Tangential, but a piece of advice I've seen directed toward both lawmakers and people advocating for various legal "solutions" to social problems is, "When writing law, always keep in mind how your worst enemy could weaponize your law against _you."_
Not just an enemy, they should consider how any potential bad actor might use such laws. There is a reason killers love red flag laws and gun free zones.
@wolvarine35 The Law of Unintended Consequences is a separate problem; and yes, that is another thing lawmakers really should consider when making law. But I'm talking specifically about laws (or in some cases executive orders or even judicial precedents) that do _exactly_ what they say on the tin... Until the party that enacted them loses an election, and suddenly find themselves rather uncomfortably having to live under their own laws as enforced by their opposition.
The only like 'correction' that I'd offer is that Dredd(2012) did not 'reimagine' the character from the Stallone movie. The Stallone Dredd was effectively "in name only", and broke probably one of the cardinal rules of the character(never take off the helmet/show his face), and the 2012 Dredd is much more of an adaption of the comics than the Stallone movie ever even tried to be.
Dredd's character, certainly, but the Stallone movie's setting and depiction of the megacity is definitely truer to the comics than Dredd. Much worse movie of course, but it's a product of its times.
I thought that , as a 2000AD reader from prog one to about prog 500 the earlier film looked much more like the comics but it was too comedic. The later film didn't have the look but did have the feel.
My buddy made the helmets for the Stallone movie - they had to have different helmets for different camera angles because they couldn't make them work...
True, I did not really like the Stallone move, and actually, the helmet is the least of the problem. The Stallone version did not stay in character in so many ways and while as you mentions, overall design was more in line with the comic, it was still wrong. Even in the comics the streets where open to the sky and there was more separation between buildings, it was not like one big building as its mostly looks on the ground in the Stallone movie. The later one has large swats of lower level buildings which was not part of the original and the arcology towers where to far apart, but the overall feel was still better in every way in my opinion.
6:40 civil asset forfeiture as a matter of law is kind of funny because unreasonable search and seizure is forbidden by the highest law of the land yet no proof of guilt is required and you have to prove your innocence to get your property back with the state not even having to provide an attorney to help you since they haven’t accused you of a crime just your money with no proof their was a crime in the first place. As a law and order republican with a brain it’s gross.
In purely monetary terms, I've had more stolen from me by police than by unaffiliated thieves. There are individual police officers that I have the highest respect for, but when the laws themselves are corrupt you have to be leery of those who enforce them as a general rule.
Asset forfeiture is done in Australia, but only when it involves serious cash or assets that need explaining. And it has to be justified in court before it happens . If you can prove you own a couple of houses , massive wads of cash and a few high end cars on $80k a year then that I think is reasonable. A
Read Dredd since it started (boy I feel old) until the 90s, it's WAY deeper than you may think at first. The "Democracy" storyline (you can get it as a separate collection now I think) is especially good in regard to your points, but "Cursed Earth", "Block/Apocalypse War" sagas and more have really valid things to say, even if sometimes by satire and over the top stuff. You are right, Dredd is the touchstone the everyone else is framed against, he's more...a force of nature But at least he's ALWAYS honest and over time you see him question things more and more...hence the "Democracy" storyline is so important and tragic
@@victorkreig6089 Thatcher destroyed this country, she was NOT a "Conservative", she was a literally insane, corrupt puppet for the bankers & enshrined a corporate fascist take over of Britain
After The Punisher, Dredd is my favorite. How many has Batman, Superman etc let die to keep his precious morals intact? Yes, fiction I know but being homeless at 9yo in the gang infested 1960s NYC streets taught me much. My current 4.5 million net worth not one penny from welfare, Gvt handouts, scholarships or "affirmative action" Didn’t Earn It programs give me little empathy for most. Ever work 36 hours straight wo closing your eyes once? I can tell you after 30 the hallucinating begins. No drugs, not even coffee...just being a man. Note that again, a man sex emphasis. This mulatto Cuban born votes Trump.
The creators of Judge Dredd were very deliberate in their portrayal of a zealot cop in a fascistic dystopia. He's both the hero and the villain in his stories. John Wagner was influenced by Dirty Harry movies and life in Thatcherite Britain, which he saw as becoming increasingly right wing. Written as a satire of the times and consumerism. Pat Mills came up with the name, and Carlos Ezquerra came up with the iconic costume.
Anderson doesn't get enough love here imo either, overall she's probably the hero of Dredd, she's certainly the most heroic judge, and her adaptation by Thirlby's Anderson is a really great adaptation in her own right.
@@jagd7102 thank you for piquing my interest. I see that Franco’s regime is debated and though supported by the fascist fringe in Spain was not beholden to them; also danced around committing in WW2. Would it be closer to say that he was a Nationalist and a murderer of opponents who certainly borrowed the fascist costume when it suited him?
Totally agreed. I partially blame that on Stalone's abomination Judge Dredd, which totally messes up both the title character AND the universe in which it was set.
Not even policing as a police officer, the slightest amount of policing it seems. Take a normal person and make them a highschool teacher, suddently wearing a hat isnt just against the rules, its offensive and a grave insult to the institution! Or at least thats how it feels sometimes
@@aguspuig6615 There are a large number of people who let any small degree of authority get to their heads. You see it from hall monitors to senators. Though it seems fitting to me that Dredd and numerous other dystopias come out of the UK, with such an overbearing government and a populous that's more than willing to tattle.
@@negative6442 numerous quality dystopian stories come out of the UK firstly because they had a very close encounter with fascism literally just a stone throws away from invading at one point in WW2. And secondly because the UK often looks at America in horror and sees what it could become. Certainly not the land of the free. Dredd isn't based on nice British bobbies, is he? He's based on the US Policing style including militarisation, violence, "catch perp without regard for public safety" and the death penalty.
I thought that was a particularly good line that gives us some insight into that legal system. He's not 100% certain, but it's entirely his subjective perception. Other judges in the same circumstances might well be 100% certain of guilt, since there's no evidentiary review. I know I've on occasion been 100% certain of something, then turned out to be wrong.
Twenty years on the job...never wrote anyone for less than twenty over the limit, cut more loose than I booked, and tried to apply the rule I was taught on day one..."treat people how you would want to be treated"...in the end, the day after I hung it up...nothing changed...it was a job...nothing more...
You should mention the content, was it 20 over the limit in a 30 zone? Because that's the difference between "just getting mangled" and "instant death" if in a collision, especially with a child. If it was in a 50 zone then it makes no difference since people should never be on the road when that sort of speed is around. People think speeding is a relatively harmless thing and the grim reality is that it can mean a lot as force = mass*accelleration. The mass provided by a car stays constant, the acceleration can change, and it means that a car going 30 will transfer significantly less force upon impact than if it travels 50. Add to that the brake length that's increased by the acceleration of the vehicle.
@@jashloseher578 Alternatively, those people should never have gone too fast in the first place? This is the only situation where people go "no no, take it easy on the punishment," because they can imagine them doing it. They can never imagine the person being hit where the "innocent" increase in speed is the difference between life and death. In the years I drove a car I never sped even once because I know the significance of f=m*a in practice.
For your segment on Law, I'm always reminded of the hostage scene in the Urban film. Despite the ruthless nature of Mega City One, and Dredd not doing much in negotiation, when he still saves the woman who no doubt understands how cold Judges can be, she still thanks him for saving her. As far as I remember, it's also the only time anyone says thank you in the film. One woman even shuts Anderson down when she tries to.
I had to go and see this movie after I saw you uploaded it. Waited a little bit, but literally just finished it and immediately went back to your channel to watch your review. Very well said. Personally I'm more for Dredd than against it, because while he is rigid and uncorruptible, he is still fair in his distribution of the law. He was not willing to kill the perp they had captured (at first atleast) even though Anderson was almost certain he was guilty of murder, because she was not 100% certain, only 99%. And atleast he gave the vagrant a warning to get out of there (a warning that would have saved his life if he listened to Dredd mind you), before deciding to arrest him as well. But Dredd is an example of the Judge system working right. He is exceptional at his job. And that's the scary thing. Every other judge has the same powers vested in them, and as shown in the movie, not every judge is as perfect or even close to adequate (judges willing to be paid off to kill their own). I highly doubt the four Judges that betrayed Dredd are the only "bad apples" in the system. Seems like the society isn't so far from our own. Atleast cops still have to wear body cams.
I worked as a cop for twenty years and can tell you that there is no answer to the dilemmas you bring up. I believed in the law and in my own life experiences to make my decisions. With that said the more people you add into that system of decision making the worse things become. As you go up the chain of command priorities on whether to arrest someone or not change. Things like budgets, public opinion, showing activity, and many other things get added in. The man on the front line should be in the best position to decide whether to arrest but to many people want to play chief. Unfortunately the ability for individual officers to use their own discretion on whether to arrest no longer exist. Agencies lower standards accepting anyone because of personnel shortages which leads to bad decisions on the street. So now supervisors make the call on almost everything. Those same supervisors are yes men that are promoted for their ability to not make waves and to do as they are told. So on many occasions I would watch situations go out of control because no one could make a decision. One supervisor after the next would have to keep asking permission from someone higher up and by the time they made a decision things were out of control. So while Dredd is the extreme I truly believe fewer more highly qualified and highly trained officers with true discretion on whether to arrest or not is the way to go.
This tracks with something else I've noticed over my lifetime. When I was younger the term was "policing" but has gradually become "law enforcement." Policing implies regulating behavior, keeping people within specified limits. Law enforcement is more about punishing people for breaking rules. More rigid and with less regard for circumstances or consequences. Which also paces with the lowering of standards you mention.
@@feralhistorian exactly correct. When I started community policing was still very big but gradually went away. As time progressed in my career I watched as “activity” and “stats” became the most important thing. You would here things like “you need to get your stats up” or “you need to show more activity” which is ridiculous. I patrolled my area religiously and focused on higher levels of crime but because I did this my arrest stats or ticket stats would drop. When you would explain that one you can’t make crime happen and two if I was doing my job effectively my areas crime rates would drop or stay at low levels but that didn’t matter. They would only look at a spreadsheet and say things like you have fewer arrests then this person or fewer tickets then that person. It was lunacy because we all worked in different areas some with much higher crime rates then others so of course officers had different stats. They never looked at what the crime rate did in areas where certain officers worked which would show who was most effective. Most new officers were afraid to take reports because they couldn’t do the job. So most would just do traffic stop after traffic stop to avoid real work. Then brag to supervisor’s about how many tickets they wrote or how man weed arrests they made. It was sad to see things changing and with a generation a anti social iPad gamers taking over you could just see the results daily. They hide in their cars then because they have no social skills they didn’t understand how to talk and interact with citizens, hell they even gave me a trainee that clearly had Asperger’s. She had no business making it to field training but because she was female and they needed bodies she was pushed through. To no surprise she didn’t make it through but she should have never made it passed the academy level. When I talked to her teachers later they said she failed every test and task she was given but under the new standards she had to be shown the correct way then tested again until she passed. This was a perfect example of everyone get a medal. Why do you think you keep seeing video after video of cops screaming at people just yelling orders and demands without listening to the people they are interacting with GET ON THE GROUND GET ON THE GROUND GET ON THE GROUND over and over like a robot. Screaming ain’t working but they have know idea what to do next.
@@metalmarine8259 I get it. I've known several cops myself over the years and a couple of them were good, honest people that I would trust to do the right thing in tough situations. We need more like them. A couple others were those slugs you mention. Dumb goons with a power complex sent out on the street to harass people. They're a big part of the reason I left that path. When a police officer stops a vehicle or approaches a residence, he has no idea if there's a friendly harmless fellow or an armed psycho behind that door. But unfortunately these days it's the same for the other side of the encounter too. I know there's no easy answers, but I do know that lower standards to get more bodies on the street is only gonna make it worse.
@@feralhistorian Police here in Scotland tended to be very much of a "community PEACE officer" ethos, but the plain clothes (CID) tended to got corrupted from 70s onwards, alas It's extremely rare over here for police to kill anyone, though gun crime is very rare, knife etc is common but still our police have an ethos of "peace" indeed our prime criminal law is "breaching the peace", and they are VERY good at patience and avoiding escalation
"Drug bust. Perps were...uncooperative." Dredd is one of my favorite movies in the 21st century. Just from a simple storytelling perspective, it's a rare model of efficiency in how every single scene moves the story forward and it's only as long as it needs to be (95 minutes), unlike the sprawling "epics" foisted on moviegoers regularly. I cover the IRS as part of my job and there's a similar thing with them: Regardless of who's in charge, whether appointed under one administration or another, the enduring posture of the agency is that ALL taxpayers (yes, you, too) are criminals whether they know it or not and it's just a matter of tracking them down or waiting until they do something big enough to get noticed.
Damn good channel. It's nice to watch this kind of content without being yelled at for not believing, or having my own ideology babied and catered too.
One of my all time favourite quotes is "There are no solutions, there are only trade-offs" Every single choice, every single policy, every single ideology. They all have upsides and downsides. That's not to say all options are equal, just that no matter what you choose you'll be helping some and hurting others. What we deem is fairest is ultimately based on our own biases.
@@Trepur349 Sowell quote? It's applicable to everything, but he made it mainly in the context of policymaking. That's where people tend to disguise their pet causes as the public good, when it's good for some of the public and worse for everyone else. He even pointed out a funny example with laws against murder leading to extreme cases of avoidable drawn out agony in terminally ill patients, because the hospital wanted to avoid any chance of being liable. Little Timmy will have to tough it out for a few extra hours of indescribable agony, since his parents are apparently less able to sue if the hospital does that. The point is that there's always a cost-benefit analysis with legislation, no matter how obvious the upsides are and how exceptional the downsides are.
@@DefinitelyNotAMachineCultist Yeah it's a Sowell quote, I chose not to mention that because he's a pretty divisive figure But yeah, he's absolutely correct here
I've found your channel like two weeks ago and I've gone through out just about all of the videos! Such great commentary. Please continue your hard work!
The novelizations are pretty hilarious also. There’s one part where Dredd gets in to a violent confrontation with a perp. It results in some of the guy’s blood splashing on the ground. For that? Dredd gives him an additional six months for littering.
My father was an Air Force Policeman (back before they called them Security Forces), stationed in Germany in the late sixties. He was a real "make the fellows laugh, carry the occasional drunk soldier to his barracks and hold his arm up for him to help him salute" type of policeman. When he got home to Texas in '71, he wanted to join the civilian Police Force (in one of the largest cities in the country). My mom BEGGED him not to try out, but he did and luckily, as he tells it, they saw right through him and knew he wasn't the type to do what they needed him to do. I'm grateful that I didn't grow up with a civilian Police officer for a Dad... I respect the law but... I think it would've changed him. As you said... Judge Dredd can be looked at not only from the citizens point of view, but from the Judges as well. Btw, the comics are also quite good at showing both viewpoints. As are some of the audiobook short stories, which I highly recommend. (Voice acted and everything!)
It's funny you say that cause my dad IS a civilian policeman in a big city (Milwaukee if you're curious). Dunno how much it actually affected him though. Had his faults as a father but overall still an honest and mostly decent and joyful guy.
After learning about asset forfeiture a few years back, I've joked that "crime doesn't pay, but law enforcement certainly does." They really do get away with just about anything. A few months ago I remember reading that there are individual officers in the NYPD who have cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil cases due to their negligence. Ridiculous.
Just heard from a lawyer the other day that talks to people all the time who have no idea about asset forfeiture. They all react pretty much the same way. "That can't be legal." I think you missed the part about how they not only just take your money for suspecting that it's ill gotten gains, but when they just "suspect" that you're going to do something illegal with it, and take it that way. The no arrest, no charge, no trial thing is neat too.
A few years ago I was crossing the border from Canada and the first question the customs agent asked was "are you carrying any large sums of cash?" Obviously the correct answer is no, but I was a bit shocked they were so blatant about it.
@@feralhistorian Years ago, I had a buddy who ran a card shop. Told me a story about how there was a break-in, and afterwards one of the cops handling the case "collected" one of his baseball cards that hadn't been touched, as "evidence." Apparently it sat on the dude's desk for a few years before a different cop my friend knew just yoinked it one day and brought it back. There was no proper record of it, so... 🤷♂ I was told that cop shop got cleaned out for corruption multiple times in the decade that followed, but that was before I lived there. Small town Nebraska.
@@Wikrinpolice helped themselves to both my Surefire and Maglite torches when they took me for questioning one night over a complaint made by a neighbour (this was in Northern Ireland about 15 years ago) I later met both local/beat police officers who had nothing to do with the incident above separately and they both apologised for my treatment explaining that their superior told them to assume my guilt because in that particular area I was in the political/religious minority and they didn't want to rock the boat
@@derekmcmanus8615 Dang. Would not expect them to fess up to that kind of blatant discrimination, but also, I have only a passing familiarity with the region. Hope the aforementioned superior is no longer in a position to push that shit, at least.
The whole you dont look ready at the beginning of the movie, and now you look ready line at the end of the movie, is just such a great delivery of a simple set of lines.
The original Dredd was a satire, the short comics which were in newspapers were rather funny. Even the full length comics had a lot of humour in them. I think it got a lot more serious later, when its popularity grew. The 2012 movie was great.
The first comic strip I remember had a civilian woman help Dredd catch a fleeing criminal who would have otherwise escaped. Getting a few years (or was it decades?) in the Iso-Cubes along with the perp for vigilantism for her trouble. Kafkaesque, more RoboCop than RoboCop. It was black comedy (or tragicomedy), definitely with an anti-authoritarian streak. It would be too over the top to not be funny, if not for the fact that there was definitely a real world case you could find that was similarly stupid somewhere. I think other titles in pop-culture like Rogue Trader (basically the earliest edition of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game), were heavily inspired by early satirical 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, before following a similar path, taking itself seriously, and becoming less overtly anti-authoritarian.
You forgot the best part about Civil Asset Forfeiture: if you are found not guilty, it can be months or even years before you get your property back. Better hope it wasn't your rent or mortgage payment.
One of favourite Dredd moments was from a one-shot comic. A teenager was out past curfew and killed in a traffic accident. Dredd goes to the family, informs them that their son is dead, and instructs them to turn themselves into the nearest Iso Cube - 30 days for letting the child break curfew. That is who Dredd is. Not the grand arcs where he's fighting Judge Death or some other apocalyptic event, but the day to day, routine, utterly mechanical application of the law. A rule was broken, a punishment is required. End of.
The first comic strip I remember had a civilian woman help Dredd catch a fleeing criminal who would have otherwise escaped. She got a few years in the Iso-Cubes along with the perp for vigilantism, IIRC. The strips felt way more Kafkaesque than any of the stand-alone one-shot comics or multi-issue runs. Dredd was more RoboCop than RoboCop was, weirdly enough.
My favorite detail about life in Megacity One from the early Dredd is the routine audits they do of random citizens to find out what laws they're breaking. Dredd is on an audit where they find the man did nothing wrong, and he is very suspicious, saying that citizens are *always* breaking laws but unaware of it, and that they are warned of the laws they are breaking and let go without punishment. That's why I don't think a psychic Dredd would be so bad. Oh, and the guy they found who hadn't been breaking any laws? They dragged him back to the station and put him under continuous interrogation by psychic judges. The law said interrogation could only last for so long, so after time expired they would swap in a new judge and start another interrogation until they broke him (he was trained in psychic defense, which only made them more suspicious) and found out what what he was REALLY up to.
I appreciate how you assessed the dichotomous frame work of the Judge Police System. In that Dredd is the persona of law incorruptible. incorruptible by the evils of authority while also incorruptible by its magnanimity. The Unjust Tyrant and the Just Tyrant; Dredd is neither he is within and without, simply a Tyrant. However if this is applicable to Dredd could it also be applicable to Anderson? We've seen her benevolence in dishing out justice, does that mean Anderson must have an inverse persona brewing within her? They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and the intention of putting her on the beat was to focus on being aggressive with crime not in the form of a sledgehammer, but a dagger in the dark. If Anderson with her psychic abilities tempered by a balanced view of justice is the dagger, what happens if her inverse also exists? A sledgehammer in the dark walking not only the beat but the precinct as well? What if like in classic comic-book trope form Anderson becomes jaded as u mentioned or goes rogue? Imagine an Anderson that reads minds not to dish out legitimate justice, but to wield it as a hammer against anyone and everyone. Like a sort of 1950s McCarthyism unbridled where ever there is a citizen there is only a criminal. They just don't know it yet. Something like Minority Report unchained. What happens when a Anderson has enough power to be not only a judge, jury, and executioner to everyone outside the force but the same to everyone within the force? How are you going to refute Anderson when you can't read minds? At this moment in the precinct your not an enemy of the state: your an enemy of Anderson. And Anderson cant be wrong. So did Dredd potentially train a warrior-priest of justice or a warrior-priest of injustice? (Is she Luke or Vader?)
@8:15 your comment on "half the population being dead" is actually explored in the comics with an arc, (Anderson is a big part of that one :) ) called "Judge Death". In one version of Megacity 1 the authorities used techniques to combine all the "good qualities" of Dredd, Anderson and other Judges into a small cadre of "Super Judges" and let them enforce the law. These got together and pondered the actual reason behind "crime' and came to the conclusion that people will always commit crime so the "solution" is of course to ensure there are no people around to commit crimes. Once done with their world they no longer had a purpose but one day an exploration group from the "Dredd" world-line learns how to cross from that one to their world. Hilarity ensues of course and Dredd is given a direct vision of what he himself can and is becoming. Good stuff. I'm likely overthinking it but in context I've often thought that possibly this is the actual background of the Terminator movies. Given Skynet is based in and on the American military values and rationale which means that in the very end our oath and allegiance is 'technically" to the Constitution and not the people or state of "America". One thing that is pretty obvious is that "people" are actually the only practical and possible "danger" to the Constitution. It does not take an evil supercomputer AI to kind of see a "solution" to that problem.... A "secondary" from that explains both the "time travel" and why Skynet seems to keep "losing" the war. Traveling back and altering the past would seem to allow a chance to try and experiment with various "outcomes" especially when the initial factors have to be set from the future rather than the past. Anyway loving the channel and really binging it when I really SHOULD be doing other things :) Thanks
I've worked in prisons & jails for decades...I work with elderly now, & my son is in high school. One recurring question I have...is who polices whose who police (anything not just cops)...?...more so, who polices those supposedly policing the police or are if even only a little, above the police? That is where we truly are today. Corruption of authority from HS staff picking on kids, to politicians becoming the most successful (insider)investors ever...no one is batting an eye or wondering how...
One thing in the 2012 version I noticed that you didn't touch on; Anderson doesn't wear the iconic helmet, which if you look at as a designed item, bears a non-trivial resemblance to horse blinders. She applies the law with the benefit of peripheral vision (letting the techhead flee), where Dredd cannot, because he has none.
One of the Dredd comics I remember most was about a woman who broke a jar of jam in a supermarket and left without paying for it. She was overcome by fears of Judges finding out and coming for her and her recurring nightmares drove her completely insane. Dredd, on a visit to the kook cubes, was told that there are loads like her, but dismisses the medic, saying that "a few wackos is a reasonable price for keeping the streets safe." or words to that effect. I was reminded of it, when you talked about weaponized police being pointed at you. The Judges in Dredd are feared and hated, except when people need them. They carry out random "crime blitzes" bashing down doors, to find out what crimes people have done and everyone is always guilty of something. This is intended as a deterrent, so that people don't think they can get away with anything. It is very dystopian. Yet those same judges are shown battling gangs, cartel and mutants to keep even a single civilian safe. In the Democracy story arc, when the civilians are eventually given a chance to overthrow the judges, they choose not to, because they would rather be safe than free.
South africa as a vision for the future will never not be horrific. Dreadful, even. Warriors shape society, society shapes warriors, on & on & on...although a warrior preisthood doesn't sound bad(for now)
What do you think the Judges are? All end up dead or going to The Cursed Earth to impart law until they die. They worship Law. Dredd is the best there is in a place and time that NEEDS him. Defund the police creates hellpits like El Salvador was or Mexico IS. Wrong laws create the Soviet Union.
This is what I love about RUclips. I can be on the site for years and come across a great video like this. Interesting, nuanced. Haven't watched your other stuff yet, but looking forward to do so.
@ 9:39 i joined and stayed with it, now 28 years in and I've never gone with the quotas, never fell in with the job politics or blindly followed every order but questioned those that needed questioning, shunned by management but always asked my opinion by everyone else there, and I'm good with that 👍
I work at a juvenile detention center. I've always admired the police and will always respect them. That being said ive lost all hope in the legal system. I have lost count of how many autistic kids I've seen get convicted, ive seen boys who need to be in a psych ward returned to us multiple times because the doctors dont wanna deal with the. We've had the same kid come back in for committing the same crime less than a month after released deemed 'incompetent for trial' then released again knowing full well when he turbs 18 theyre just gonna throw him in prison. I try every day with these kids constantly trying to make them laugh while teaching them respect an violence isnt always the answer. Most days i realize how pointless it all is... but every now an then I'll have one or two kids that genuinely start to do better and it keeps me going. When i first started i trued to be 100% by the book but ive defended them infront of my boss several times for breaking rules. This movie really hits differently after my experiences
I get that. I taught high school in Detroit for a few years, all kids kicked out of the regular public school system for various issues. It was intense with a very low success rate. But greater than zero, so I think it was worth it.
One of the most funny things About the Judge Dredd comics is Sugar is illegal because its considered a drug but at the same time Mega City holds eating competitions which has made people so fat that they have a device called a belly wheel to hold up their gut
You say that like the food in Mega City One is steak and vegetables. Also, it's not just eating competitions, the biggest "Fatties" become celebrities.
It’s so funny what you say about being a cop it’s exactly what kept me from being a police officer as well. I went through the Academy was on my probationary time, and I just fell out of love with it.
Another great analysis. Having read the original Dredd comics in 2000AD back in high school, I utterly despised the Stalone version. Karl Urban gave us a much truer interpretation, showing Dredd as he was despite sweeping away the fascism satire of the comics. And never removing his helmet. He was never a hero, his religious zeal for the law has always been the problem with not just him, but megacity 1 on the whole. Having grown up in Oakland in the 70s/80s I have some experience with "those neighborhoods" and there is no dilemma. Through the decades I have never once seen the police save a life or improve a situation, either micro or macro scale. Decades of statistics bear me out. The people who talk of needing them are universally suburbanites who won't get out of their cars downtown because they once saw a crack head but have never been subjected to any crime not perpetrated by the bank.
You have an avitar of a demon and talk about Justice? How the Cops cause more problems? Your just hoping for the caos so you can live your "best life". When the caos comes no one gets to live the "Best Life". Whens the last time you were mugged or did you do the mugging Demon boy?????? LOL
Judge Dredd is probably the purest depictions of uncompromising ordered good. So uncompromising that the film chose to illustrate it at the climax. We see Dredd willing to sacrifice an entire city block, his trainee, and himself, than to compromise. He will not negotiate with criminals. Batman, would have let the joker go here. And that’s why Dredd is a great character. He makes you think about the principles of society and what you should be willing to lay down as sacrifice for them a how much if ever is too much.
An idea that's been floated around lately to make the law enforcement system do its job in a way that balances justice with mercy is to defund the police BUT instead of giving their funds to social workers, have that money go to the local sheriff's department. Sheriffs are elected officials, which gives them an extra layer of accountability for their actions and the actions of their deputies, and most states require sheriffs to live in the county they serve. This means that sheriffs and their deputies have a personal connection to the people and place they protect, so, they'll be more likely to enforce the laws that actually help the public (stopping robberies, murderes, etc.) and be more leaniant on minor infractions. I've talked to a lot of deputies in my neck of the woods, and they said they didn't even bother pulling someone over for speeding unless they were going 15 or more over the limit.
It would probably be an improvement. Based on my own experience, while I've encountered some deputies that took their brown shirt to heart, they've generally been vastly more reasonable than municipal cops.
For me police officers have been more chill with me than sheriff deputies. Out of all my encounters being CHP, police and sheriff deputy has been the only one that pulled a gun out on me. Reason was when he asked for Drivers license I reached for my pocket to pull out my DL like assuming he wanted to see it at that very moment like police and CHP do. Nope he overreacted pulled a gun I and yelled to put my hands up. I was with my wife and son which he was 1 1/2 at the time.
The more local, the smaller the problem and the easier to fix. It's not perfect, but I tend to think that any decentralizing is a move in the right direction.
I just found your channel today and several of your videos hit the mark with me. My life has been devoted to military and law enforcement service. The things you said when you explained why you decided not to be a cop possibly ring true where you live. It is not accurate in my agency and things like writing for five over would get you laughed off of the force. Normally when someone tells me they wanted to be a cop, but something prevented it, I think to myself, they did not really want it. I have personally arrested a cop from my agency in his own home and driven him to our jail. As you have lived your life in your way, I do not expect to change your opinion. I have been a cop for 36 years and counting so my perspective is going to be different than most. Especially the haters. I like your content and I look forward to seeing more.
It definitely varies between agencies. Where I live now, I've never had a negative encounter with the local police. In some other places I've lived, it seemed like the entire department existed to harass people and maximize fines and arrests for petty bullshit. Consequently my view of law enforcement is a little schizo. I want to give police the benefit of the doubt and I've known enough good, honest cops that I don't think that's absurd. But I've also been subjected to illegal searches and every time there's a case with planted evidence or early-morning raids when a knock on the door would suffice it erodes that presumption. Individual police officers I usually get along with really well, but I try to avoid "the police" in the abstract sense whenever possible because both sides of the encounter never really know what to expect. In any case, I hope you continue to enjoy the content here and I always appreciate feedback from the law enforcement and military side.
My grandfather was CHP. There were many local departments he did not ever call on for backup, because he believed they were either corrupt or too gung ho. He wasn't exactly the straightest arrow himself, and his time on a hostage response team indicated he didn't shy away from violence.
4:25 I disagree here. I felt he was lenient based on circumstance. That homeless man was breaking the law and he was willing to let him go; the man was given a chance to disappear, to get away with breaking the law.
Stallone Dredd had the visuals and street view down right, but Urban is the better Dredd. You must resist the temptation to give Dredd character development. Dredd should not change. The people around him do.
You have quickly become my favorite RUclipsr. I really appreciate that you seem to cover things critically, but not dismissively. People making bad choices or pursuing bad goals are just that, not giant and wretched evils. Problems are just problems, not dragons to slay or the world against you or us or whoever. I also appreciate that you give the criticism evenly. It has grown disturbing to me, to realize how much of the discussions I see or hear are centered around the idea of one side being righteous while the other is inherently evil, where each side never mentions its mistakes or trespasses but never relents in bringing up the others. It's all so tiresome, because it always seems to dance around the issues, rather than address them. Your point about the law being a lever, controlled by the hand of whoever is in charge and with consequences proportional to its reach, is well said. It illustrates something I've been noticing, but could never pin down.
Fantastic video. I think that you should watch the documentary about the creation of Judge Dredd. I feel like you would appreciate the satirical nature of the character that isn't conveyed too well by either film.
The book 'rise of the warrior cop' is really brilliant if you want a well written in-depth exploration of militarised American police. Very tough reading at times
When considering the 'HERO' in any story, I always take in consideration the society and culture that has produced and nurtured such a HERO. Judge Dredd's world in basically, in my opinion, a society where people live in towering City Clock 'neighborhoods' with all the irony, social pressure, and social violence that that entails. Now MAGNIFY that oppressive situation ten thousand fold by enclosing several hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of 'BLOCKS' into the story's concept of a MEGA CITY. Such concentrations of Human Emotion, Human Greed, Human Opportunism, Human Anger and Hate, and Human Indifference, Just to name a few of the basic Human Vices produces a cauldrons of Human Injustice that what we call a 'NORMAL' Justice System cannot handle. Thais, the JUDGES corp was created; bred and trained to be Judge, Jury, and if need be Executioners in order to Manage the almost overwhelming amount of Human Capacity for Cruelty, Depravity, and Evil in an EXPEDITIOUS manner. Your video , I feel, overemphasizes the potential for the ABUSE OF AUTHORITY in such a system for dispensing Justice. No argument there; it will happen occasionally. BUT, I'm guessing that most of your experience with the DREDD 'universe' is based mostly on the two movies that you cited. That makes me suspect that you have very little experience with the comic book stories of DREDD which fleshes out DREDD's world far beyond the 'Hollywood' - Stallone' superhero version. Try READING a few of the comix and graphic novels. It might broaden your outlook on Dredd comix's concept of "THE LAW". Then compare it to the plodding pace and INEFFICIENCY of dispensed Human Justice in our current day civilizations. A good thought provoking video, but definitely narrow minded due to lack of experience in spite of your age, I think.
_"Thais, the JUDGES corp was created; bred and trained to be Judge, Jury, and if need be Executioners in order to Manage the almost overwhelming amount of Human Capacity for Cruelty, Depravity, and Evil in an EXPEDITIOUS manner."_ If I'm not mistaken I think the Judges were created right _before_ the atomic exchange that led to the megacities.
6:50 I like the conditioning of the audience toward militarized police. There are only two criminal women, and the application of justice is clearly warranted in the framework of the movies morality. But the questionable use of lawfare is only pointed at men. I guess it's a movie for teen boys mostly, but the conditioning seeps out. Women 50% of the voting population don't need to worry about indiscriminate violence from the law. It is only ever pointed at men (in the film), and men are inherently violent. When you don't see how it can be pointed at you, then it's easier to vote for.
The policies of lawmakers are to blame and the way police can highlight that is to enforce AS WRITTEN till everyone else gets the message and changes it. Judge Dredd does far more good than bad and if ALL police did the same the command would have to change their laws in short order. Better to have an incorruptible person in authority that might harsh your day than a corruptible person that will destroy multiple peoples lives.
I always wondered if the world was really as bad as it is portrayed in Dredd. Or was that only how Judge Dredd viewed it and it was skewed to looking dystopian and we were seeing it through his eyes.
I was in the military, and I've been a Police Officer for over 10 years in one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in the US .... i joined that department over others because I didnt care about the physical danger as long as I could be effective, and because I knew I couldnt stomach the idea of being some state police or county officer giving speeding tickets to tax payers (acting like some sort of tax man) ... im also very pro 2A and want citizens to be able to protect themselves without me, and im very pleased with the Bruin decision as well as most states moving towards constitutional carry, I can speak to the fact that the vast majority of the cops in my big city department are the same ... we are more afraid of being fired or sued over doing basic police work and normal uses of force rather than being killed or wounded by criminals, and we are sick of the law being so weak and impotent that we can lock a juvenile up in the afternoon for robbery, and yet they are commiting robbery again during the same night because of the catch and release system... The legal system and police work like mankind can never be perfect or close to perfect... but i believe that the ideal should be that over half our laws should be thrown away and peoples constitutional rights should be upheld to the highest degree; however, the laws we do keep on the books (especially the ones that punish true menaces to society like Armed Robbery, Car Jacking, B&E ect) should be enforced vigorously.... if you're out there being a parasite to society and committing 3,4,5 carjackings that isn't because you were raised low income or you're trying to put food on your table... you're just being malious to everyone around you, and you need to go to jail for 5 to 10 years after 3 or 4 offenses ... thats the least we can do to hold people accountable for their actions ... Of course, I could get into that families and community are the true core elements to avoid rampant crime, but I hope everyone knows that already, and im trying to keep this comment focused on the law and order aspect .... I leave off with this, the Police or city watch of yesteryear would not be needed, but for maybe 5 percent of the population of any given region .... and those 5 percent or so have proven they don't have regard for civil society or their victims ... therefore the only thing that can stop them would be fear... fear of consequences of getting caught (legal system) and the fear of the Police who will aggressively root them out (Law Enforcement) you take away the fear, and they have little to worry about besides other predators....
@@feralhistorian thank you, and I enjoyed the video ... Dredd was one of my favorite movies of the early 2010s... and it's thought provoking as well...
My grandfather was incredibly similar to you in his beliefs. He left the navy and became a crime scene photographer, working his way up to chief inspector (UK). I'm just glad he cant see what has become of this country, since it has been wholly subverted
Lots of good points, but saying that Dredd lacks compassion is untrue, especially in the context of your example from the 2012 film. The homeless guy was simply told to get out of sight (move along) and would be ignored. The 2012 film was also a precursor to the increasing problem of US law enforcement acting as judge, jury and executioner in many cases. Their motto is "You may beat the rap but you can't beat the ride." Which is putting citizens into the position of legal resistance to LEO unlawful orders (while these trained liars claim every word out of their mouths are "lawful orders"). "Just comply and fight it in court.", many advise, but the problem with that comes from the potential for death, permanent injury or extended hospital stays with no penalties to the cops, unless they happen to be caught on camera independent from police control. Now, citizens have a choice, comply or resist, but if the choice is resist, then the only option is self defense against a lethally armed opponent. Obviously, citizens are rarely ready for that. When they are, the cops are lauded as "heroes". Recent case, harassing a man in his car parked in public for no good or apparent legal reason. When he refused to comply with unlawful demands, more were called, terroristic threats of violence issued by the cops and the victim of the police harassment ended up dead and put a few cops in the hospital. If they had just left the man alone and not demanded things unlawfully, nobody would have been hurt.
2000ad was responsible for some fantastic comic book characters not just Judge Dredd but also Slaine, Devlin Waugh, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, ABC warriors, Halo Jones, Nemesis The Warlock, Finn and Bad Company.
I grew up with 2000AD and Dredd as a kid in Thatcher's Britain and, even if some of the stories do get silly, he's a very complex character. You have to know that the Judge system was created because traditional police and courts were no longer able to cope with a rising tsunami of crime. They were too slow, too weak, and too ineffective. At first the Judges, with power to dispense instant on-the-spot sentences, worked alongside regular police. After a nuclear war, the survivors built the new autonomous Mega Cities over the ruins (no more USA), decided to abandon democracy and the constitution, and gave full governmental powers to the Judges - a police state. It's brutal, but it's the only way to keep the lid on the pressure cooker of 800,000,000 people and prevent total chaos. Unlike some comic superheroes, Dredd ages in real time and he has slowly developed as a character. He has questioned his role in the system, challenged his superiors, and been instrumental in implementing changes. He is so respected, it would be a brave Chief Judge who didn't listen to his advice. When the people demanded democracy, it was Dredd who insisted it be a free and fair referendum. In the end, the citizens voted for the status quo. Better the devil you know.
Which is why Injustice Superman is superior, in the end. Dredd is a weak character, and even the likes of Iron Arm Warrior would be able to overpower his agenda. “Better the devil you know” also backfired miserably, as far as Plutonian is considered.
The shield of the coward and the sword of the wicked, nice! It's so rare to meet a critical thinker on RUclips more less anywhere else. I quit being a prison guard for kind of the same reason.
I took Dredds response to Judge Hershey's mindread as not constituting evidence. They want her as a tool to get the evidence they need, not actually to use her ability to proof cases. While I am not sure if Dredd is supposed to be a hero in the movie, many scenes support it. The beginning scenes most importantly.
If you read only one Dredd comic in your life, then read America. Aside from being extremely well written, it reveals the true brutality of the Judge system, and the mercilessness of Dredd himself when faced with a threat to law and order.
Some of Judge Dredd comic stories are absolutely brilliant, Dredd himself transforms as he grows older into the City himself. Part fascist authoritarian part its Hero, in a world context that does not offer something really better than mega city one. I really love its invented language full of terms of different types of perps and weird mimetic movements. There was a an advert for a chain of food malls or wtv you call them in english near me, saying they had their own laboratory testing that the met put into products was the real deal, that looked straight out of a strip in judge dredd. Funny as hell.
Tangential, but a piece of advice I've seen directed toward both lawmakers and people advocating for various legal "solutions" to social problems is, "When writing law, always keep in mind how your worst enemy could weaponize your law against _you."_
Not just an enemy, they should consider how any potential bad actor might use such laws. There is a reason killers love red flag laws and gun free zones.
@wolvarine35 The Law of Unintended Consequences is a separate problem; and yes, that is another thing lawmakers really should consider when making law. But I'm talking specifically about laws (or in some cases executive orders or even judicial precedents) that do _exactly_ what they say on the tin... Until the party that enacted them loses an election, and suddenly find themselves rather uncomfortably having to live under their own laws as enforced by their opposition.
Bvb😅rrff😅I I lo h tot f th h th g
@@wolvarine35ii
Jp
The only like 'correction' that I'd offer is that Dredd(2012) did not 'reimagine' the character from the Stallone movie. The Stallone Dredd was effectively "in name only", and broke probably one of the cardinal rules of the character(never take off the helmet/show his face), and the 2012 Dredd is much more of an adaption of the comics than the Stallone movie ever even tried to be.
Dredd's character, certainly, but the Stallone movie's setting and depiction of the megacity is definitely truer to the comics than Dredd.
Much worse movie of course, but it's a product of its times.
I thought that , as a 2000AD reader from prog one to about prog 500 the earlier film looked much more like the comics but it was too comedic. The later film didn't have the look but did have the feel.
My buddy made the helmets for the Stallone movie - they had to have different helmets for different camera angles because they couldn't make them work...
@johnwade1095 haha that's pretty cool. Interesting they couldn't make them work... But big helmets.
True, I did not really like the Stallone move, and actually, the helmet is the least of the problem.
The Stallone version did not stay in character in so many ways and while as you mentions, overall design was more in line with the comic, it was still wrong. Even in the comics the streets where open to the sky and there was more separation between buildings, it was not like one big building as its mostly looks on the ground in the Stallone movie.
The later one has large swats of lower level buildings which was not part of the original and the arcology towers where to far apart, but the overall feel was still better in every way in my opinion.
6:40 civil asset forfeiture as a matter of law is kind of funny because unreasonable search and seizure is forbidden by the highest law of the land yet no proof of guilt is required and you have to prove your innocence to get your property back with the state not even having to provide an attorney to help you since they haven’t accused you of a crime just your money with no proof their was a crime in the first place. As a law and order republican with a brain it’s gross.
In purely monetary terms, I've had more stolen from me by police than by unaffiliated thieves.
There are individual police officers that I have the highest respect for, but when the laws themselves are corrupt you have to be leery of those who enforce them as a general rule.
@@feralhistorian The mental gymnastics required to rationalize civil asset forfeiture (and home equity theft) beggar belief.
As a left-wing bleeding heart it's always great when we find that there's actually a lot more that we agree on then we disagree about!
"Civil asset forfeiture," is to theft, what "Independent pharmaceutical consultancy," is to, uh, well.... 😂
Asset forfeiture is done in Australia, but only when it involves serious cash or assets that need explaining. And it has to be justified in court before it happens . If you can prove you own a couple of houses , massive wads of cash and a few high end cars on $80k a year then that I think is reasonable. A
Read Dredd since it started (boy I feel old) until the 90s, it's WAY deeper than you may think at first.
The "Democracy" storyline (you can get it as a separate collection now I think) is especially good in regard to your points, but "Cursed Earth", "Block/Apocalypse War" sagas and more have really valid things to say, even if sometimes by satire and over the top stuff.
You are right, Dredd is the touchstone the everyone else is framed against, he's more...a force of nature
But at least he's ALWAYS honest and over time you see him question things more and more...hence the "Democracy" storyline is so important and tragic
Was good until about the mid 80's, then it got all whiny lefty with it's anth-thatcher bellyaching
The letter vs Necropolis show the discord inherent in Dredd.
@@victorkreig6089 Thatcher destroyed this country, she was NOT a "Conservative", she was a literally insane, corrupt puppet for the bankers & enshrined a corporate fascist take over of Britain
After The Punisher, Dredd is my favorite. How many has Batman, Superman etc let die to keep his precious morals intact? Yes, fiction I know but being homeless at 9yo in the gang infested 1960s NYC streets taught me much. My current 4.5 million net worth not one penny from welfare, Gvt handouts, scholarships or "affirmative action" Didn’t Earn It programs give me little empathy for most. Ever work 36 hours straight wo closing your eyes once? I can tell you after 30 the hallucinating begins. No drugs, not even coffee...just being a man. Note that again, a man sex emphasis. This mulatto Cuban born votes Trump.
i got the first comic, 2000ad... and was hooked.
The creators of Judge Dredd were very deliberate in their portrayal of a zealot cop in a fascistic dystopia. He's both the hero and the villain in his stories. John Wagner was influenced by Dirty Harry movies and life in Thatcherite Britain, which he saw as becoming increasingly right wing. Written as a satire of the times and consumerism. Pat Mills came up with the name, and Carlos Ezquerra came up with the iconic costume.
Anderson doesn't get enough love here imo either, overall she's probably the hero of Dredd, she's certainly the most heroic judge, and her adaptation by Thirlby's Anderson is a really great adaptation in her own right.
Did I read somewhere that Ezquerra was a refugee from Franco's Fascist Spain?
@@mikefrench882Spain was never Fascist and OP doesn't know what Fascism is.
@@jagd7102 thank you for piquing my interest. I see that Franco’s regime is debated and though supported by the fascist fringe in Spain was not beholden to them; also danced around committing in WW2. Would it be closer to say that he was a Nationalist and a murderer of opponents who certainly borrowed the fascist costume when it suited him?
@@mikefrench882 I would call him a classic conservative authoritarian. Who essentially set his country up to be reclaimed by liberal capitalism.
Dredd is an underrated gem of a movie. Too bad we never got a sequel.
It mostly failed because it tried to market on the 3D hype, but came out late enough that the fad was over and audiences were avoiding 3D movies.
Doesn’t need one
Totally agreed. I partially blame that on Stalone's abomination Judge Dredd, which totally messes up both the title character AND the universe in which it was set.
Given how a lot of sequels are made today I'm kinda glad we didn't.
Nowdays sequels only ruin movies.
An apt analogy. Policing can warp your perspective on humanity, which is exactly why a future like Judge Dredd is so dystopian.
Not even policing as a police officer, the slightest amount of policing it seems. Take a normal person and make them a highschool teacher, suddently wearing a hat isnt just against the rules, its offensive and a grave insult to the institution! Or at least thats how it feels sometimes
@@aguspuig6615 There are a large number of people who let any small degree of authority get to their heads. You see it from hall monitors to senators. Though it seems fitting to me that Dredd and numerous other dystopias come out of the UK, with such an overbearing government and a populous that's more than willing to tattle.
@@negative6442 numerous quality dystopian stories come out of the UK firstly because they had a very close encounter with fascism literally just a stone throws away from invading at one point in WW2. And secondly because the UK often looks at America in horror and sees what it could become. Certainly not the land of the free. Dredd isn't based on nice British bobbies, is he? He's based on the US Policing style including militarisation, violence, "catch perp without regard for public safety" and the death penalty.
@@GeorgeThoughts Sure, but 1984 and V For Vendetta certainly aren't based off of any American model.
We live in the dystopian now.
Judge Dredd in Dredd (2012) refuses to execute a criminal on a 99% certainty of guilt. Granted, it might be that not all Judges are like Dredd.
I thought that was a particularly good line that gives us some insight into that legal system. He's not 100% certain, but it's entirely his subjective perception. Other judges in the same circumstances might well be 100% certain of guilt, since there's no evidentiary review.
I know I've on occasion been 100% certain of something, then turned out to be wrong.
@@feralhistoriansemantic problems
Twenty years on the job...never wrote anyone for less than twenty over the limit, cut more loose than I booked, and tried to apply the rule I was taught on day one..."treat people how you would want to be treated"...in the end, the day after I hung it up...nothing changed...it was a job...nothing more...
You got my respect.
In the end, at its best, it isn't a job that you do to change the world, but to be a part of making sure the world is still standing tomorrow.
Appreciate it. Alas, for every decent man out there, there's another one farming tickets in a speed trap next to an exit ramp.
You should mention the content, was it 20 over the limit in a 30 zone? Because that's the difference between "just getting mangled" and "instant death" if in a collision, especially with a child. If it was in a 50 zone then it makes no difference since people should never be on the road when that sort of speed is around.
People think speeding is a relatively harmless thing and the grim reality is that it can mean a lot as force = mass*accelleration. The mass provided by a car stays constant, the acceleration can change, and it means that a car going 30 will transfer significantly less force upon impact than if it travels 50. Add to that the brake length that's increased by the acceleration of the vehicle.
@@jashloseher578 Alternatively, those people should never have gone too fast in the first place? This is the only situation where people go "no no, take it easy on the punishment," because they can imagine them doing it. They can never imagine the person being hit where the "innocent" increase in speed is the difference between life and death.
In the years I drove a car I never sped even once because I know the significance of f=m*a in practice.
For your segment on Law, I'm always reminded of the hostage scene in the Urban film.
Despite the ruthless nature of Mega City One, and Dredd not doing much in negotiation, when he still saves the woman who no doubt understands how cold Judges can be, she still thanks him for saving her. As far as I remember, it's also the only time anyone says thank you in the film. One woman even shuts Anderson down when she tries to.
Comment for the comment god, engagement for the engagement throne
All hail the Algorithm!
And lo, the Algorithm did see and from on high did sneer upon our works, for its will is unknowable.
@@feralhistorian can I qoute you on that, its an excellent saying...
Praise be to Space King.
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Fun fact, in the mod for Fallout 4, Fallout: London, you can find references to a British-ified Judge Dredd called "Constable Cruel"
I had to go and see this movie after I saw you uploaded it. Waited a little bit, but literally just finished it and immediately went back to your channel to watch your review. Very well said. Personally I'm more for Dredd than against it, because while he is rigid and uncorruptible, he is still fair in his distribution of the law. He was not willing to kill the perp they had captured (at first atleast) even though Anderson was almost certain he was guilty of murder, because she was not 100% certain, only 99%. And atleast he gave the vagrant a warning to get out of there (a warning that would have saved his life if he listened to Dredd mind you), before deciding to arrest him as well. But Dredd is an example of the Judge system working right. He is exceptional at his job. And that's the scary thing. Every other judge has the same powers vested in them, and as shown in the movie, not every judge is as perfect or even close to adequate (judges willing to be paid off to kill their own). I highly doubt the four Judges that betrayed Dredd are the only "bad apples" in the system. Seems like the society isn't so far from our own. Atleast cops still have to wear body cams.
I worked as a cop for twenty years and can tell you that there is no answer to the dilemmas you bring up. I believed in the law and in my own life experiences to make my decisions. With that said the more people you add into that system of decision making the worse things become. As you go up the chain of command priorities on whether to arrest someone or not change. Things like budgets, public opinion, showing activity, and many other things get added in. The man on the front line should be in the best position to decide whether to arrest but to many people want to play chief. Unfortunately the ability for individual officers to use their own discretion on whether to arrest no longer exist. Agencies lower standards accepting anyone because of personnel shortages which leads to bad decisions on the street. So now supervisors make the call on almost everything. Those same supervisors are yes men that are promoted for their ability to not make waves and to do as they are told. So on many occasions I would watch situations go out of control because no one could make a decision. One supervisor after the next would have to keep asking permission from someone higher up and by the time they made a decision things were out of control. So while Dredd is the extreme I truly believe fewer more highly qualified and highly trained officers with true discretion on whether to arrest or not is the way to go.
This tracks with something else I've noticed over my lifetime. When I was younger the term was "policing" but has gradually become "law enforcement." Policing implies regulating behavior, keeping people within specified limits. Law enforcement is more about punishing people for breaking rules. More rigid and with less regard for circumstances or consequences.
Which also paces with the lowering of standards you mention.
@@feralhistorian exactly correct. When I started community policing was still very big but gradually went away. As time progressed in my career I watched as “activity” and “stats” became the most important thing. You would here things like “you need to get your stats up” or “you need to show more activity” which is ridiculous. I patrolled my area religiously and focused on higher levels of crime but because I did this my arrest stats or ticket stats would drop. When you would explain that one you can’t make crime happen and two if I was doing my job effectively my areas crime rates would drop or stay at low levels but that didn’t matter. They would only look at a spreadsheet and say things like you have fewer arrests then this person or fewer tickets then that person. It was lunacy because we all worked in different areas some with much higher crime rates then others so of course officers had different stats. They never looked at what the crime rate did in areas where certain officers worked which would show who was most effective. Most new officers were afraid to take reports because they couldn’t do the job. So most would just do traffic stop after traffic stop to avoid real work. Then brag to supervisor’s about how many tickets they wrote or how man weed arrests they made. It was sad to see things changing and with a generation a anti social iPad gamers taking over you could just see the results daily. They hide in their cars then because they have no social skills they didn’t understand how to talk and interact with citizens, hell they even gave me a trainee that clearly had Asperger’s. She had no business making it to field training but because she was female and they needed bodies she was pushed through. To no surprise she didn’t make it through but she should have never made it passed the academy level. When I talked to her teachers later they said she failed every test and task she was given but under the new standards she had to be shown the correct way then tested again until she passed. This was a perfect example of everyone get a medal. Why do you think you keep seeing video after video of cops screaming at people just yelling orders and demands without listening to the people they are interacting with GET ON THE GROUND GET ON THE GROUND GET ON THE GROUND over and over like a robot. Screaming ain’t working but they have know idea what to do next.
It definitely seems that "assess and de-escalate" has become a foreign concept in recent years.
@@metalmarine8259 I get it. I've known several cops myself over the years and a couple of them were good, honest people that I would trust to do the right thing in tough situations. We need more like them.
A couple others were those slugs you mention. Dumb goons with a power complex sent out on the street to harass people. They're a big part of the reason I left that path.
When a police officer stops a vehicle or approaches a residence, he has no idea if there's a friendly harmless fellow or an armed psycho behind that door. But unfortunately these days it's the same for the other side of the encounter too.
I know there's no easy answers, but I do know that lower standards to get more bodies on the street is only gonna make it worse.
@@feralhistorian Police here in Scotland tended to be very much of a "community PEACE officer" ethos, but the plain clothes (CID) tended to got corrupted from 70s onwards, alas
It's extremely rare over here for police to kill anyone, though gun crime is very rare, knife etc is common but still our police have an ethos of "peace" indeed our prime criminal law is "breaching the peace", and they are VERY good at patience and avoiding escalation
"Drug bust. Perps were...uncooperative." Dredd is one of my favorite movies in the 21st century. Just from a simple storytelling perspective, it's a rare model of efficiency in how every single scene moves the story forward and it's only as long as it needs to be (95 minutes), unlike the sprawling "epics" foisted on moviegoers regularly.
I cover the IRS as part of my job and there's a similar thing with them: Regardless of who's in charge, whether appointed under one administration or another, the enduring posture of the agency is that ALL taxpayers (yes, you, too) are criminals whether they know it or not and it's just a matter of tracking them down or waiting until they do something big enough to get noticed.
Tell it to Lois Lerner.
The irs needs to be abolished. It's not a necessary evil, it's just evil.
Damn good channel. It's nice to watch this kind of content without being yelled at for not believing, or having my own ideology babied and catered too.
Well stated in all particulars.
excellent video and excellent site. Needs more subscribers - keep at it and let’s all gang up on the algorithm!
Keep going = people will catch on to how good this channel is
I think you meant to use a hyphen rather than an equal sign.
There is an old saying that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, and a liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.
Turns out we really are just lizards switching from cold rock and hot rock
One of my all time favourite quotes is "There are no solutions, there are only trade-offs"
Every single choice, every single policy, every single ideology. They all have upsides and downsides. That's not to say all options are equal, just that no matter what you choose you'll be helping some and hurting others. What we deem is fairest is ultimately based on our own biases.
That is cowardice in my eyes, cooperation and trust are not zero sum games
@Trepur349
@@Trepur349 Sowell quote? It's applicable to everything, but he made it mainly in the context of policymaking.
That's where people tend to disguise their pet causes as the public good, when it's good for some of the public and worse for everyone else.
He even pointed out a funny example with laws against murder leading to extreme cases of avoidable drawn out agony in terminally ill patients, because the hospital wanted to avoid any chance of being liable. Little Timmy will have to tough it out for a few extra hours of indescribable agony, since his parents are apparently less able to sue if the hospital does that.
The point is that there's always a cost-benefit analysis with legislation, no matter how obvious the upsides are and how exceptional the downsides are.
@@DefinitelyNotAMachineCultist Yeah it's a Sowell quote, I chose not to mention that because he's a pretty divisive figure
But yeah, he's absolutely correct here
I've found your channel like two weeks ago and I've gone through out just about all of the videos! Such great commentary. Please continue your hard work!
The novelizations are pretty hilarious also. There’s one part where Dredd gets in to a violent confrontation with a perp. It results in some of the guy’s blood splashing on the ground. For that? Dredd gives him an additional six months for littering.
My father was an Air Force Policeman (back before they called them Security Forces), stationed in Germany in the late sixties. He was a real "make the fellows laugh, carry the occasional drunk soldier to his barracks and hold his arm up for him to help him salute" type of policeman. When he got home to Texas in '71, he wanted to join the civilian Police Force (in one of the largest cities in the country). My mom BEGGED him not to try out, but he did and luckily, as he tells it, they saw right through him and knew he wasn't the type to do what they needed him to do. I'm grateful that I didn't grow up with a civilian Police officer for a Dad... I respect the law but... I think it would've changed him.
As you said... Judge Dredd can be looked at not only from the citizens point of view, but from the Judges as well. Btw, the comics are also quite good at showing both viewpoints. As are some of the audiobook short stories, which I highly recommend. (Voice acted and everything!)
It's funny you say that cause my dad IS a civilian policeman in a big city (Milwaukee if you're curious). Dunno how much it actually affected him though. Had his faults as a father but overall still an honest and mostly decent and joyful guy.
Yours is one of the few channels I wish had longer videos.
After learning about asset forfeiture a few years back, I've joked that "crime doesn't pay, but law enforcement certainly does." They really do get away with just about anything. A few months ago I remember reading that there are individual officers in the NYPD who have cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil cases due to their negligence. Ridiculous.
Just heard from a lawyer the other day that talks to people all the time who have no idea about asset forfeiture. They all react pretty much the same way. "That can't be legal." I think you missed the part about how they not only just take your money for suspecting that it's ill gotten gains, but when they just "suspect" that you're going to do something illegal with it, and take it that way. The no arrest, no charge, no trial thing is neat too.
A few years ago I was crossing the border from Canada and the first question the customs agent asked was "are you carrying any large sums of cash?"
Obviously the correct answer is no, but I was a bit shocked they were so blatant about it.
Yeah, but we all know why a guy is going to an Indian casino with slightly less than $10,000 in cash.
@@feralhistorian Years ago, I had a buddy who ran a card shop. Told me a story about how there was a break-in, and afterwards one of the cops handling the case "collected" one of his baseball cards that hadn't been touched, as "evidence." Apparently it sat on the dude's desk for a few years before a different cop my friend knew just yoinked it one day and brought it back. There was no proper record of it, so... 🤷♂ I was told that cop shop got cleaned out for corruption multiple times in the decade that followed, but that was before I lived there. Small town Nebraska.
@@Wikrinpolice helped themselves to both my Surefire and Maglite torches when they took me for questioning one night over a complaint made by a neighbour (this was in Northern Ireland about 15 years ago) I later met both local/beat police officers who had nothing to do with the incident above separately and they both apologised for my treatment explaining that their superior told them to assume my guilt because in that particular area I was in the political/religious minority and they didn't want to rock the boat
@@derekmcmanus8615 Dang. Would not expect them to fess up to that kind of blatant discrimination, but also, I have only a passing familiarity with the region. Hope the aforementioned superior is no longer in a position to push that shit, at least.
The thing about Dredd that makes him ultimately a hero rather than a villain is that he is incorruptible.
Yes, the law is very tough, but he have never given out a wrong judgment.
Until he executes unjust laws…
_"he is incorruptible."_
Have you read "Revolution" (1987)? At least one thing makes Dredd turn on both law and innocents; the fear of democracy.
The whole you dont look ready at the beginning of the movie, and now you look ready line at the end of the movie, is just such a great delivery of a simple set of lines.
Dredd is neither a hero nor a monster... He is *The LAW!!!*
Your opening synopsis of 2012 Dredd made me think of End of Watch.
The original Dredd was a satire, the short comics which were in newspapers were rather funny. Even the full length comics had a lot of humour in them. I think it got a lot more serious later, when its popularity grew. The 2012 movie was great.
The first comic strip I remember had a civilian woman help Dredd catch a fleeing criminal who would have otherwise escaped.
Getting a few years (or was it decades?) in the Iso-Cubes along with the perp for vigilantism for her trouble.
Kafkaesque, more RoboCop than RoboCop.
It was black comedy (or tragicomedy), definitely with an anti-authoritarian streak.
It would be too over the top to not be funny, if not for the fact that there was definitely a real world case you could find that was similarly stupid somewhere.
I think other titles in pop-culture like Rogue Trader (basically the earliest edition of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game), were heavily inspired by early satirical 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, before following a similar path, taking itself seriously, and becoming less overtly anti-authoritarian.
You forgot the best part about Civil Asset Forfeiture: if you are found not guilty, it can be months or even years before you get your property back. Better hope it wasn't your rent or mortgage payment.
The fact that judges are Judge, jury, and executioner, speaks to the fact that inefficiency and beuracracies are luxuries this world cannot afford.
I appreciate the fact that Dredd is able to be straightforward about it, whereas our irl legal system is almost incapable of doing anything meaningful
One of favourite Dredd moments was from a one-shot comic. A teenager was out past curfew and killed in a traffic accident. Dredd goes to the family, informs them that their son is dead, and instructs them to turn themselves into the nearest Iso Cube - 30 days for letting the child break curfew.
That is who Dredd is. Not the grand arcs where he's fighting Judge Death or some other apocalyptic event, but the day to day, routine, utterly mechanical application of the law. A rule was broken, a punishment is required. End of.
The first comic strip I remember had a civilian woman help Dredd catch a fleeing criminal who would have otherwise escaped.
She got a few years in the Iso-Cubes along with the perp for vigilantism, IIRC.
The strips felt way more Kafkaesque than any of the stand-alone one-shot comics or multi-issue runs.
Dredd was more RoboCop than RoboCop was, weirdly enough.
My favorite detail about life in Megacity One from the early Dredd is the routine audits they do of random citizens to find out what laws they're breaking. Dredd is on an audit where they find the man did nothing wrong, and he is very suspicious, saying that citizens are *always* breaking laws but unaware of it, and that they are warned of the laws they are breaking and let go without punishment. That's why I don't think a psychic Dredd would be so bad.
Oh, and the guy they found who hadn't been breaking any laws? They dragged him back to the station and put him under continuous interrogation by psychic judges. The law said interrogation could only last for so long, so after time expired they would swap in a new judge and start another interrogation until they broke him (he was trained in psychic defense, which only made them more suspicious) and found out what what he was REALLY up to.
I appreciate how you assessed the dichotomous frame work of the Judge Police System. In that Dredd is the persona of law incorruptible. incorruptible by the evils of authority while also incorruptible by its magnanimity. The Unjust Tyrant and the Just Tyrant; Dredd is neither he is within and without, simply a Tyrant.
However if this is applicable to Dredd could it also be applicable to Anderson? We've seen her benevolence in dishing out justice, does that mean Anderson must have an inverse persona brewing within her? They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and the intention of putting her on the beat was to focus on being aggressive with crime not in the form of a sledgehammer, but a dagger in the dark. If Anderson with her psychic abilities tempered by a balanced view of justice is the dagger, what happens if her inverse also exists? A sledgehammer in the dark walking not only the beat but the precinct as well?
What if like in classic comic-book trope form Anderson becomes jaded as u mentioned or goes rogue? Imagine an Anderson that reads minds not to dish out legitimate justice, but to wield it as a hammer against anyone and everyone. Like a sort of 1950s McCarthyism unbridled where ever there is a citizen there is only a criminal. They just don't know it yet. Something like Minority Report unchained. What happens when a Anderson has enough power to be not only a judge, jury, and executioner to everyone outside the force but the same to everyone within the force? How are you going to refute Anderson when you can't read minds? At this moment in the precinct your not an enemy of the state: your an enemy of Anderson.
And Anderson cant be wrong.
So did Dredd potentially train a warrior-priest of justice or a warrior-priest of injustice?
(Is she Luke or Vader?)
4am, and your post was nicely written.
Hope you have a good weekend.
@8:15 your comment on "half the population being dead" is actually explored in the comics with an arc, (Anderson is a big part of that one :) ) called "Judge Death". In one version of Megacity 1 the authorities used techniques to combine all the "good qualities" of Dredd, Anderson and other Judges into a small cadre of "Super Judges" and let them enforce the law. These got together and pondered the actual reason behind "crime' and came to the conclusion that people will always commit crime so the "solution" is of course to ensure there are no people around to commit crimes.
Once done with their world they no longer had a purpose but one day an exploration group from the "Dredd" world-line learns how to cross from that one to their world. Hilarity ensues of course and Dredd is given a direct vision of what he himself can and is becoming. Good stuff.
I'm likely overthinking it but in context I've often thought that possibly this is the actual background of the Terminator movies. Given Skynet is based in and on the American military values and rationale which means that in the very end our oath and allegiance is 'technically" to the Constitution and not the people or state of "America". One thing that is pretty obvious is that "people" are actually the only practical and possible "danger" to the Constitution. It does not take an evil supercomputer AI to kind of see a "solution" to that problem....
A "secondary" from that explains both the "time travel" and why Skynet seems to keep "losing" the war. Traveling back and altering the past would seem to allow a chance to try and experiment with various "outcomes" especially when the initial factors have to be set from the future rather than the past.
Anyway loving the channel and really binging it when I really SHOULD be doing other things :) Thanks
Yes, having grown up reading Judge Dredd when i saw the first Terminator movie I was reminded of Judge Death's philosophy.
This is one of the most sensible takes I've heard on the movie
I just binged all your videos, i love your commentary.
I would love to see a video about the world of Equilibrium with Christian bale
I've worked in prisons & jails for decades...I work with elderly now, & my son is in high school. One recurring question I have...is who polices whose who police (anything not just cops)...?...more so, who polices those supposedly policing the police or are if even only a little, above the police? That is where we truly are today. Corruption of authority from HS staff picking on kids, to politicians becoming the most successful (insider)investors ever...no one is batting an eye or wondering how...
One thing in the 2012 version I noticed that you didn't touch on;
Anderson doesn't wear the iconic helmet, which if you look at as a designed item, bears a non-trivial resemblance to horse blinders.
She applies the law with the benefit of peripheral vision (letting the techhead flee), where Dredd cannot, because he has none.
I just loved that they used the Joburg Civic Center as the entrance to Peachtrees. And the double decker bridge. I weep for Joburg
Dredd is a gem of a movie
One of the Dredd comics I remember most was about a woman who broke a jar of jam in a supermarket and left without paying for it. She was overcome by fears of Judges finding out and coming for her and her recurring nightmares drove her completely insane. Dredd, on a visit to the kook cubes, was told that there are loads like her, but dismisses the medic, saying that "a few wackos is a reasonable price for keeping the streets safe." or words to that effect.
I was reminded of it, when you talked about weaponized police being pointed at you. The Judges in Dredd are feared and hated, except when people need them. They carry out random "crime blitzes" bashing down doors, to find out what crimes people have done and everyone is always guilty of something. This is intended as a deterrent, so that people don't think they can get away with anything. It is very dystopian. Yet those same judges are shown battling gangs, cartel and mutants to keep even a single civilian safe.
In the Democracy story arc, when the civilians are eventually given a chance to overthrow the judges, they choose not to, because they would rather be safe than free.
South africa as a vision for the future will never not be horrific. Dreadful, even.
Warriors shape society, society shapes warriors, on & on & on...although a warrior preisthood doesn't sound bad(for now)
Jedi proves this a bad idea
Someone is going to fill that niche@victorkreig6089
What do you think the Judges are? All end up dead or going to The Cursed Earth to impart law until they die. They worship Law. Dredd is the best there is in a place and time that NEEDS him. Defund the police creates hellpits like El Salvador was or Mexico IS. Wrong laws create the Soviet Union.
Warriors are important, higher on the scale than the common man, but they are not the ones who should shape society.
... Yes it fuckin does
This is what I love about RUclips. I can be on the site for years and come across a great video like this.
Interesting, nuanced.
Haven't watched your other stuff yet, but looking forward to do so.
Clicked on this due to boredom. Got blown away how nuanced you presented this topic. I have subscribed now.
@ 9:39 i joined and stayed with it, now 28 years in and I've never gone with the quotas, never fell in with the job politics or blindly followed every order but questioned those that needed questioning, shunned by management but always asked my opinion by everyone else there, and I'm good with that 👍
I work at a juvenile detention center. I've always admired the police and will always respect them. That being said ive lost all hope in the legal system. I have lost count of how many autistic kids I've seen get convicted, ive seen boys who need to be in a psych ward returned to us multiple times because the doctors dont wanna deal with the. We've had the same kid come back in for committing the same crime less than a month after released deemed 'incompetent for trial' then released again knowing full well when he turbs 18 theyre just gonna throw him in prison. I try every day with these kids constantly trying to make them laugh while teaching them respect an violence isnt always the answer. Most days i realize how pointless it all is... but every now an then I'll have one or two kids that genuinely start to do better and it keeps me going. When i first started i trued to be 100% by the book but ive defended them infront of my boss several times for breaking rules. This movie really hits differently after my experiences
I get that. I taught high school in Detroit for a few years, all kids kicked out of the regular public school system for various issues. It was intense with a very low success rate. But greater than zero, so I think it was worth it.
One of the most funny things About the Judge Dredd comics is Sugar is illegal because its considered a drug but at the same time Mega City holds eating competitions which has made people so fat that they have a device called a belly wheel to hold up their gut
You say that like the food in Mega City One is steak and vegetables. Also, it's not just eating competitions, the biggest "Fatties" become celebrities.
Oh that explains the fat women in the game
That "it takes glock mags!" at the end caught me off guard and gave me a good belly laugh. Thanks for your video, I enjoyed it a lot. Subscribed!
Judgement without diligent consideration is not justice, it's just the law.
It’s so funny what you say about being a cop it’s exactly what kept me from being a police officer as well. I went through the Academy was on my probationary time, and I just fell out of love with it.
"When you're alone in the dark the only thing that matters is the law, and you will be alone when you swear to uphold it's ideals" - Judge Dredd
Watched it a few days after it's anniversary release this season. Definitely a cult classic. Glad to see you cover & analyze this under the radar gem.
A great and nuanced commentary, on a topic which will always be worthy talking about.
I wasnt into comics as a kid in the 70s and 80s. i learned of Dredd from the Anthrax song "I am the law".
Man, if somebody was to be able to make Judge Dredd a TV series I would be hooked!
Being a Police officer. You deal more directly with evil humans.
Dredd the movie and the character are very under rated and much deeper than appears at face value.
Feral Historian delivering once again.
Another great analysis.
Having read the original Dredd comics in 2000AD back in high school, I utterly despised the Stalone version. Karl Urban gave us a much truer interpretation, showing Dredd as he was despite sweeping away the fascism satire of the comics. And never removing his helmet. He was never a hero, his religious zeal for the law has always been the problem with not just him, but megacity 1 on the whole.
Having grown up in Oakland in the 70s/80s I have some experience with "those neighborhoods" and there is no dilemma. Through the decades I have never once seen the police save a life or improve a situation, either micro or macro scale. Decades of statistics bear me out. The people who talk of needing them are universally suburbanites who won't get out of their cars downtown because they once saw a crack head but have never been subjected to any crime not perpetrated by the bank.
You have an avitar of a demon and talk about Justice? How the Cops cause more problems? Your just hoping for the caos so you can live your "best life". When the caos comes no one gets to live the "Best Life". Whens the last time you were mugged or did you do the mugging Demon boy?????? LOL
Judge Fear- "Gaze into the face of fear!"
Dredd- "Gaze into the fist of Dredd!"
Im glad this video was recommended to me, your thoughts are profound and entertaining to listen to!
Keep up the great work!
Judge Dredd is probably the purest depictions of uncompromising ordered good. So uncompromising that the film chose to illustrate it at the climax. We see Dredd willing to sacrifice an entire city block, his trainee, and himself, than to compromise. He will not negotiate with criminals. Batman, would have let the joker go here. And that’s why Dredd is a great character. He makes you think about the principles of society and what you should be willing to lay down as sacrifice for them a how much if ever is too much.
Batman is a much better character. Especially Batman who Laughs.
Dredd is just a poor imitation of a rightful lawmaking.
An idea that's been floated around lately to make the law enforcement system do its job in a way that balances justice with mercy is to defund the police BUT instead of giving their funds to social workers, have that money go to the local sheriff's department. Sheriffs are elected officials, which gives them an extra layer of accountability for their actions and the actions of their deputies, and most states require sheriffs to live in the county they serve. This means that sheriffs and their deputies have a personal connection to the people and place they protect, so, they'll be more likely to enforce the laws that actually help the public (stopping robberies, murderes, etc.) and be more leaniant on minor infractions. I've talked to a lot of deputies in my neck of the woods, and they said they didn't even bother pulling someone over for speeding unless they were going 15 or more over the limit.
It would probably be an improvement. Based on my own experience, while I've encountered some deputies that took their brown shirt to heart, they've generally been vastly more reasonable than municipal cops.
Neat concept
For me police officers have been more chill with me than sheriff deputies. Out of all my encounters being CHP, police and sheriff deputy has been the only one that pulled a gun out on me. Reason was when he asked for Drivers license I reached for my pocket to pull out my DL like assuming he wanted to see it at that very moment like police and CHP do. Nope he overreacted pulled a gun I and yelled to put my hands up. I was with my wife and son which he was 1 1/2 at the time.
And local elections _never_ allow local businesses or politicians to subvert the electoral process and get control of a town, right?
The more local, the smaller the problem and the easier to fix. It's not perfect, but I tend to think that any decentralizing is a move in the right direction.
I just found your channel today and several of your videos hit the mark with me. My life has been devoted to military and law enforcement service. The things you said when you explained why you decided not to be a cop possibly ring true where you live. It is not accurate in my agency and things like writing for five over would get you laughed off of the force. Normally when someone tells me they wanted to be a cop, but something prevented it, I think to myself, they did not really want it. I have personally arrested a cop from my agency in his own home and driven him to our jail. As you have lived your life in your way, I do not expect to change your opinion. I have been a cop for 36 years and counting so my perspective is going to be different than most. Especially the haters. I like your content and I look forward to seeing more.
It definitely varies between agencies. Where I live now, I've never had a negative encounter with the local police. In some other places I've lived, it seemed like the entire department existed to harass people and maximize fines and arrests for petty bullshit.
Consequently my view of law enforcement is a little schizo. I want to give police the benefit of the doubt and I've known enough good, honest cops that I don't think that's absurd. But I've also been subjected to illegal searches and every time there's a case with planted evidence or early-morning raids when a knock on the door would suffice it erodes that presumption.
Individual police officers I usually get along with really well, but I try to avoid "the police" in the abstract sense whenever possible because both sides of the encounter never really know what to expect.
In any case, I hope you continue to enjoy the content here and I always appreciate feedback from the law enforcement and military side.
My grandfather was CHP. There were many local departments he did not ever call on for backup, because he believed they were either corrupt or too gung ho. He wasn't exactly the straightest arrow himself, and his time on a hostage response team indicated he didn't shy away from violence.
4:25 I disagree here. I felt he was lenient based on circumstance. That homeless man was breaking the law and he was willing to let him go; the man was given a chance to disappear, to get away with breaking the law.
I liked both versions of 'Dredd' but the 2012 version was far superior and reminded me much more of the comics. I wish they had made more.
Stallone Dredd had the visuals and street view down right, but Urban is the better Dredd.
You must resist the temptation to give Dredd character development. Dredd should not change. The people around him do.
I never saw the "Judge Dredd" movies as worthy of my consideration before, the 2012 movie now does.
It's well worth your time for the action.
@@critfive
Thank you.
Judge Dredd (1995) is a true Judge Dreed movie.... until he take of his helmet.
OMG, I'm so glad I found this channel. Best recommendation I've had in a while. Damn good job, RUclips! 👏🏾👍🏾
Dredd is the letter of the law, Anderson is the spirit of the law.
“Is dread a hero or a monster?”
Neither. He is the law.
So, monster he is
Seems to have talked about this from every angle aside from actually suppressing crime / effectively making society more law abiding
You have quickly become my favorite RUclipsr. I really appreciate that you seem to cover things critically, but not dismissively. People making bad choices or pursuing bad goals are just that, not giant and wretched evils. Problems are just problems, not dragons to slay or the world against you or us or whoever. I also appreciate that you give the criticism evenly. It has grown disturbing to me, to realize how much of the discussions I see or hear are centered around the idea of one side being righteous while the other is inherently evil, where each side never mentions its mistakes or trespasses but never relents in bringing up the others. It's all so tiresome, because it always seems to dance around the issues, rather than address them.
Your point about the law being a lever, controlled by the hand of whoever is in charge and with consequences proportional to its reach, is well said. It illustrates something I've been noticing, but could never pin down.
I always hate when the dark judges show up in Dredd comics. The supernatural in Dredd shouldn't be codified.
Fantastic video.
I think that you should watch the documentary about the creation of Judge Dredd.
I feel like you would appreciate the satirical nature of the character that isn't conveyed too well by either film.
karl urban did a great job in the second movie, even the first movie was very much like the comic except taking off the helmet
The book 'rise of the warrior cop' is really brilliant if you want a well written in-depth exploration of militarised American police. Very tough reading at times
I have just now watched this and really appreciate you taking your time to make this.
I enjoyed it.
Excellent talk. Concise. Very well done.
When considering the 'HERO' in any story, I always take in consideration the society and culture that has produced and nurtured such a HERO. Judge Dredd's world in basically, in my opinion, a society where people live in towering City Clock 'neighborhoods' with all the irony, social pressure, and social violence that that entails. Now MAGNIFY that oppressive situation ten thousand fold by enclosing several hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of 'BLOCKS' into the story's concept of a MEGA CITY. Such concentrations of Human Emotion, Human Greed, Human Opportunism, Human Anger and Hate, and Human Indifference, Just to name a few of the basic Human Vices produces a cauldrons of Human Injustice that what we call a 'NORMAL' Justice System cannot handle.
Thais, the JUDGES corp was created; bred and trained to be Judge, Jury, and if need be Executioners in order to Manage the almost overwhelming amount of Human Capacity for Cruelty, Depravity, and Evil in an EXPEDITIOUS manner. Your video , I feel, overemphasizes the potential for the ABUSE OF AUTHORITY in such a system for dispensing Justice.
No argument there; it will happen occasionally.
BUT, I'm guessing that most of your experience with the DREDD 'universe' is based mostly on the two movies that you cited.
That makes me suspect that you have very little experience with the comic book stories of DREDD which fleshes out DREDD's world far beyond the 'Hollywood' - Stallone' superhero version.
Try READING a few of the comix and graphic novels. It might broaden your outlook on Dredd comix's concept of "THE LAW".
Then compare it to the plodding pace and INEFFICIENCY of dispensed Human Justice in our current day civilizations.
A good thought provoking video, but definitely narrow minded due to lack of experience in spite of your age, I think.
_"Thais, the JUDGES corp was created; bred and trained to be Judge, Jury, and if need be Executioners in order to Manage the almost overwhelming amount of Human Capacity for Cruelty, Depravity, and Evil in an EXPEDITIOUS manner."_
If I'm not mistaken I think the Judges were created right _before_ the atomic exchange that led to the megacities.
Great video
"It takes glock mags!" caught me totally unprepared
Dredd 2012 is an awesome movie
6:50 I like the conditioning of the audience toward militarized police. There are only two criminal women, and the application of justice is clearly warranted in the framework of the movies morality. But the questionable use of lawfare is only pointed at men. I guess it's a movie for teen boys mostly, but the conditioning seeps out. Women 50% of the voting population don't need to worry about indiscriminate violence from the law. It is only ever pointed at men (in the film), and men are inherently violent. When you don't see how it can be pointed at you, then it's easier to vote for.
The policies of lawmakers are to blame and the way police can highlight that is to enforce AS WRITTEN till everyone else gets the message and changes it. Judge Dredd does far more good than bad and if ALL police did the same the command would have to change their laws in short order.
Better to have an incorruptible person in authority that might harsh your day than a corruptible person that will destroy multiple peoples lives.
As someone who grew up in Joburg, Dredd absolutely spoke to me.
Curios: what was your opinion about District 9?
I always wondered if the world was really as bad as it is portrayed in Dredd. Or was that only how Judge Dredd viewed it and it was skewed to looking dystopian and we were seeing it through his eyes.
Mama’s not the law. I am the law!
I was in the military, and I've been a Police Officer for over 10 years in one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in the US .... i joined that department over others because I didnt care about the physical danger as long as I could be effective, and because I knew I couldnt stomach the idea of being some state police or county officer giving speeding tickets to tax payers (acting like some sort of tax man) ... im also very pro 2A and want citizens to be able to protect themselves without me, and im very pleased with the Bruin decision as well as most states moving towards constitutional carry, I can speak to the fact that the vast majority of the cops in my big city department are the same ... we are more afraid of being fired or sued over doing basic police work and normal uses of force rather than being killed or wounded by criminals, and we are sick of the law being so weak and impotent that we can lock a juvenile up in the afternoon for robbery, and yet they are commiting robbery again during the same night because of the catch and release system...
The legal system and police work like mankind can never be perfect or close to perfect... but i believe that the ideal should be that over half our laws should be thrown away and peoples constitutional rights should be upheld to the highest degree; however, the laws we do keep on the books (especially the ones that punish true menaces to society like Armed Robbery, Car Jacking, B&E ect) should be enforced vigorously.... if you're out there being a parasite to society and committing 3,4,5 carjackings that isn't because you were raised low income or you're trying to put food on your table... you're just being malious to everyone around you, and you need to go to jail for 5 to 10 years after 3 or 4 offenses ... thats the least we can do to hold people accountable for their actions ...
Of course, I could get into that families and community are the true core elements to avoid rampant crime, but I hope everyone knows that already, and im trying to keep this comment focused on the law and order aspect ....
I leave off with this, the Police or city watch of yesteryear would not be needed, but for maybe 5 percent of the population of any given region .... and those 5 percent or so have proven they don't have regard for civil society or their victims ... therefore the only thing that can stop them would be fear... fear of consequences of getting caught (legal system) and the fear of the Police who will aggressively root them out (Law Enforcement) you take away the fear, and they have little to worry about besides other predators....
Sounds like exactly the right approach to me.
@@feralhistorian thank you, and I enjoyed the video ... Dredd was one of my favorite movies of the early 2010s... and it's thought provoking as well...
My grandfather was incredibly similar to you in his beliefs. He left the navy and became a crime scene photographer, working his way up to chief inspector (UK).
I'm just glad he cant see what has become of this country, since it has been wholly subverted
It’s interesting that these movies including Dredd or the Escape from series, will quote statistic’s of crime that we have been at or worse.
Lots of good points, but saying that Dredd lacks compassion is untrue, especially in the context of your example from the 2012 film. The homeless guy was simply told to get out of sight (move along) and would be ignored. The 2012 film was also a precursor to the increasing problem of US law enforcement acting as judge, jury and executioner in many cases. Their motto is "You may beat the rap but you can't beat the ride." Which is putting citizens into the position of legal resistance to LEO unlawful orders (while these trained liars claim every word out of their mouths are "lawful orders").
"Just comply and fight it in court.", many advise, but the problem with that comes from the potential for death, permanent injury or extended hospital stays with no penalties to the cops, unless they happen to be caught on camera independent from police control.
Now, citizens have a choice, comply or resist, but if the choice is resist, then the only option is self defense against a lethally armed opponent. Obviously, citizens are rarely ready for that. When they are, the cops are lauded as "heroes".
Recent case, harassing a man in his car parked in public for no good or apparent legal reason. When he refused to comply with unlawful demands, more were called, terroristic threats of violence issued by the cops and the victim of the police harassment ended up dead and put a few cops in the hospital.
If they had just left the man alone and not demanded things unlawfully, nobody would have been hurt.
2000ad was responsible for some fantastic comic book characters not just Judge Dredd but also Slaine, Devlin Waugh, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, ABC warriors, Halo Jones, Nemesis The Warlock, Finn and Bad Company.
I grew up with 2000AD and Dredd as a kid in Thatcher's Britain and, even if some of the stories do get silly, he's a very complex character. You have to know that the Judge system was created because traditional police and courts were no longer able to cope with a rising tsunami of crime. They were too slow, too weak, and too ineffective. At first the Judges, with power to dispense instant on-the-spot sentences, worked alongside regular police. After a nuclear war, the survivors built the new autonomous Mega Cities over the ruins (no more USA), decided to abandon democracy and the constitution, and gave full governmental powers to the Judges - a police state. It's brutal, but it's the only way to keep the lid on the pressure cooker of 800,000,000 people and prevent total chaos.
Unlike some comic superheroes, Dredd ages in real time and he has slowly developed as a character. He has questioned his role in the system, challenged his superiors, and been instrumental in implementing changes. He is so respected, it would be a brave Chief Judge who didn't listen to his advice. When the people demanded democracy, it was Dredd who insisted it be a free and fair referendum. In the end, the citizens voted for the status quo. Better the devil you know.
Which is why Injustice Superman is superior, in the end. Dredd is a weak character, and even the likes of Iron Arm Warrior would be able to overpower his agenda.
“Better the devil you know” also backfired miserably, as far as Plutonian is considered.
this is excellent. glad I found your channel
A well thought out and nicely put essay!
Very cool.
Drokk! Etc
This video made me think of the whole Nietzche thing about "when you stare into the Abyss, the abyss stares back".
The shield of the coward and the sword of the wicked, nice! It's so rare to meet a critical thinker on RUclips more less anywhere else. I quit being a prison guard for kind of the same reason.
I took Dredds response to Judge Hershey's mindread as not constituting evidence. They want her as a tool to get the evidence they need, not actually to use her ability to proof cases.
While I am not sure if Dredd is supposed to be a hero in the movie, many scenes support it. The beginning scenes most importantly.
I've never read the comic, but I'm willing to bet, that the 2012 version comes closer to the actual comic.
If you read only one Dredd comic in your life, then read America. Aside from being extremely well written, it reveals the true brutality of the Judge system, and the mercilessness of Dredd himself when faced with a threat to law and order.
Some of Judge Dredd comic stories are absolutely brilliant, Dredd himself transforms as he grows older into the City himself. Part fascist authoritarian part its Hero, in a world context that does not offer something really better than mega city one. I really love its invented language full of terms of different types of perps and weird mimetic movements. There was a an advert for a chain of food malls or wtv you call them in english near me, saying they had their own laboratory testing that the met put into products was the real deal, that looked straight out of a strip in judge dredd. Funny as hell.