression doesn’t change. I ask him to continue his thoughts about Nightwing and he tells me that not only has he read every Nightwing comic book ever written, but during a recent interview with the BBC he realized he has inadvertently modeled his entire super hero persona on this character – costume and all. “I was standing on a building with an interviewer from England,” he continues, “and he knew his comic book history. I looked off the edge of it and I said, ‘Man, wouldn’t you just love to trapeze off here!?’ - the guy looks back and me says, “Okay, I get it now. You’re a Nightwing fan. Everything about you. It’s perfectly out of the comic books.” “I realized in that moment that I’d turned myself into my favorite character without knowing it.” That brought the first smile of the interview. What he also seems to have missed is how similar his own life is to the
fictional accounts of Bruce Wayne. “People love watching a tragedy,” he tells me during our Dark Knight conversation. “Batman is a tragic story. A man going too far; a man that is not ‘right’. Wayne’s basically living a life of therapy and he’s living it out in street justice.” It’s too early in our conversation for me to point out how similar his description of Batman is to the way most of the population would describe Phoenix Jones. Besides, one of Fodor’s other personas is that of the MMA fighter Flattop – one of the toughest monsters to ever hit the ring. I certainly didn’t want to provoke a visit from him during our time together. I decided to continue with the pedantic stuff. “So you really had no agenda when you started walking the streets as
“Batman sucks,” he explains, “He has millions of dollars at his disposal and does nothing good with the money." Phoenix Jones of becoming a real life comic book super hero?” I ask. “Honestly no” he tells me. “In fact the original suit was made up of stuff I picked up at Wal-Mart. I wore a pair of Nikes with blue long johns, shorts, a sock I cut up to make a mask and a Blues Brothers style hat. I looked more like a bank robber.”
on a regular basis save for a passive interest in New York’s Dark Guardian. “I’d seen a couple of his clips online,” says Jones, “but I still didn’t have a big awareness of the community. There’s a huge difference between them and me and because of it they’ve really alienated themselves from me. The best way to put it is my actions actually put criminals away.” When Phoenix speaks of his actions he’s referring to little accomplishments like the time he stopped a bus hijacking; you know, that kind of ‘action’. “And I get it” he continues. “You walk around handing out food anywhere and you’re probably not going to run into any trouble but the minute you walk up to a drug dealer and say “It’s over. You’re done selling coke here” the game changes. I get that they wouldn’t want to be affiliated with that kind of ‘Superhero’.” “Handing out food” is in reference to the most common action of the RLSH community – homeless outreach, something Phoenix appreciates. I ask him about his thoughts on Dark Guardian. “Here’s the difference between me and that guy,” he explains. “Dark Guardian is the next level up from RLSH. He gets in the bad guy’s face and makes it so uncomfortable for, say, a drug dealer that he’ll walk away with his drugs. Problem is the dealer will just comes back the next day when Dark Guardian’s not around.”
“So you were emulating the other Real Life Super Heroes?” I ask, referring to the handful of other costumed citizens who roam the streets of cities across the United States as super heroes.
“When I walk up to a drug dealer and find him selling drugs - I get it on video; I detain him and the police show up and they arrest him. So while he sweeps up all this dirt into a pile and then walks away and lets the dirt disperse again, I sweep up dirt into a pile; I get a dustpan; and I hand it to the police and I say 'Throw it away.'"
Yup. This is not an isolated situation. The RLSH community is national and growing.
Not that his guard has gone down but I decide to throw him my first real question.
Phoenix tells me he had no awareness of anyone else doing this kind of thing
UNMASKED: THE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF PHOENIX JONES BY KEN GOLDSTEIN
“About videotaping,” I say, “I’m thinking the general population probably thinks that that part of your routine is the one contradiction to what you say you’re about: fighting crime without a personal agenda and without interest in getting credit for your actions. You do get that people think you’re doing this for attention, right?” “This was never about that” he tells me, and for the first time since we started talking he leans back in his chair and my friend PJ is starting to come out. “The goal originally was to stay in the shadows and lurk and stop crime. I did this for months before I did anything publicly. I was stopping crime the way I thought crime should be stopped. But then I realized that you can’t stop all the crime in a city by lurking in its shadows. “Those first few months were also when I learned how to be better at this and what tools I really needed to stay alive. I’d already been stabbed and shot, so body armor - and not just regular body armor became necessary; videotaping was the next thing I realized had to be part of my practice whenever I patrolled the streets; a videotaped account is what provides evidence of what really happened.” I decide to cut him off and ask point blank if he’ll remove the costume so we can get real with each other. I tell him it’s too hard to look at the mask now, knowing there’s so much more beneath the surface we should be getting in to. I then remind him - in no uncertain words - that this is his one chance to tell his story to a writer who sees him for what he really is: an activist, an inspiration and the catalyst for real social change. My words settled in but still the mask stayed on. I redirect the conversation back to his philosophy about Phoenix Jones the symbol, which seems to open him up a bit more.
“I want to prove that by staying within the laws my city enforces I can still get the job done in my own unique way. I follow the rules and still manage to stop crime at the moment it’s happening, and often right before. This is where I see my value to the city and to law enforcement agencies in general: police are called in after a criminal act is committed and do the best they can to damage control the situation; I react to an incident while it’s underway, diffuse it and do my best to detain the bad guys until the cops show up.” And this is exactly why he shouldn’t go into therapy. At least not until he’s ready to retire his costume and find another activity to occupy his weeknights. His personality flaws are what keep him alive; and are helping to create the guidebook so that other likeminded activists can follow his lead and create their own Phoenix Jones persona for their city. “I would never ask someone to do this,” he continues, “but if you are going to do this, learn from what I’ve already experienced.” I suggest that he should write down his lessons and he tells me “that’s a great idea” and then proceeds to rattle off ten items from what is clearly a pre-meditated list – which to his credit includes some ideas unique to someone with his particular real life super hero experience (“Number 9: Carrying a Weapon for Intimidation is Stupid- A mall bought katana will get you shot): I’m really beginning to get that if I want a real interview with PJ, one where he doesn’t just give me pat responses, I’m going to have to dramatically change my approach. I tell the camera crew that’s filming us to stop and ask everyone in the room to leave.
“I hope I started something,” he tells me. “I hope people get it. I know that I have extreme character flaws. But my extreme character flaws are the exact ones you’d want with someone walking on the street doing what I do - someone who doesn’t want to have complete control; who doesn’t want to be a vigilante; who doesn’t want to break the law.”
I continue by comparing his choice – to come clean and share his entire story in his own words or keep the mask on and the wall up – with the one Obi-Wan made that fateful afternoon on the Death Star. Obi-Wan knew that under his robe he’d exhausted all of his worldly abilities and resources that could help Luke achieve his destiny; but to really support Skywalker and defeat the Empire, he needed to be free of the cowl. So allowing Darth Vader to have an easy opening to strike him down in their epic battle to release Obi-Wan of the disguise that was holding back his true self seemed like the logical choice to make. “And what happens after Vader strikes Kenobi down?” I ask Phoenix. “He comes back unmasked and helps Luke and the gang defeat the Empire.” “Exactly.” And with that, Phoenix gets up from the table and suggests I interview his wife, Purple Reign, who he had us fly down from Seattle with him for the interview. She’s been sitting on an Eames side chair since the interview began hiding her face with a purple bandana. Our crew mics her up and we chat. I go really easy on her and while I’m focused on our discussion – the most interesting part being the debate about whether or not, as a symbol for the fight against domestic abuse and violence, she should wear a mask - I can’t escape the feeling that PJ may have just left the interview altogether. Twenty minutes later Ben Fodor comes back to our set; he sits in front of me and attaches the microphone to his black t-shirt. I ask Peter to start rolling again.
“Look” I tell him, “I’m not going to keep this charade up. We either talk man to man, or we stop this.
“I’m not going to let you ask a question,” Ben tells me as I try and get my first question out. “I’m going to answer one. If this story comes out and fucks me, I’m going to be beyond pissed.”
“I know that last week sucked hard. I know that you’re really upset with what’s happened, but this is that opportunity in your life to set the record straight with someone who is behind you 100%. You think that this mask is protecting you somehow; it’s not. It’s going to be the death of you.”
Suddenly I found myself both pleased to finally be with Ben and somewhat uneasy. As he said the words “comes out and fucks me” I realized that it is the costume that restricts him from truly unleashing on his targets. That costume reminds him that he represents a force of good; without it, he’s a twenty three year old with a serious
UNMASKED: THE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF PHOENIX JONES BY KEN GOLDSTEIN
chip on his shoulder who spends half his non-Phoenix life helping autistic children; and the other beating the crap out of competitors in the ring as Flattop the MMA Fighter. “I think this is already out there, but you grew up in an orphanage in Texas, right?” I ask. “And just a few doors down from your birthmother and natural brothers and sisters?” “My real parents discarded me like a bad poker hand.” He tells me, remembering. “A bad hand?” I ask, “You were just a few years old?” “Yes, a bad hand. They probably got to the end of their litter of kids and figured I was not worth raising.” “That can’t be it?” I say, thinking about how unlikely the scenario is as he recalls it. “Well, that’s what I thought growing up; I recently was contacted by some dude who said he was my dad – and not the one that was around when I was born. So what probably happened is my birth mom got knocked up while she was with her guy and that guy didn’t want to raise some other dude’s kid. “My birth dad found me recently and asked me to take a DNA test. I did. He is my dad.”
I ask him if he kept in touch with his birth dad. He tells me the guy is dead as far as he is concerned; that he had his chance with him and blew it. I suggest maybe that his real father never knew about him. “Not my problem. He walked away at some point after having sex with my mom and that was his decision. He made the wrong decision and now he doesn’t get to know me.” “So is that what this is about – that you feel you have something to prove?” “Yes,” he tells me “that’s exactly what this is about. I have to be the best at everything I do in order to prove they were wrong.” I’ve already come to believe that he is currently the best Phoenix Jones on the planet; and that his amateur MMA career record is hovering around 95% in his favor, but what I also discover in this conversation is that Fodor is a Guinness Book of World Record bowling champion. This guy is a serious overachiever who was also his high school’s sophomore, junior and senior class president, football captain and homecoming king. So while the press may be trying to paint a picture of a fame-seeking-out-of-control vigilante with penchant for playing dress up who “needs to keep his nose out of other people’s business”; in reality he is an intelligent, articulate, compassionate and dedicated young man who sees the
world around him as his responsibility to protect. He’s incapable of ‘turning a blind eye’, ‘leaving well enough alone’, and not getting involved. At this point in the interview – now well into the early morning hours of Monday, October 17 – I decide I’m going to do the opposite of what he’s doing. I’m not going to interfere with his crime fighting efforts by trying to counsel him into having a normal life; I’m going to let him alone and turn a blind eye to what he’s doing as Phoenix Jones, because what he’s doing is the right thing to do. It’s what all of us who want a peaceful world should be doing – engaging in not just the easy parts of our civic duties, but the hard parts as well. That’s balance. “One of my favorite quotes,” I tell him as we wind the interview down, “is ‘A bad man is a good man’s responsibility; a good man is a bad man’s teacher.’” “That’s all I’m trying to do. I’m trying to teach that citizens are the solution to the problems in our society. We need to take care of each other and view each other with compassion. The real enemy out there is apathy and if you ask me, that’s what Phoenix Jones is fighting against.”
“i'm trying to teach that citizens are the solution to the problems in our society”
ONLINE:
PHOENIX JONES: facebook.com/guardianofseattle PURPLE REIGN: facebook.com/purplereignseattle PETER TANGEN: www.petertangen.com KEN GOLDSTEIN: facebook.com/thewayofthenerd