Personal experience but the everyone hating on Dick for being a cop thing was so weird to me cause I'm from a country where cops aren't mega hated. Like they're incompetent and stuff but no one actually hates them. When I read the comics (before joining the fandom) I didn't have any strong feelings about him being a cop. Imagine my shock when I join the fandom and see everyone's feelings lmao
Please donāt take any history lessons from me, because Iām the furthest from educated about any of it, but itās understandable that the cultural zeitgeist of the United States is a bit more critical of policing as an institution. Historically, police have been used as a vector by the state to oppress, from Jim Crow era policies to the War on Drugs.
Thereās also their general role of aggressors or limiters during protest, which Americans find irritating both on principle and because of our specific enshrined right to protest. And, because of the prevalence of police unions ā funnily enough, one of the very few groups of workers to still have union-style protections ā police are given a unique opportunity to abuse their authority without the worry of facing consequences. Hence, a lot of talk about police brutality. This doesnāt make every police officer in the United States evil either. There are plenty of individual Good Boys who genuinely wish to improve their community. But as an institution, the US police force is fundamentally flawed.
I think the problem is simply that, in comic books, we rely on suspending disbelief regarding this abuse of power (barring, of course, comic books aiming to critique the concept). Jim Gordon wouldnāt pull this shit because heās Jim Gordon. Heās our protagonist. Heās not a corrupt cop.
Likewise, during Dickās tenure as a cop, he was specifically aiming to take down police corruption in ways that would otherwise be prevented by the āthin blue lineā, or the union, or whomever else. He was directly targeting what makes American policing so inherently dysfunctional.
Itās not like comic books neglect problems with American policing. Quite the opposite. EVERY TIME the police are relevant, thereās usually some critical commentary included. The very run where Dick was a cop included this commentary, the Tom Taylor run, the earlier arc of Dan Wattersā run, the current run of Batman (and, quite frankly, every other modern run of Batman to some extent). And wouldnāt you know it, Dick was opposed to police violence every time. Bruce was. Tim was. Everyone is.
But our heroes are not included in this corruption for the same reason we do not critique our heroes for being vigilantes. In real life, I would be wildly opposed for vigilantism. Letās see: unmitigated power, license for violence without checks or balances, lack of accountability. All of these sound like the problems we historically have with police on steroids. And yet, no one calls out Bruce for being Batman, or whoever is currently Robin for being Robin, because the conceit is that OUR PROTAGONISTS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM (usually). We see inside their heads, we know theyāre acting in the best interest of society, we know they arenāt corrupt or oppressive. And, as fiction, we are somewhat required to put away our reservation about unjust power imbalance and whatnot becauseā¦ wellā¦ funnie story haha.
This is why I think itās silly to lump Dick in with negative cop stereotypes, or Jim Gordon for that matter, or anyone else. Not even just because they have demonstrated, whenever it is relevant, that they are oppositional to police corruption and brutality and whatever else. More fundamentally: This is a comic book. This is how the medium works. If Dick was vulnerable to the same flaws as the critiques we use against police, he sure as FUCK should not be a vigilante.
