This newspaper has said it before and will say it again: the
masked figure prowling our skyline is no hero. He is a
vigilante, plain and simple, answerable to no one and
accountable to nothing but his own vanity. Every week some
breathless account crosses my desk praising this
"wall-crawler" for a rescue or a collar, and every week I ask
the same question nobody in city government seems willing to
answer: who does he think he is? A costume and a
camera-ready escape do not make a man a hero, they make him a
menace this city has been far too eager to applaud.
I am told, by readers and by my own staff, that I am alone in
this view. I am not. I am simply the only one willing to print
it. A city that cheers a man for operating outside the law is
a city one bad night away from cheering the next man who does
the same, and the next, until there is no law left standing
at all, only capes and masks and the mob's applause. The
council's registration ordinance is a start. It is not
enough. Until this vigilante stands in the light and gives his
name, he remains exactly what I have called him from the
start: a menace.
Reader's Opinions
Letters: Readers Weigh In on the Wall-Crawler
Not every New Yorker shares the publisher's view. Dozens of
letters arrived this week, and while a handful echo Mr.
Jameson's alarm, the majority strike a different tone entirely.
"He carried my son down six flights of a burning stairwell and
vanished before I could even learn his name. I don't care what
Mr. Jameson calls him. I call him the reason my boy is alive."
— A mother, Park Slope, Brooklyn
"I was on that stalled 6 train when he pried the doors and
helped an elderly man off the tracks. The Bugle can print what
it likes. The rest of us were there."
— A commuter, Manhattan
"Vigilante or not, I'd rather have him on my rooftop than
three armed men in my bank lobby. Seems a fair trade to me."
— A reader, Queens
"Mr. Jameson is right to be cautious. We don't know this man's
face, his training, or his intentions. Good results today
don't guarantee good judgment tomorrow."
— A reader, Staten Island
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
Your paper's relentless campaign against the wall-crawler
would carry more weight if it were matched by equal scrutiny
of the criminals he keeps stopping. I have read every issue
this month and counted exactly zero editorials on the men who
tried to rob Midtown Trust, and a dozen on the man who stopped
them.
— Harold Meeks, Inwood, Manhattan
To the Editor:
I appreciate that the Bugle prints dissenting views, including
mine. I share Mr. Jameson's unease. Whatever this figure's
intentions, a city cannot function on faith in a stranger's
good judgment. I hope the council's ordinance passes.
— Eleanor Voss, Riverdale, Bronx
To the Editor:
My daughter's stroller rolled into traffic on Amsterdam
Avenue last Tuesday. A man in red and blue caught it before I
could even scream. I did not get his name. I would like this
paper to print, just once, a simple thank you on my behalf.