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(pic via Fightlinker)
Remember a few weeks ago when I brought you the story of Phoenix Jones (aka amateur MMA fighter Ben Fodor), one of those “real-life superhero” types from Seattle, who’d been arrested for pepper-spraying people and charged with assault? (In his defense, if you watch the accompanying video, it seems pretty clear that those A-holes totally had it coming). Well now, along with suffering the indignity of having his super suit confiscated by the cops, Fodor has been fired from his job teaching autistic kids. And let me be the first to say well done, Seattle, serves those little autistic bastards right.
[Fodor was] told by the state that he is no longer allowed to work with vulnerable children or adults following his arrest last month, PubliCola has learned.
“I had to leave work in the middle of the day,” Jones says. “It was embarrassing.”
Jones explained that he has worked with five developmentally disabled autistic children—who ranged in age from four to 18 years old—for the last five years at their homes and state care facilities, going shopping with them, teaching them to balance checkbooks, and going for walks.
Prosecutors have not filed charges for the incident, and a spokeswoman for the city attorney’s office says the case is still being investigated.“They all knew I was Phoenix Jones,” he says.
Jones says that because of his arrest, he’s on “a list” that prohibits him from working with children, because he has “a history of interjecting myself into situations that are dangerous.”
Jones, naturally, disputes that characterization.
“I would say I have a history of fighting crime,” he says. “The whole point of what I do is to keep people safe.”
Jones isn’t sure how he’ll pay the bills now. He says he’s received offers for fight bouts from the Strikeforce mixed martial arts organization, and plans to start fighting crime in the daytime, in addition to his night patrols around Seattle. Other than that, he says, “I really don’t know.” [Publicola via Fightlinker]
There’s no way to say this without sounding like a complete prick, but doesn’t “caretaker for autistic kids” sound more like a job you get after a few minor felony convictions, not before? Which isn’t to say he’s actually been convicted of anything in this case, because he hasn’t even been charged, but apparently you can get fired for that now. But I guess if the goal was to give this guy more time to spend out on the streets pepper spraying people and autistic kids one less person to take care of them, mission accomplished. Seattle is just so hipster that Justice is not only blind, but enjoys being ironic.
Sidenote: Granted, my knowledge of autistic children is 90 percent based on having seen Rain Man, but from what I understand, balancing a checkbook would be right in their wheelhouse. Maybe just have two boxes of toothpicks, one representing deposits and the other debits, and spill them both on the floor.
