TTHEHE RRAYAY FFACEDACED DDOWNOWN CCOPSOPS TTOO PPROTECTROTECT OOCCUPIERS,CCUPIERS, BBUTUT HHISIS RREALEAL MMISSIONISSION ISIS SOMETHINGSOMETHING DARKER.DARKER. sfweekly.com Enter:A Superhero BBYY LLAURENA U R E N SSMILEYM I L E Y round 11:30 p.m., The Ray stepped onto Broad- way in downtown Oakland, certain of what he | LETTERS CONTENTS A had to do. The peaceful general strike march of Nov. 2 had ended, and now rioters swarmed, smashing windows and stoking fires in trash cans. Cops formed a line across the street, battling back with gas grenades. Helicopters hovered. The sharp stink of tear gas pricked the The Ray’s nose. He’d first smelled it a week before, at the bom- bastic eviction of the Occupy Oakland encamp- SUCKA FREE CITY ment from Frank Ogawa Plaza on Oct. 25. That night he’d come dressed as a civilian, and filmed a man getting shot down by a rubber bullet. But sizing up the melee on Nov. 2, The Ray knew that Oakland needed something more. A superhero. The Ray strapped on protection — goggles, gas mask, knee and shin pads — and set out to calm the chaos. Only his eyes showed beneath the black of his supersuit. Stab-proof plastic armor protected his chest, and he gripped an orange aluminum Captain America shield, borrowed from his superhero teammate, Motor Mouth. He had never witnessed anything like this back in Antioch, the East Bay’s outermost patch of sprawl, where he’d grown up in one of the suburban homes that eat into the bluffs along the Sacramento delta. There, The Ray would bike to Safeway and climb up onto the roof to survey the parking lot for crime. He fought to stay awake after a day stocking Target shelves as 22-year-old Roy Sorvari: the home-schooled, Mor- RROYOY SSORVARI,ORVARI, A 222-YEAR-OLD2-YEAR-OLD FORMERFORMER BBOYOY mon, former Boy Scout. Roy: 5-foot-5, 120 pounds, with SSCOUTCOUT FFROMROM AANTIOCH,NTIOCH, BBECOMESECOMES TTHEHE RRAY,AY, a forthright, courteous manner. Sometimes called Roy A CCRIME-FIGHTINGRIME-FIGHTING RREALEAL LLIFEIFE SSUPERHERO.UPERHERO. the Hot Dog Boy, ever since he started selling franks at the skate park off a grill rigged to his 10-speed. | MUSIC | EAT | FILM | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | | NIGHT+DAY | FILM STAGE | MUSIC EAT In Antioch, his greatest feat had been stop- Some time later, The Ray woke up. His hands off on missions. Sorvari’s mom, Lynn — a friendly, ping kids from breaking into a vending machine were cinched behind him, and warm liquid coated former Navy avionics mechanic with curly black outside Wal-Mart. Another time, someone called his face. Blood. Someone lifted him to his feet, and hair — assumed Sorvari was videotaping crime in a the cops on him for carrying a sword on his back pain shot through his leg. Cops would later tell him costume. “I knew Roy had the desire to be a superhero. at the skate park (it was actually a Taser). an occupier must have shot him with a paintball, but It just seemed liked a seamless, no-big-deal thing.” The Ray carried no weapons as he paced toward the bruise had no trace of paint; he thinks it was Sorvari had turned into The Ray, Taser-bearing the Occupy tent city in front of City Hall. A riot squad- more likely a police-issue rubber bullet or bean bag. protector of the streets, the Safeway, and the skate ron with bigger shields than his lined the plaza’s The Ray felt as if he were floating through a dream. park. His enemy: what he sees as an invading army SF WEEKLY perimeter, and rioters scrambled to erect their own He remembers his gear getting cut off. An ambulance. of thugs — the poor, usually black, residents who barrier of upended tables parallel to the police. Sud- His hands cuffed to a hospital bed. Stitches plung- have moved into Antioch from San Francisco, Rich- denly, a phalanx of riot cops barged through from ing through his eyebrow. An interrogation room. mond, and Oakland. “I’m not a Nazi, an anarchist, the City Hall side, setting off flash-bang grenades Jail. or a racist,” Sorvari says when asked about his new and tear gas, arresting anyone in their path. A siege. His charges: battery on a peace officer and remaining neighbors, many of whom have come for the plenti- 20, 2011 20, The Ray spotted two protesters who’d fallen to at the scene of a riot. ful, roomy houses available with Section 8 vouchers. the ground and curled into the fetal position. A cop It’s not easy protecting the people’s liberty. “It’s just, stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.” rushed toward them. The Ray feared the worst. All superheroes have an origin story, and The Ray’s ECEMBER His code demands he first make a verbal attempt t was just five months ago that Sorvari started started last spring when, as he tells it, he witnessed to end conflict, but to The Ray, “that point was stalking off in all black from his parent’s ranch a group of 40 young black men show up at the skate 14-D definitely past.” He says he couldn’t imagine ask- I house in Antioch, the one with a tiny American park to fight his mixed-race group of skater friends. ing, “‘Officer, would you please stop beating us?’’’ flag in the rocks out front, a Jesus painting over (The cops came before anything could happen.) Then Instead of talk, he took action. The Ray ran in the fireplace, and a garage dojo where Roy Sr. teaches he says that last summer he was hunting for squir- ECEMBER with his shield between the cops and the prone martial arts. Before long, guys with names like Nyck rels at the skate park with his BB gun — he cooks the D occupiers. Hit, he fell backward, and rolled Knight and Motor Mouth started showing up on the meat and sews fur bracelets out of their hide — when to spring back up. His face hit the ground. front step like awkward first dates, waiting to drive three black guys knocked him off his bike. Sorvari 10 sfweekly.com scrambled to his feet and returned a flying kick to the Safeway raid. “I just felt like helping, interven- MMEANWHILEE A N W H I L E ..... one in his gut. (“I’ve always wanted to do that.”) ing, doing something. That they can walk right in ews of The Ray’s arrest at Occupy Oakland While he was more into Star Trek than comic books, and do whatever they please and get away with it buzzed through the superhero network. Mo- Sorvari had been sketching himself as a superhero doesn’t comply with the principles of freedom.” N tor Mouth saw The Ray’s shield on KRON from a DC Comics drawing book since he was a teen. Inspired by the RLSH, Sorvari went to work: He news among the items confiscated by cops This summer, a coworker mentioned Seattle super- molded plastic “stab-proof” armor glowing with in the riot and cursed himself for not being there, hero Phoenix Jones, who had not yet been arrested for LED lights to strap over his all-black supersuit. He too. It was Motor who first took The Ray to Oc- | CONTENTS LETTERS pepper-spraying a group of club-goers in October. Sor- rigged up a 6-foot ninja staff with Tasers mounted cupy, to drop off food and medical supplies at the vari Googled Jones, and was intrigued that someone on either end. When that proved too heavy for San Francisco and Oakland camps. Occupy security was actually acting on the desire he’d had for years. street patrols, he attached magnets to the back of saw the guys in their armored costumes (they’d Jones and others are Real Life Superheroes his suit to instead hold a homemade Taser sword. planned to patrol downtown Oakland afterward) and (RLSH), the international confederation of purport- After a few patrols, Sorvari met Motor Mouth, asked them to pull shifts at the self-policing camp. TTHEHE RRAYAY JJOINEDOINED MMUTINOUSUTINOUS AANGELNGEL ((CENTER)CENTER) AANDND MMOTOROTOR MMOUTHOUTH OONN A RRECENTECENT PPATROLATROL OOFF TTHEHE TTENDERLOIN.ENDERLOIN. SUCKA FREE CITY | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | FILM | EAT | MUSIC | FILM EAT | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY Photos by Joseph Schell edly average civilians who don costumes to fight an aptly named special education teacher and The Ray latched onto some Occupy principles — crime and perform good deeds. Sorvari friended former security guard and Eagle Scout who re- freedom of assembly, freedom of speech against dis- Jones on Facebook, who put him in touch with fuses to give his civilian name to reporters. Two connected politicians — and returned in costume to Nyck Knight in Antioch, one of about a dozen local years ago, Motor founded the Nor-Cal Protector- volunteer during the week of the general strike. SF WEEKLY heroes who were patrolling downtown San Fran- ate — just four members strong after losing one Within the superhero ranks, costumes are a point cisco, Oakland, and San Jose. They dole out food to boot camp and multiple defections — the lo- of contention: For meek comic geeks, it lends spandex to the homeless, host toy drives, and pick up dirty cal affiliate of the RLSH’s Pacific Protectorate. courage. For others, it’s a new identity: “I’m speaking syringes. One in Hayward drives a glowing purple The Nor-Cal Protectorate voted to let Sorvari to you as Do-Luck,” one told SF Weekly over the “Mutinous Mobile” with a rifle in the backseat.