CCSS news

admin — Sat, 19 May 2007 05:29:31 +0000

Missing Person Alert and Patrol

11/15/09

Captain Prospect of the Capital City Super Squad handed out and posted flyers on a local missing man in DC. Mr. Allen Lane is a 93 year old man who has been missing now for two weeks from his home at Q and 25^th Streets NW. He was last seen 11/2/09 wearing tan pants, a blue and black striped shirt and black fleece jacket. He may appear disoriented and confused due to a lack of medication.

Captain Prospect was able to post fliers around the neighborhood where he was last seen and to many area residents. Anyone who has information on Mr. Lane’s whereabouts are urged to call DC Police.

Capital City Super Squad Leads Safety Patrol

7/12/2009

The neighborhood of Columbia Heights has recently been the focus of criminals, police and politicians looking to use it as an example of crime out of control. On July 7, 2009, a 70 year old man was beaten to death in his apartment at 18^th and Harvard Streets NW. Police are looking for information so Captain Prospect, Spark and Cypherplex headed out on superhero patrol to talk to people in the neighborhood and distribute informational flyers in English and Spanish. The team distributed almost a hundred flyers and handed out sandwiches to the homeless along the way.

Capital City Super Squad takes on Real Life Supervillain

March 7, 2009

photo by Rachel Kowal

The Capital city Super Squad’s members walked the streets of Washington handing out flyers with information on a real life supervillain: The Rooftop Raider, a local criminal that has been gaining entrance to area homes and taking off with valuables. We were accompanied by NPR intern Rachel Kowal who recorded and interviewed us and did a short piece that can be heard here:

http://www.npr.org/internedition/spring09/?p=915&cpage=1#comment-929

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service Superhero Patrol

January 19, 2008

Captain Prospect, Spark and new member Cypherplex of the Capital City Super Squad performed a superhero patrol and mission of downtown Washington DC this Holiday afternoon. The team managed to had out a good deal of sandwiches to the homeless in the downtown area but ran into some snags due to traffic, parking and crowds related to the Inauguration taking place the following day and the preparations that were being made for it. The team was out superheroing for about two hours for this superhero mission.

August Superhero Mission

Spark, DC Guardian and Captain Prospect headed out for a superhero mission on August 16, 2008. Captain Prospect had received an email notifying him of a local missing persons case and the three superheroes went to meet the sister of the missing man. She had flyers for the to distribute and we posted them around the missing man’s neighborhood where it is expected he may return at some point. We also spoke to many people visiting and living in the area. After hitting up that neighborhood the team drove along the route his sister says he used to regularly walk downtown and looked for him along Connecticut Ave and in Georgetown but had no luck. CCSS will continue to look for the missing person.

June Superhero Patrol

On Sunday June 29 The Puzzler and Captain Prospect teamed up and went out on a routine patrol of downtown DC. They brought along sandwiches and handed them out to the homeless and I passed out a few of our CCSS Activity books to some kids.

Puzzler and Captain Prospect finished up the patrol and handed out all of their sandwiches. They also spoke to an NBC film crew who may be getting back in touch with them about doing a piece on the CCSS (fingers crossed).

Website down

Looks like a supervillain hacked our site and was using it for nefarious ebay scams. Our resident computer wiz superheroes quickly took the site offline and foiled their plot and we are back to normal.

May Superhero Patrol

Puzzler, DC Guardian and his sidekick Sound Wave and Captain Prospect all went and volunteered Saturday morning/ afternoon at the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Event at Bon Air Park in Arlington. I had seen a call for volunteers a couple of weeks back and decided it would be a good opportunity for the Capital City Super Squad to help out.

Puzzler and I arrived for the first shift from 11:30-1:30 and mostly helped people find their way through the park to the event registration table and also handed out some of our new Capital City Super Squad Activity Books (Thanks RevTomFury!).

Around 1:30 DC Guardian and Sound Wave showed up to help out with the next shift. We are hoping we can do this again next year now that the organizer has our contact info and we can get more team members involved and have some more preparations.

April Superhero Patrol

Puzzler and Captain Prospect went out and patrolled the area around Dupont Circle on the afternoon of April 27. Recently there have been a series of attacks on out of state cab drivers and it is suspected that a DC cab driver iis responsible, upset about out of state cab drivers picking up fares in the city which is illegal.

The duo made a round of the area and handed out flyers about the crimes along with pamphlets about the Capital City Super Squad and also handed out sandwiches to some of the area homeless that we ran into.

February Superhero Mission

The Capital City Super Squad’s Puzzler, Nice Ninja and I were joined by DC Guardian, a new member of the Capital City Super Squad on a patrol of the Eastern Market neighborhood yesterday.

A few weeks ago a woman was assaulted in her home and the police released a composite of the attacker but he has not yet been apprehended. The CCSS walked around the neighborhood and handed out flyers with information and a sketch of the suspect. Eastern Market has a thriving flea market on the weekends and so we ended up handing out our flyers very quickly.

Sad news to report

I am very sad to report that I today learned that Silverstreak, one of our newest members of the Capital City Super Squad passed away just a few days after Christmas and only a couple of weeks after her first superhero mission to visit sick kids at a local hospital.

I had been trying to contact her for some time and finally was able to track down a newpaper listing that stated she died on 12/29. No mention of how she passed away. Silverstreak had only gone on one patrol with us but was very eager to go out again. She obviously enjoyed our trip to visit kids in the hospital and had a job at a restaurant in downtown DC and had a lot of energy towards our group and our mission to help out others. She was thinking about going into the Peace Corps or some other long term international volunteer service. Silverstreak was 19.

January Superhero mission

The Capital City Super Squad had a mission today cleaning up a neighborhood in Northwest Washington DC near the Georgia Avenue Metro Station.

A neighbor had posted a message calling for help in cleaning up her neighborhood which she noticed was full of trash so the Capital City Super Squad responded and said we would help. We met up at the neighbor’s house and spent a little over an hour picking up trash from the surrounding blocks and nearby park where people walk their dogs. Armed with gloves and trash bags we filled five bags full of trash on a cold cloudy day before we were done. It was nice to respond to a specific call for assistance in true superhero fashion for a change instead of coming up with a project of our own.

Our newest member of the CCSS The Puzzler, joined us for her first superhero mission too! Photo from the mission below: more on my pics page.

Photo by Barbara Salisbury

December 16, 2007

In coordination with the national Real Life Superhero Christmas toy drop-off, the Capital City Super Squad purchased toys at a local toy store in Washington DC (thanks Sullivan’s!) and took them to distribute to children at Georgetown University Hospital’s pediatric unit. The team got a chance to hand out the toys to some of the kids on the unit and it was a great experience for everyone involved!

November 21 - Thanksgiving Day Patrol Captain Prospect and Justice of the Capital City Super Squad went on a Thanksgiving Day patrol and handed out hot food to homeless residents of Washington DC today. You can read more about it from the Washington Post article here:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/22/AR2007112201295.htmlOctober 21 superhero patrol

Nice Ninja, Spark and Captain Prospect met up to do a patrol of downtown DC starting at Union Station and covering a chunk of Pennsylvania Avenue to Massachusetts Avenue. A local reporter from the Washington Times was also along to do a story on the team. There have not been any particularly high profile crimes in the downtown area recently so the team handed out sandwiches to the homeless. The Capital City Super Squad gave out about four loaves worth of sandwiches and a very heavy backpack worth of bottled water to a few dozen people.

September 27 mission

Today was RAINN’s (Rape Abuse Incest National Network) college awareness day. A while back, I sent away for their materials and a few weeks back I received them. Their stuff included hotline number facts and website address for more information and referrals. Justice and I walked around the Howard Law School campus and handed out the materials to college students, posted material in the buildings and put info in all the student mailboxes.

September 23 patrol

Spark and I headed out to the Columbia Heights neighborhood today on a safety patrol. Over the last three months, police suspect one man has attacked and assaulted three women in the early morning hours. We passed out safety information to women out walking in the neighborhood printed in Spanish and English since there is a large Hispanic community in the neoghborhood. I got a largely positive response owing to my similarity to several popular Mexican wrestlers.

September 9 Patrol

Nice Ninja, Justice and I met up for a patrol of downtown DC. We met up at the National Building

Museum and made a wide sweep of downtown and managed to hand out food to a large number of homeless DC residents. Our reporter who usually takes our photos and is writing a story about the team was supposed to meet up with us but had an emergency at the last minute and was unable to come so we don’t have any photos from the patrol. We winded down as it was getting dark and Justice and Nice Ninja jumped on the Metro and I continued on to where I had parked my scooter. I passed a group of police officers outside the MCI center and they asked me what I was doing and I explained I was a real life superhero. One officer advised that I should “get back to the institute before bed check”. I was tempted to make a smart remark back to him but decided that is not what a superhero should do. August 11 Patrol

Center and Franklin Square. We handed out three loaves of bread worth of sandwiches to the homeless and handed out lots of water bottles as well. Downtown near Ford’s Theater we ran into a lot of kids and fortunately I had brought along a bunch of the Capital City Super Squad Activity books and crayons to hand out. Justice did a great job on her inaugural patrol. She really seems to get the “guerilla activist” aspect to what we do, though I don’t like that phrase. Her costume was only partially assembled when we went out on patrol but should be fully ready by next time. Nice Ninja as always really enjoyed the patrol – the homeless help is always his favorite activity for patrolling. Patrol 7/1/2007 Nice Ninja, Captain Prospect and Siren, the newest member of the Capital City Super Squad, went on patrol in downtown DC this evening. The team passed out sandwiches to homeless DC residents. Patrol 6/16/2007 Captain Prospect and Nice Ninja went out on community safety patrol to pass out flyers in Arlington about the Plastic Bagger, a real life supervillain. This guy has attacked at least four times, maybe more, in Arlington, VA, just across the river from DC. He approaches women with a plastic bag and tries to use it to strangle or choke the woman with it. The Arlington police have really been pursuing this guy and last week released a composite sketch of him so the team put together a flyer and walked for about an hour and a half from Rosslyn to Clarendon and back passing out the flyers to people. For more information please go here: http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/Communications/11696.aspx April 29 2007 Superhero PatrolZoria and Captain Prospect made a patrol of downtown DC today and had a chance to hand out the new Capital City Super Squad Activity Book. The Activity Book contained pictures of the team to color, a small map of Washington and emergency numbers that kids may need to have with them such as poison control and 911. The team also had crayons to hand out along with the booklets. The team handed out ALL the booklets and crayons and also helped out with cleaning up some glass in a bush shelter and helping a few people with directions and recommendations. The patrol lasted a few hours and was a great success. Here is a picture of Captain Prospect handing out a copy of the Capital City Super Squad’s activity book:

April 16 2007 Superhero Action

Captain Prospect marched in the DC voting rights march from the Wilson Building down to the Capitol today. He got plenty of stares and people wanting to take a picture of him but mostly got a lot of thumbs up and approval.

The march was to call on Congress to give the residents of Washington DC a voting representative in the House of Representatives. Right now, they have a delegate to the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton who is able to draft and introduce legilsation however, when it comes to a close vote on important issues, her vote is not allowed to count. polls have shown that most Americans do not realize that American citizens living in the District of Columbia (more Americans live in DC than in

Montana) are subject to taxations without representation. The polls also find that the overwhlming majority of American s think that this is unfair. For more information you can watch the video linked below and visit www.dcvote.org to find out how to get in touch with your representative to let him or her know that you democracy not just overseas but here at home as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoKy2Kqja_A

The Capital City Super Squad patrolled downtown DC this past Saturday evening. Sybil Drew was scheduled to meet us and film our patrol and interview myself for her documentary on Real Life Superheroes but she became ill and was not able to come film us. Nice Ninja and I were joined by our newest team member, Justice. Barbara Salisbury, the reporter from the Washington Times was with us as well. We started out at 12^th/ I Sts and made a large circuit encompassing Chinatown, Ford’s Theater, the MCI

September 9 Patrol

Nice Ninja, Justice and I met up for a patrol of downtown DC. We met up at the National Building

April 16 2007 Superhero Action

How you can join the Capital City Super Squad and be a real life superhero!!

admin — Sat, 19 May 2007 05:28:53 +0000

Interested in joining the team or learning more about us? Look over the website and learn a little about who we are and what we do. If you like what you see and it looks like fun and a good cause (it is!), the first thing you should do is contact team leader, Captain Prospect at CaptainProspect@yahoo.com.

To be an active member of the team you will need to have a superhero identity which includes a costume or uniform of some sort. The team can help you out with ideas. It does not have to be anything fancy. Nice Ninja has a pretty simple inexpensive costume for example. Secret identities are not required - masks are optional.

Right now we do at least one mission a month but try to do more and with more members we can do this. If you have a personal cause; homelessness, child abuse, affordable housing, missing children, etc. that you would like to champion, we can find projects to help out with these issues. For the most part we serve on safety and goodwill patrols. Our prime area of coverage is downtown Washington DC, though with more members we can branch out into other neighborhoods. We are not limited to working within the District if you have an event you would like the team to help out with.

Remember, if you are just curious it never hurts to ask!