Post by webdevil on Sept 24, 2020 0:29:28 GMT -7
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EDITORIAL - DEVIL WORSHIPPERS: VIGILANTE JUSTICE OR DOMESTIC TERRORISM?
By Ben Urich.
OP-ED:
New York is no stranger to crime. In every decade practically since inception from the Dutch tradesmen who bought the island of Manhattan from its native population for less than it would cost you to buy a blu ray for a Friday night in, to the many alleged crimes of Robert Moses, to organized crime with the Maggia in the 70s thru to the 90s, to super powered terrorists like the Hobgoblin, Bullseye, Carnage, and even the likes of Victor von Doom. A psychologist would argue that crime is simply a deviant path for one to seek a means to then eventually find their way into society; but to your average New Yorker, it’s simply another day of the week that ends in “day.”
And perhaps that is why something interesting has begun to crop up in the old town of Hell’s Kitchen. Barely a year ago it was ground zero for a city wide inferno of riots, gang wars, and chaos. Then almost overnight all went quiet. No fires or any stragglers left wanting to get their fix. The city’s Defenders had saved them. Instead two very different wars had begun in the place of a hot one: A real-estate war and a legal war. On one hand, then recently exonerated Wilson Fisk had begun selling properties in the Kitchen and using investment capital to help rebuild more than half the city in the wake of all the chaos; on the other hand, the US Government itself along with the New York Attorney General themselves coming under fire with lawsuit after lawsuit from angry and displaced New Yorkers as they watched their city burn while the government was more concerned about the election of President Osborn.
So what does real-estate and politics have to do with Hell’s Kitchen? Apparently much more than anybody could have imagined. At 11:34pm just last night as this paper had reported, another fire of a former Fisk owned property was lit ablaze. Fire Chief Tony Sousa has already forwarded his findings to the NYPD and arson charges are being laid. Reports also show the vigilante known as Daredevil was on sight attempting to apprehend known felon Billy Russo aka. Jigsaw. Was it Jigsaw? In that same scuffle, sources say that Frank Castle aka. The Punisher, was on scene blowing away alleged Bratva associates with an M40. NYPD body cam footage (link can be found here ->) confirms that, so was it Frank Castle? Two wanted criminals with enough firepower to level a city block seems likely except for a third party: The Devil Worshippers.
The Devil Worshippers, or “The Devils” in shorthand on social media, appear to be ordinary citizens dressed in Daredevil inspired outfits armed with rocks, batons, pepper spray, bear mace, Molotov cocktails, and anything they can get their hands on, who aided in apprehending Russo a few blocks from the initial fire.
Under the Superhuman Registration Act, no enhanced individual (colloquially known as “superpowered”) is allowed to take up in the act of law enforcement without the training and licensing of the Strategic Hazard Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Divison (better known as S. H. I. E. L. D.). Otherwise, they are committing known acts of vigilantism. So where does that leave these individuals? Ordinary citizens we know little about save for the few taken down along with Russo by officers? Legally, they would still be charged with vigilantism. And yet this reporter asks: Why? Why charge these individuals if we allow the likes of Spider-Man, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, or even Daredevil himself to roam free to protect us? Because they have powers? Training? They are capable of protecting themselves? Anybody who read that sentence knows that none of that can be true.
Like all vigilantes, even they operate outside the law in order to protect us from madmen like the Rhino or the Purple Man. Or perhaps this is something more than just people putting on masks. Perhaps it is this reporter that watched everything from the LA Riots to the Coming of Galactus to Occupy Wall Street, but, righteous anger and fear that create organized (and I use that term loosely) angry mobs always become breeding grounds for more violence and chaos. With more and more powered individuals flouting the Registration Act with seemingly minimal enforcement (strictly an opinion of this reporter and not the views of this paper or its publisher,) are these Devils worthy successors to the Man Without Fear’s legacy? Or are they simply the sign of worse to come...
Ben Urich is the Editor in Chief of The Pulse by the Daily Bugle.
Follow Ben Urich on Twitter @benurich
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