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How long do you think a vigilante could be active in real life?

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Probably not long, the law frowns on vigilantism. So, someone straight up just kicking criminals and bringing "street" justice would be guilty of multiple crimes.
 
You realize that physically, from all the fights Oliver on Arrow gets in, his body would be an absolute wreck right?

Real-life hitmen are planners, not fighters.
 
brazil201 said:
well lets say I did this in the most dangerous city in america? Would the cops care I doubt it. I would do this at night.
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It would be hard for even a serial killer to get noticed in the worst cities in America, but the cops would eventually go looking for the jackass putting arrows into people.
 
I mean dont spies like james bond exist in real life?
 
Leependi said:
I assume in most cases it would end much like Kickass' first attempt.

Kickasses? Kickass's?
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Pretty sure you were right he first time: Kickass'.

OT: A smart serial killer can elude capture for decades, and have. My money is on them. Dexter but without the plot armor so they would actually have to be smart about it.

The Leverage/Burn Notice type would be caught first. No disguises, flimsy aliases, coning where they live, faces on security cams everywhere, paper trials all over the place, generating the shakiest of circumstantial evidence that a first year law student that showed up drunk could get thrown out of court? Yeah, sorry. Youarealreadydead.gif
 
brazil201 said:
I was thinking about this. I have a recurved bow. I have the leather hoodie, boots and pants. I've been training for 3 months. I think I could fight crime in the projects for a while
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I know right? I've seen every Steven Seagal movie, I've seen Out For Justice and Marked for Death at least 5 times. I'm pretty sure I could handle myself in a 1 v 16 fight.
 
SJRB said:
I know right? I've seen every Steven Seagal movie, I'm pretty sure I could handle myself in a 1 v 16 fight.
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So could I.

punisher-guns.jpg
 
Vigilantes can act, but completely in secret, as in being just a rumor. No social media website Kickass type stuff. But who the hell are they going to take down? A bunch of kids on a corner? Child traffickers? Moonshiners?
 
brazil201 said:
I mean dont spies like james bond exist in real life?
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Most spies in the Cold War, from what I can tell, were basically just role playing couriers of mostly useless information because everyone was paranoid.

I remember reading abut one who the CIA knew about but never bothered to do anything about and stuff and American researchers always wondered how they didn't catch the guy since he sucked. And then the Soviet archives opened and the guy basically was sending Moscow daily reports about how many vehicles drove in and out of some random military base for thirty years or some shit. Which had like zero practical value.

But the guy worked with someone else or something who was a semi-important spy (and this other dude was the fall guy while they spirited the real spy out of the country and the crappy guy didn't even know this other dude was also a Soviet spy lol

JC Lately said:
The Leverage/Burn Notice type would be caught first. No disguises, flimsy aliases, coning where they live, faces on security cams everywhere, paper trials all over the place, generating the shakiest of circumstantial evidence that a first year law student that showed up drunk could get thrown out of court? Yeah, sorry. Youarealreadydead.gif
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In fairness to Burn Notice, they did basically say that the CIA was protecting Michael from local law enforcement and the FBI initially because he was such a honeypot for other bad dudes.
 
What if instead being gung ho, they just did something like snipe low level gang bangers? A lot of them die day to day and cops honestly seem to care less about them than other people. If someone like who used methods like the Washington sniper didn't go after civilians in public places during the daytime, how would someone like criminals actually seek them out? The only way I see them getting caught out is if it was some high profile cartel and mafia that had the coverage and surveillance to track down the vehicle or suspects within the area.

Just FYI for those of you unfamiliar with the Washington sniper, it was 2 people, one was the driver and the other sniped victims through a hole in the back of the trunk.
 
SixMachine said:
What if instead being gung ho, they just did something like snipe low level gang bangers? A lot of them die day to day and cops honestly seem to care less about them than other people. If someone like who used methods like the Washington sniper didn't go after civilians in public places during the daytime, how would someone like criminals actually seek them out? The only way I see them getting caught out is if it was some high profile cartel and mafia that had the coverage and surveillance to track down the vehicle or suspects within the area.
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In this scenario I believe a well trained Special Forces soldier with support team could do it.
 
TacticalFox88 said:
In this scenario I believe a well trained Special Forces soldier with support team could do it.
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Yea, I think if they had the resources to cover their tracks, like using different cars or even different plates. They would be extremely hard to catch. The snipers that were caught were complete assholes and basically did it to cause chaos because the main motive was to kill the ex-wife and use the other killings as a cover up to the motive. If a team was really dedicated to vigilantism, they would go after unrelated targets to them, I think it would be hard to find a link back to them.
 
I think it all depends on who you're killing. If it's petty criminals and what might commonly be considered "undesirables," the unfortunate reality is those people probably receive far less thorough investigations.
 
BrassDragon said:
Fictional vigilantes have the advantage that the villains they go after are 100% guilty and evil. In the real world, you never have that certainty.

All it takes is a skewed press report, an overlooked clue, some planted misinformation or even a mistaken identity and you hit the wrong target. And when that happens, the full weight of law enforcement drops on you like a hammer because you're just as much of a threat as the people you fight, and most likely a high profile one at that, meaning there will be intense pressure on the police, from the public and policy makers, to stop you.

Contrary to popular belief, most major crimes get solved - the sheer amount of the resources the police can throw on a priority case is staggering and given enough time the most plausible solution will be hased out (in many high profile cases, like kidnappings, time is the killer bottleneck.)

Sadly, a solved case doesn't always lead to an arrest (the suspect may stay at large for a long time) or conviction (some parts of the file may not hold up legally) but a main suspect will be identified given enough time and attention.

When you come under that kind of scrutiny, it's very hard to continue acting as vigilante even if they can't arrest you right away.

Also, taking out major figures of organised crime just because you had the opportunity, leads to surprising side-effects as crime networks fracture, paranoia runs rampant and rivals move into the power vacuum. Law enforcement is very careful with these types of arrests because they need to be orchestrated carefully, taking blowback into account.

If Batman existed, he could probably turn any tranquil city into Gotham just by running roughshod all over the underworld.
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Didn't the first Amazing Spider-Man movie point this out? The police chief tells Peter Parker that Spider-Man's beating up regular gang bangers is screwing up police investigations and Parker's like "oh, sorry."
 
I think the world could use more arrows, arsneals, the flash or whatever
 
brazil201 said:
Lets say I fight crime in like Mexico.
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I'm so confused. Are you trying to find a logic hole for your demented superhero fantasy to work, or are you actually saying you want to fly to another country just to play dress-up?

brazil201 said:
I think the world could use more arrows, arsneals, the flash or whatever
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Those are all fictional TV shows based on comics and one is about a guy that can run so fast he can time travel.

brazil201 said:
I mean dont spies like james bond exist in real life?
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.... okay, first of all, what do you mean "like James Bond"? Because from everything you have posted thus far, I'm under the impression you think invisible cars and guys with metal jaws actually exist.

brazil201 said:
but I wanna be the arrow
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Brazil, how old are you? Honestly? This is something a third grader would say.

If you really think this.... seek medical help. Get into therapy before you hurt yourself or others.
 
you are telling me their has never been a spy like Burn Notice or James Bond? I'm calling bullshit. I mean if I was in Mexico would it be possible for me to be the arrow there? Or some random 3rd world country. What country would it be most possible to be the arrow
 
brazil201 said:
you are telling me their has never been a spy like Burn Notice or James Bond? I'm calling bullshit. I mean if I was in Mexico would it be possible for me to be the arrow there? Or some random 3rd world country. What country would it be most possible to be the arrow
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Wow. What we have here is a poster who thinks "Moonraker" is a documentary
 
I think people are overestimating law enforcement's capabilities. The rate at which crimes are solved drops a huge amount without direct motive. If the vigilante didn't commit murder, there goes a lot of the impetus for police to give a damn. If he changed up his methodology and didn't leave people strapped to fucking spotlights to rub his identity in the police's faces, there's another hurdle for the cops. After that, cut your vigilantism down to once or twice a month and rotate cities, and you're good as long as you don't get caught in the act.
 
brazil201 said:
you are telling me their has never been a spy like Burn Notice or James Bond? I'm calling bullshit.
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Explain to me what you think a spy like Burn Notice or James Bond means.

Burn Notice is a lot closer to reality, but it is still a TV Show. Every narrative bit in BN was from real special forces and spy networks. That's what made it authentic.

I mean if I was in Mexico would it be possible for me to be the arrow there? Or some random 3rd world country. What country would it be most possible to be the arrow
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Dude.

Stop with this "I want to be the Arrow" bullshit.

It's a TV show based on a comic book.
 
There's a documentary based on real life vigilantes. I just can't remember its name. Anyway, it was pretty interesting seeing regular citizens gear up and stalking the streets for crime. Some of them were pretty stupid about it but others were surprisingly organized. There were a couple of crime fighting teams too if I remember correctly.

edit: It's called Superheroes.
 
KiN0 said:
There's a documentary based on real life vigilantes. I just can't remember its name. Anyway, it was pretty interesting seeing regular citizens gear up and stalking the streets for crime. Some of them were pretty stupid about it but others were surprisingly organized. There were a couple of crime fighting teams too if I remember correctly.
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We shouldn't be glorifying Reals.

We really shouldn't.

10% of them do community service work like birthdays and feeding the homeless, but the other 90% like that asshole Phoenix Jones just encourage the unhealthy fantasies of people like Brazil.
 
I mean, real talk time, "men who go out in masks to conceal their identity to combat perceived injustice in their community" describes the active KKK pretty well. This kind of thing is why I love Watchmen but also wonder how many other people who love Watchmen really understand it
 
The Technomancer said:
I mean, real talk time, "men who go out in masks to conceal their identity to combat perceived injustice in their community" describes the active KKK pretty well. This kind of thing is why I love Watchmen but also wonder how many other people who love Watchmen really understand it
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Zack Snyder sure didn't.
 
The Technomancer said:
I mean, real talk time, "men who go out in masks to conceal their identity to combat perceived injustice in their community" describes the active KKK pretty well. This kind of thing is why I love Watchmen but also wonder how many other people who love Watchmen really understand it
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Not really, because the KKK frequently WAS local law enforcement. They were untouchable because who would prosecute and convict them?

Klan members typically weren't shy about membership, the hoods and outfits were half ceremony, half plausible deniability.
 
HP_Wuvcraft said:
We shouldn't be glorifying Reals.

We really shouldn't.

10% of them do community service work like birthdays and feeding the homeless, but the other 90% like that asshole Phoenix Jones just encourage the unhealthy fantasies of people like Brazil.
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If I remember correctly, the documentary did not glorify anybody. It was clear that these vigilantes were putting themselves and their communities in danger.
 
Chichikov said:
He bothered kids trying to buy weed and harassed homeless people.
He also liked to pepper spray people.

A true hero.
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I remember watching the YouTubes and reading about his multiple arrests for spraying people. Having old ladies go up to him in court and yell at him.
 
I'm just saying. Lets say there is a hostage situation and the cops can't get in but I'm there with my bow and i manage to stop all the terrorist people but I kill some with my arrows, would I be in trouble
 
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