Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Batty in Tampa

"Law enforcement approached and detained Nichols who was sitting on the curb eating sushi and wearing traditional Batman apparel, complete with cape and partial mask," the motion to dismiss states. "It was a dark day for the Dark Knight, as he was subsequently placed under arrest for wearing a hood on a public street."

During an interview tonight, Nichols said a sergeant in Ybor City had an issue with his costume and caused him to land _ Pow! Zap! _ in the slammer. The sergeant, Nichols said, had previously advised him to unmask himself and told a fellow officer to arrest him. [More]
Thank goodness this menace to public safety has been unmasked. And y'know, "Dark Knight" does sound like a Klan title...

Besides, what kind of idiot doesn't know that only criminals and terrorists wear hoods in Florida?

[Via Ed M]

15 comments:

  1. the sergeant "had apparently advised Nichols to unmask himself three weeks earlier."
    So they knew who he was. So ... unless there's three or four other people in Tampa drssing like Batman all the time, there's no identity question, sooo...
    Law enforcement wants to be the only people who can wear masks in public. We know why.
    It won't matter. Wearing the same uniform, patch and badge as a JBT will eventually mean being teated as one.
    I feel the need to repeat that DC Comics had a special series with Batman working with the feds to stop gunrunners providing "illegal guns" to criminals in Gotham City -- NYC, of course. Criminals, and anyone else.
    Not my superhero any more.

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  2. Hilarious typos. Sorry. "treated as one, of course. If a boar was teated, he'd be a sow.

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  3. Ahhh Florida, the same state that has allowed Arab women to wear their head dress in their driver license photo.

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  4. Only in Floorduh. The land where parasites make a living scaring old folks to loot the citizens. Another, pass the bucket story.

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  5. "placed under arrest for wearing a hood on a public street"

    Perhaps they took it as a professional insult. Recall that Batman came into being precisely because he realized that the system was hopelessly corrupted and incapable of offering true protection to the innocent. He was a response to their total failure, and they resented him for it.

    Of course, at least in the Frank Miller world of Batman with which I am most familiar, there is also the "Dark" part of Dark Knight, the biting and recurrent theme that backlights the Caped Crusader as the Onliest of Only Ones. He succeeds only because he is mean, vindictive, unaccountable, and anonymous. The mask is deliberate, because he knows nobody would tolerate his methods with a human identity to account for.

    Which may better account for our current Only Ones' actions--they may be jealous.


    All I know is, Jeff Cooper long held that a good guy had no reason to cover up his face or otherwise hide his identity, and that he considered anyone who wears a mask a legitimate target.

    (And he was not talking about Batman costumes, either.)

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  6. While I like Batman and all his gadgets and his prowess, he's anti-gun. He has the strength and agility, and his gadgets and doesn't need one. But the common people don't have those things, and are left defenseless by Batman's anti-gun policies.

    I prefer the Punisher! He's not afraid of guns!

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  7. I don't think batman was anti-gun like the bradys are. He just choose not to use one because he wasn't playing judge jury and executioner.

    Ybor city, this is the city with facial recognition cameras we're talking about, right?

    Speaking of which...a couple weeks ago I heard on the radio that smiling has been verboten on drivers license photos because it disrupts facial recognition software.

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  8. When Batman started out, he carried.

    But the libs and revisionists took over and he developed a bipolar on again/off again conviction.

    A good breakdown of his dissociative gun disorder is here:
    http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2005/08/batman-and-guns.html

    The low point was probably "Seduction of the Gun" (Google it).

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  9. My reading of the portion of the law that was in the article indicates to me that all of Florida's SWAT teams are criminals, well Hell, we already knew that, but I mean on another count of which we may have been unaware.

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  10. Under the Patriot act, he could be tried as a terrorist, legally. It's to stop Al-quaeda, of course. You're not unPatriotic, are you?

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  11. Batman carried??? Well, I think better of him now, David. (I still like the Punisher, though.)

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  12. According to the news story:

    "No person or persons over 16 years of age shall, while wearing any mask, hood, or device whereby any portion of the face is so hidden, concealed, or covered as to conceal the identity of the wearer, enter upon, or be or appear upon any lane, walk, alley, street, road, highway, or other public way in this state."

    This idiot law proscribes the wearing of sunglasses! In Florida??

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  13. But you are required to wear a motorcycle helmet?? I'm so confused...

    I suppose one could PAINT a mask or hood on, or wear a mosquito headdress

    Expect to see many brides arrested for wearing a veil on city streets...

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  14. Illegal to wear a full face motorcycle helmet, too.

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  15. Anon beat me to it...

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