Licensing and Regulation For Costumed Characters in Times Square?

If you’ve spent any time in New
York’s Times Square recently, you’ve probably noticed the profusion
of costumed characters—people dressed as Superman, Batman,
Spider-Man and more. 

There are a lot of these spandex-clad, not-so-super folks in
midtown these days, and with so many around, it’s unfortunately the
case that a few have caused a bit of trouble. And that, inevitably,
has led local leaders to push for, you guessed it,
costumed-character regulation. 

After a string of incidents involving people in costume (not
always as superheroes), the head of the Times Square Alliance has
called for a licensing and regulatory scheme to be put in place,

according to CBS New York:

Now, the president of the Times Square Alliance is calling for
regulations on costumed
characters, saying they’ve gotten out of control.

“In the last 10 days alone, we’ve seen two Statues of Liberty
arrested, a Spider-Man convicted of harassing a tourist, and now a
third character arrested for groping a woman in Times
Square,” Tim Tompkins said in a statement on Saturday. “The
situation is out of control and a licensing and regulatory scheme
must be put in place.”

Tompkins isn’t the first New Yorker to call for costuming rules.
Last year, an NYPD officer and head of the Sergeant Benevolent
Association
said he thought they should all be licensed and
fingerprinted. 

We know what happened when the (fictional) federal government
tried to license costumed heroes in the Marvel Comics universe:
The heroes split into two camps,
one, led by Captain America, opposed to working under the banner of
the government, and one, led by Iron Man, eager to turn the hero
business into a government-licensed cartel. We ended up with a
super civil war!