Cops and Superheroes

[Guffe]

The police in my country (Finland) would most likely accept the help, as long as the person stays inside the boundaries of the law. If the person corsses that line, then the police must interrogate the person and send a file to the prosecutors office for prosecution of said person.
The law in Finland can be pretty good for a superhero, here any person is allowed to catch a criminal, as long as it is in the immediate aftermatch of said crime (for exmaple fleeing the place it happened) and the crime can give you 6 months of jail. Don't take my word for granted here, this is how I remeber it being, might be it is "minimum of 6 months of jail", my memory is messing with me and these are small details I always remember wrong
But I guess it would be a pretty 2 way thing, as long as the person himself doesn't do anything illegal it's fine I guess.

 

[Zontar]

i'm sorry for being so angry but there's been ample evidence that cops care more about protecting each other from bad press or the consequences of murdering innocent people than they do about protecting the average citizen.

Only if you don't follow the first rule of internet investigations: actually look into the evidence. Anti-police propaganda is epidemic in the US (so much so that it's starting to spill over up here in Canada) where so long as something makes the police sound bad it's automatically believed. An example of this is a video I saw being circulated around not to long ago, the description claimed it was of police shooting down an unarmed man, but when actually watching the video it was of a man who pulled out a gun and was shot after pointing it at the police in question.

When you look at the cold, hard facts, Americas police force is no worst then its military in terms of how regular people are treated, and in an era of crime being at an all time low, the police getting the negative image they have now is in no part due to how they have been acting as a whole (if it was, their image would be better then in any other point in history).

 

[Thaluikhain]

I am almost 100% certain any real life super hero that couldn't deflect bullets would be gunned down by cops and then they'd have a good back slapping session over it "see you need to leave it to us. we know whats best for you don't ever question us."

You raise a good point there. I would say it greatly depends on the race of the hero in question, though.

 

[FalloutJack]

Superheroes are not cops, but people can make citizen's arrests, right?

 

[Strazdas]

OTOH, I don't see why you can't have superheroes that work with the police because they are part of an official government organisation (if not the police force itself). Then you might get jurisdiction clashes, but not likely much worse.

Im imagining Superman sitting till 12 in the night doing paperwork on why he scrapped paint of that fire hidrant while chasing a drug dealer and why was him using his superhearing infracting on that drug dealers privacy.

 

[HardkorSB]

Not going to lie, that sound like a villains origin story of him trying to be a hero and eventually going to the dark side (it's pretty much impossible to justify the use of powers to stop non-violent crime).

He would be a hero in the eyes of many.
When cops shot that homeless person, was that a non-violent crime?
When the US government fabricated evidence of WMDs in Iraq to go to war which caused many casualties, was that a non-violent crime?
Were they properly punished? Of course not but a person with super powers could hold them accountable.

A hero trying to work outside the confines of the law doesn't last very long as a hero

You mean like Batman?
Yeah, that dude turned into a villain after 2 weeks.

 

[Zontar]

Not going to lie, that sound like a villains origin story of him trying to be a hero and eventually going to the dark side (it's pretty much impossible to justify the use of powers to stop non-violent crime).

He would be a hero in the eyes of many.
When cops shot that homeless person, was that a non-violent crime?
When the US government fabricated evidence of WMDs in Iraq to go to war which caused many casualties, was that a non-violent crime?
Were they properly punished? Of course not but a person with super powers could hold them accountable.

I can't say I know what incident you're talking about, since I've long stopped paying attention to incidents of police brutality in the US (namely because half turn out to be bullshit and the other half are incidents no one from outside the city it took place in should care about given how policing works). I also fail to see the relevance of geopolitics in a discussion about policing.

A hero trying to work outside the confines of the law doesn't last very long as a hero

You mean like Batman?
Yeah, that dude turned into a villain after 2 weeks.

Actually in real life Batman would be the biggest menace in his city, and not only would a situation like in the Dark Knight Rises where the cops stop following a group of criminals to go after him happen, the national guard would be called in.

You seem to have an irrational dislike of the police, well here's the thing to remember, they have accountability, both to the government and the people (despite what the propagandists say) yet there are still incidents that cause people to riot for days or weeks on end, do you really think that taking away that accountability for someone with much greater power would end up well? The answer is no, and the only reason heroes in fiction who are lone agents don't eventually turn into villains is because it's fiction.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

i'm sorry for being so angry but there's been ample evidence that cops care more about protecting each other from bad press or the consequences of murdering innocent people than they do about protecting the average citizen.

Only if you don't follow the first rule of internet investigations: actually look into the evidence. Anti-police propaganda is epidemic in the US (so much so that it's starting to spill over up here in Canada) where so long as something makes the police sound bad it's automatically believed. An example of this is a video I saw being circulated around not to long ago, the description claimed it was of police shooting down an unarmed man, but when actually watching the video it was of a man who pulled out a gun and was shot after pointing it at the police in question.

When you look at the cold, hard facts, Americas police force is no worst then its military in terms of how regular people are treated, and in an era of crime being at an all time low, the police getting the negative image they have now is in no part due to how they have been acting as a whole (if it was, their image would be better then in any other point in history).

Unless you count the 30+ videos i've personally seen of cops assaulting handcuffed suspects, body slamming people for asking why they're being arrested, straight up lying about behavior so they can arrest people. I just the other day saw a video from a cops dashcam where a woman pulls up on the curb, gets out and pulls a gun on a guy standing on a sidewalk using a golf club as a cane. she shouts at him to drop it multiple times and when he wants to know what he did wrong she says "you just swung that golf club at me you are under arrest." you can see the whole incident in the video and not once did the guy even get near her much less raise the club off the ground. after she lies to him yeah he gets pissed, so he shrugs rather expressivley, and she freaking flying tackles the guy, arrests him for resisting arrest, puts on the arrest record he tried to assualt him with the golf club and even with ample evidence of it being a lie she got a promotion and he went to jail.

Cops today have an image problem because they are more interested in protecting each other than holding themselves responsible. even when a cop does something CLEARLY way over the line the other cops all line up behind him and protect him from repurcussions. they created an "us vs them" mentality and then get mad that we're not just unquestioningly loyal to a bunch of people who've proved to be untrustworthy and petty.

I defend cops when they've done no wrong but come on you have people being killed by cops whose only crime is "resisting arrest" no actual crime other than not letting someone slap handcuffs on them for no fucking reason. The anti-police sentiment is in LARGE part due to cop behavior.


But yeah come on, cops have shown time and time again they are very much petty enough to murder someone for "Stealing the limelight" the second a super hero showed up and someone says out loud "I feel safer with them and the cops then just the cops." that hero is a dead man and cops will strike for "feeling unsupported"

 

[Zontar]

Snip

I'll admit I'm pretty detached for the emotional ground level events (namely because a good half of the videos people tend to spread around tend to be lying about the content. I remember just this week there was one that showed up on my wall that claimed an unarmed homeless man was executed when the video itself showed a man pulling a gun on police after running away from them), but from the macro point of view, things are better then in the rest of the history of the institutions they work for. The only perception that things are different are for the same reason people think bullying is happening more often, or that rape is happening more often, or that a lot of things are happening more often, it's not because of how often it's happening (all these things I've mentioned are at all time lows, some at formerly inconceivable levels) but because of how connected our society is, one incident in the continent will reach all corners within hours.

Hell, the "us vs them" mentality police have developed wasn't something that came out of the blue or was always there, it was itself a reaction to the large, unjustified (and, when one looks at the numbers, impossible to defend) anti-police sentiment that has arisen over the past decade. At a time of crime and corruption being at an all time low, people hating them is at an all time high. If I was doing a job that had my life at risk every day for the public good and the hatred society had towards me was rising in direct proportion to my field accomplishing its goals, I'd be pretty upset and probably would defend those being attacked by the ungrateful ingrates who is the latest target of the week.

Honestly, if some hero showed up started to fight crime, if they managed to not be a bigger public menace then the criminals they fight (which, if using real world logic, wouldn't be very likely), I know I'd want them either deputized so they where accountable, or arrested because of the threat they are to society on top of the crimes they would be committing by default.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I can't see super heroes as an ally to police, because (in some places) police protect those in power (Often the powerful are criminals, bankers I'm looking at you.) and literally murder people whom slight them.

In other places super heroes use wealth to establish charities, but realistically, if a super being visited us, and preached decency, the Americans would probably assassinate them.

 

[HardkorSB]

You seem to have an irrational dislike of the police

No, I judge things on a case to case basis and if you look at the police (not just in the US but that's the main example here), there are a lot of cases of them abusing their power and treating citizens like shit.
With a lot of these cases (not all but still plenty) it seems there are no real repercussions for the cops for it. Most of the time, they get a paid vacation and a slap on the wrist.
A superpowered person could really hold them to the same standard that ordinary citizens are held in the eyes of the law.
Same with rich businessmen and bankers (for example, there should have been a lot more trials and arrests of rich and influential people after the recent financial crisis).
Same with the people responsible for the creation of the fake WMD reports (more trials and arrests related to that would be nice as well).
That's what I'm saying.

the only reason heroes in fiction who are lone agents don't eventually turn into villains is because it's fiction.

I'm sure that a lot of power over a long period of time can corrupt everyone and it doesn't matter whether it's one person or many.