SO GLAD YOU ASKED so first off i’m coming out as a huge titus stan/apologist here (source: im from southern appalachia) so i’m not exactly unbiased but here we go
for both better and worse you (both the player and harry) are meant to draw all those parallels between the RCM and the hardie boys for sure. both are citizens militias both have problems with racism and misogyny and (this is the big one) they have no fucking oversight (evrart dont care). both are also de facto organizations that formed in an attempt to resolve a situation that lacked any other form of law enforcement—the hardies only exist bc the rcm abandoned martinaise. and yeah sure ACAB, but ACAB doesn’t automatically mean “power vacuum good,” it means “find a better and different means of actually serving and protecting your citizens.” like a citizens militia. like the hardie boys. and the hardies DO suck in a lot of ways dgmw, but they suck in the sense that their problems are (mostly) cultural (the racism and misogyny). that’s fixable. i can fix them
and you’re not off base to point out that titus and co shooting harry and kim point blank *is* proof that he’s a loose cannon who’s probably a little too comfortable with violence/brutality (you know, like a cop!). but i don’t think you’re meant to think he’s in the wrong for shooting you in this exact scenario. at this point in the game, (your first interaction with titus after you talk to evrart i think?) you do have good *legal* reason to arrest him, but not a good *moral* reason to arrest him. sure, he confessed to lynching of some dude just because he didn’t vibe with him, but it’s clearly a suspicious situation, and later events in the game reveal the complexities at play here, as well as titus’ innocence (in the murder part anyway). also, the bit when you put together the hardie boys’ plan, the whole “you can’t arrest all of us.” that’s rad. no other point here i just love it
PLUS we should really be looking at this from a neocolonial angle as well. the RCM represent the oppressors in this scene (and every scene). by arresting titus, you aren’t just arresting him, you’re taking him out of his country and community, because as an organization that is an extension of the moralintern, the people you arrest fall under moralintern jurisdiction. extradition rights are a BIG DEAL in matters of international politics and independence (source: hong kong. american revolution. etc.), so titus shooting you when you try to arrest him is pretty reasonable to me actually. he’s not just evading arrest, he’s actively defending martinaise’s independence from the RCM (and the moralintern by association).
also, to give my boy due credit: titus (and the game) give you many opportunities to back down without a fight, all the while making his intent to kill you very clear. he’s not so territorial that he’ll shoot you just for pushing his boundaries a little, and he’s not so eager to kill that he’ll try to be sneaky about it, he’s just defending himself.
in conclusion: (and to answer the initial question about gaining titus’ approval) it’s about class solidarity. the tribunal is about class solidarity. it is about harry and kim ceasing to be RCM officers for a moment (would a TRUE rcm officer stand against soldiers of the moralintern?? how many instances are there in history where police officers stood unequivocally WITH a union???) and being protectors of revachol instead. the tribunal is about trying (and failing, always failing in some way—kim will always declare your efforts in the tribunal a failure regardless of who you save) to stand between these symbols of working class revachol and world capitalism (our real enemy now and forever)
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