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GhostOfRobertTreat t1_jarhevd wrote

I think another set of eyes is great and why I encouraged him to set up a neighborhood watch with other people with a direct line to the police. I think walking around by yourself in a full face mask taking “action shots” and thinking you’re going to stop crime yourself is a quick way to end up in the hospital. I’m not against him wanting to walk around and keep an eye out. It’s the implication that he’s going to try to stop something himself while wearing a homemade mask because he thinks he’s a superhero that concerns me. Feel like I’m going to read in RLS about some 19 year old North Ward kid getting shot because he ran up to a carjacking to try to stop it.

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MohnJaddenPowers t1_jari5lp wrote

If his example leads to a neighborhood watch of people with masks that help make Newark a better place, then he's done a boon to us all and his efforts are laudable.

If his example leads to a neighborhood watch of people with no masks that help make Newark a better place, then he's done a boon to us all and his efforts are laudable.

I'm assuming Midnight is a grown adult human, which means he can make his own choices. I think someone whose activities thus far are walking the streets and keeping an eye out or distributing hand warmers to unhoused people at Penn Station is far, far removed from a comic book superhero swooping in to save the innocent directly. He seems like a sensible enough human being to know when not to charge up to an assailant - I hope this much, at least - and I'd rather have someone who attempts to do good than not.

He's out to set a positive example, period. IMO it's unfair to compare him to the Guardian Angels, mostly because they're a funded organization with what I understand to be some degree of training on what they can, cannot, should, and should not do as a volunteer, with some form of relationship with the NYPD. This is one person who wants to make a difference. If he wants to lead by example rather than by organization, who are we to tell him no?

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