Poll: do you think there is a place in society for a REAL dark knight?

[Kyber]

Let's see... no, no masked villains with plans of world domination, no chemically mutated monsters...
I'll have to say no, we don't need a Dark Knight

 

[Aesir23]

No definitely not.

1) Edmonton, while having the highest murder rate in Canada (I think), is still a quite safe place to live, really.

I think it's Winnipeg actually. At least, we usually get dubbed the murder capital of Canada (such as the past few years) but we still only average 25-45 murders per year. For a city of 700,000 people that's pretty good.

OT: While the idea of a masked vigilante is nice if only for the novelty of the idea it's not exactly a good one. They don't have superpowers or improbable gadgets to help them out so they're just as vulnerable as anyone else if not moreso depending on things like fitness and training.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

I did a thread like this, more along the lines of "Should I Be the real life dark knight"

I got sent quite a lot of abusive messages.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

I've always thought of vigilantism as a very intriguing subject; the idea that an ordinary citizen could bring their own form of justice to the table without regard for any legal backlash.

The reason heroes like Batman and Superman are able to fight crime without consequence is because the enemies they fight are completely fantastical; they don't fit within the parameters of what you or I would consider a "normal" criminal to be. This is one of the reasons I find The Punisher to be so interesting. He's just a regular guy (more or less) who wages war on gangsters and criminals because his family was killed by the mob, so he takes it upon himself to rid the world of all the scum.

The point I'm trying to make is that if a city were to have a vigilante, he/she would probably more closely resemble The Punisher rather than Batman.

Fuck the punisher, Red Hood is batman with guns, knives, swords, bombs, etc.
I don't get the hype around punisher, he's actually not that great.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

Holy Generalization's Batman!

I don't want to sound like an ass, but the movies portrayal of the justice system is not at all real. In fact your whole argument smells like a teenager who has spent way too much time in his basement playing video games and watching movies.

Yeah, but by saying this, you do. I can't focus on the rest of your statement, because than fanboy in me is screaming "He insulted comic book fans! NERD RAGE!" Dude, if you don't want to sound like an ass, don't talk out of yours.

Care to explain how the justice system isn't harsh enough on criminals? Or your reasoning behind this thought: "Now imagine someone was actually fighting back against crime striking fear into those that strike fear into the community"? This one made me laugh, "also its not just a person its a sense of community, a dark knight would inspire others to be more vigilant and be more brave to stand up acknowledge what has happened rather than just cowering behind their curtains".

Ever heard of the kitty genovese case? (May have got the name wrong.) Forty witnesses saw a man rape and murder a woman, and no-one did anything. The legal justice system, in places, is fucked in many ways. Not everywhere, but a lot of people get a way with A LOT of shit in certain places. Largely in 'merica.

People aren't hiding behind curtains, and no, there is no high-crime area where the criminals have taken over.

Don't be so moronic, there are areas with high crime all over the world. Brazil is 90% run by war lords and criminals. Just because you only have to deal with first world problems and you don't see this sort of thing doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Also, having one person in charge of punishing people and dealing out "justice", very juvenile concept

So much for not wanting to sound like an ass. One person, sure, fair enough, but actually having a criminal justice system that works worldwide. Whilst his idea of a one man war on crime may not be plausible, You really don't know anything about the world outside your doorstep, and I'd recomend you stuck to explaining why his argument was wrong without straying to far from fact.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

What? No. Terrible idea. "Hey, let's willingly dress as a lunatic and inflict personal harm on a bevy of people committing minor, and occasionally serious, criminal acts!" There's a reason these things only happen in comics successfully. The police would put your ass down for that shit, not mention all the ATF/FBI/etc attention your stupid ass would draw. That, and that all-time-annoying human principle of wanting spectacle. Tell people that a caped crusader will show up if they try to rob a store, and bam, stores start getting robbed all over the city. You wouldn't feel safe knowing there's morons out of the street making rash judgments about how to take the law into their own hand. It's people like that the law is protecting you from.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

As much as we all love Batman and other superheroes and we all probably dreamed of being super heroes at some point, we have to admit that in a real world that shit would be impossible.

Those idiots in Seattle are just that - idiots. A bunch of no lifers who probably wouldn't pass the psych evaluation if they tried to become real crime fighters (cops).

Even if people actually had super powers, there's a bigger probability that they'd use those powers for selfish purposes like getting girls/boys, money and whatnot.

The fact is, you can't be a superhero as long as you live in the real world.

 

[Kilo24]

Ever heard of the kitty genovese case? (May have got the name wrong.) Forty witnesses saw a man rape and murder a woman, and no-one did anything. The legal justice system, in places, is fucked in many ways. Not everywhere, but a lot of people get a way with A LOT of shit in certain places. Largely in 'merica.

You didn't get the name wrong, but the popular conception of the crime is far more overblown than it was in actuality. There were multiple calls to the police, though some saw a fight nobody saw the murder or rape, and the news stories of the time got the details wrong in pursuit of sensationalism.

Note that, psychologically, the large number of people who were around the crime actually worked against Kitty Genovese's survival odds. They convinced themselves that somebody else was probably handling it (such as the police, who were called multiple times). It's called the bystander effect, and that's a far more widespread phenomenon than people just watching people die. Make no mistake: Kitty Genovese's still definitely a powerful and intriguing case, but for different reasons than most believe.

 

[Flizzick]

I've always thought of vigilantism as a very intriguing subject; the idea that an ordinary citizen could bring their own form of justice to the table without regard for any legal backlash.

The reason heroes like Batman and Superman are able to fight crime without consequence is because the enemies they fight are completely fantastical; they don't fit within the parameters of what you or I would consider a "normal" criminal to be. This is one of the reasons I find The Punisher to be so interesting. He's just a regular guy (more or less) who wages war on gangsters and criminals because his family was killed by the mob, so he takes it upon himself to rid the world of all the scum.

The point I'm trying to make is that if a city were to have a vigilante, he/she would probably more closely resemble The Punisher rather than Batman.

Fuck the punisher, Red Hood is batman with guns, knives, swords, bombs, etc.
I don't get the hype around punisher, he's actually not that great.

I wasn't saying he was great, I said that he's closer to being a real-world vigilante than someone in a bat suit throwing boomerangs shaped like bats from his patented bat utility belt whilst chugging a refreshing bat-a-cola. If that makes any sense.

And Bernie Goetz.

 

[Lionsfan]

snip

First off, me saying I didn't want to sound like an ass isn't one of those "I'm not racist but...", I knew my whole post wasn't nice, and I didn't try to say I was being anything else.

Second. About the Kitty Genovese case, yes 40 witnesses did witness the murder...according to the New York Times. Later studies showed no evidence that witnesses witnessed the murder, or remained inactive. People only heard fragments of the assault, and it wasn't clear what was going on.

But yes, a woman was murdered and her killer eluded justice; first by evading the police, then a cruel maneuvering of the legal system where he used a loophole to avoid punishment.

Oh wait, he was arrested soon after, sentenced to death, later changed to life in prison, and has been denied for parole 15 times and remains in jail to this day.

So much for the Legal System failing there eh? Any other examples? Or just more rhetoric to try to prove your point?

Don't be so moronic, there are areas with high crime all over the world. Brazil is 90% run by war lords and criminals. Just because you only have to deal with first world problems and you don't see this sort of thing doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Some links, facts, studies would be helpful here and not just typing a random number in an attempt to prove a point.

As for the First World Problems? The very fact that we're on The Escapist discussing whether the world needs a REAL Dark Knight shows the first world was the topic. In the OP it wasn't, "Hey look, in Somalia there are gangs that control who lives and dies", or "These Drug Cartels have just beheaded 14 people and hung them from a bridge, let's get Batman on the case!". No, it was clearly about cities in the First-World West, not areas where Drug Cartels are in power or Warlords rule.[footnote]Slightly off-topic, but I had some serious lulz at one guy fighting back against Brazil where "90% of the Country is controlled by Drug Cartels"

As for the last part of your post:

So much for not wanting to sound like an ass. One person, sure, fair enough, but actually having a criminal justice system that works worldwide. Whilst his idea of a one man war on crime may not be plausible, You really don't know anything about the world outside your doorstep, and I'd recomend you stuck to explaining why his argument was wrong without straying to far from fact.

Again with the rhetoric. In fact, I'd say it's almost like you don't have any facts to back up this statement of yours that the entire criminal justice system worldwide is broken, but I'm sure that's coming in the reply, right?

The bolded stuff was interesting too, I didn't realize you knew me or any of my life experiences, that's interesting. What's more interesting is that you tell me not to stray far from facts, but then use a grand total of 0 yourself to "disprove" my argument