The Police Oracle paints a positive picture of a man who is a banker by day and do-good vigilante by night.
“All day I look at numbers and percentages and work out how to make people richer.
“It’s not a popular occupation but I like to think I make up for this by going out at night and trying to do something to help everybody.”
His night-time antics see him breaking up fights, stopping would-be burglars and feeding homeless people.
He says he and three other superheroes — who remain anonymous — sometimes team up and target other cities together.
To keep attention off them they hide their costumes under dark overcoats and burst out when help beckons.
They have even helped Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) to capture a drug dealer.
The Statesman added: “We were patrolling London together at 3am one night and heard a commotion.
“We saw a huge guy running across Trafalgar Square away from two PCSOs.
“They were shouting at him but he wasn’t going to stop so we threw off our overcoats and chased him. We caught up with him and pinned him down until the officers arrived.
“They told us he had jumped bail and they had seen him throwing away packets of drugs as he ran from them.
“That was the first time what I do really felt justified. The police wagon turned up and took him away and it felt good. The PCSO’s thought it was great. They loved it.”
This reminds me of a situation I saw a couple weeks ago in San Francisco on the corner of Polk and California. Two men who were loitering on the sidewalk sprung to action and ran towards a white VW at a stop light. At the exact same time an unmarked family Van turned on flashing red/blue lights under its hood and raced across the intersection and pinned the VW from the front; another car was already behind it so it could not reverse. An unmarked sedan also turned on red and blue lights hidden under the hood and raced from the opposite direction to pin the VW against the curb a pole.
About four or five men in plain clothes, including the two running pedestrians, pulled badges on neck chains out of their shirts as they ran forward, grabbed the driver out of the VW, put him in cuffs, and moved him to the back seat of the sedan. One of the men then drove away in the VW as the van and sedan left in the opposite direction. I noticed the front passenger seat of the van had a woman who did not get out.
Were they police? Domestic police? Do I trust the badge and lights alone?
The modern concept of a police force was invented in 1829 by Sir Robert “Bobby” Peel, 2nd Baronet of Britain for the city of London. He said at the time “the police are the public, and the public are the police.” I find it interesting that the man in the above story has chosen what was once considered the most risky option for fighting crime — putting himself directly in harms way — instead of using a collective force. It must serve as a personal reward for him to operate hands-on with crime as a street vigilante, but it also begs a look at the original intent of Peel.
The man instead could redirect his banking success to the collective police force through donations of time or money, or join the police force as an undercover officer who could be easily authenticated by police. He works during the day trying to make people richer but it sounds like he finds it more satisfying at work on the street to prevent people from becoming poorer.
The problem I see is with his approach is authentication, not to mention authorization. If he gets into trouble with a criminal before police are on the scene how can they know who to arrest and charge and who to pat on the back? His mask, belt and “hero” suit are probably meant to help, but they provide extremely weak identification compared to registering with police before an incident (eye contact, wave of the hand, paperwork at the station, etc.) and if he registers with them then…does he become one of them?