Batman boldly addresses police brutality and systemic racism in law enforcement

[Bubzer]

We’ve tried to be pretty relentlessly on-point about him being a symbol of inspiration in the face of tremendous fear, as opposed to a symbol of punishment, or a symbol of revenge, taking the city away from criminals. Here is where he begins to learn [the limits of] the methods that he thought would work: finding a criminal, making an example of the criminal, throwing the criminal in jail … Instead, what he has to learn is that the problems that he’s facing in today’s city are much more humbling, are much more complicated.”

Most controversially, Snyder’s story shows 15-year-old Peter Duggio shot in the stomach by Gotham police veteran Ned Howler. Duggio is shown frightened, emerging from a fight in his father’s bodega with a local gang, and before he can respond to Howler’s demand to lie down, the officer mortally wounds him.

-snip-

Levin observed: “Mainstream comics have touched on economic justice a lot – in the past more than in the present. At times they’ve directly looked at racism, though never institutional racism without relying on a metaphor like [the X-Men’s] Mutants. By looking at these two pieces together Batman and the reader can get a sense of the complexity of the problems that Batman usually attempts to solve via detective work and Bruce Wayne attempts to solve via so-called ‘charity’. These problems will not be solved by each of those approaches alone – especially not one that treats the criminal justice system as a fair partner when it is not.”

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/15/batman-confronts-police-brutality-in-latest-comic-book

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. I don't know, it seems more like they're trying to overcomplicate it.

You have a black youth mortally shot by a cop for not obeying his orders quickly enough. And the comic wants to swirl that into some incredibly complicated thing 'without simple answers'. Yes, there was a fight tied to 'gentrification', to which the officer was responding. But who gives a crap 'why' the officer was called out, when the outcome is him shooting someone for not obeying his commands 'quickly enough'? It is simple. Police resort to violence, and lethal violence, far too easily, far too quickly.

[Bubzer]

2. To me it seemed like they were trying to spark a conversation on the topic.

[Glassunion]

3. I'd disagree.

To me it would seem that they are not trying to over-complicate it. It is a complicated scenario to begin with. How does a vigilante who is trying to improve the city deal with it? Sure he could pound the crap out of the cop, but that would not address the systemic problems with the police force. Then you have the alter ego of Bruce Wayne, and what his intent with, and obligations to society have weighed in on the current situation, possibly making the situation worse, through no ill intent on the part of the character.

You can't flip a switch on a societal issue. They are never that simple.