Do you have any thoughts on the “joker box” solution to prevent the joker from harming others while still following the Batman’s “no kill” rule?
I...feel like some people either don't understand why superheroes HAVE "no kill rules". Or if they do they use these sorts of extremely obtuse debates in an attempt to undermine them. Both of which DEEPLY concern me. Because the fact that superheroes do not kill those that oppose them should be simplicity itself to understand. In fact, it's one of those things that should be universally agreed upon policy.
Simply put: No one elects a superhero. Superheroes are not a jury of your peers.
As much as we all love and trust Superman (and we should, he's earned it) that does not give him the right to decide who lives and who dies. NO ONE has that power. Certainly not singularly. And more and more the modern states of the world have decided that even a legal jury does not have the right to condemn their fellow man to death, no matter what the crime. Because death is the one "solution" that A. almost never solves anything and B. that you can't take back.
But let's engage with the prompt at hand. Would this be a workable solution to "solving" the Joker as a problem for society at large?
HELL. NO. Even if we got rid of the Joker the cure would be FAR worse than the disease!
The very IDEA of encouraging Batman, a masked vigilante who stalks the streets in the dark to abduct, mutilate and intern a fellow human being for a crime it is not his job to charge, prosecute or punish. It's an immediate, violent and horrifying overreach of the Joker's constitutionally protected human rights. And yes, the Joker has those. And he deserves to have them. And he deserves to have them applied to him in the strictest sense, without any exception or alteration. Because if your human rights can be taken away from you. For any reason. They're not rights. And the second we as a society start deciding who do or don't "deserve" to be treated as human beings...
That is a pendulum that will swing back on you faster than you can say "bit me in the ass".
The fact that the Joker continues to escape, wreck havoc, and be placed back in a situation where he can repeat the cycle is neither Batman's fault nor his responsibility. His "job" such as it has been accepted by the society around him is to stop the immediate threat of violent crime before people can be irreversibly harmed. Prisoners, the prosecution and hopeful rehabilitation thereof is the directive of the state and by extension those of us who support the state through our taxes, voting and general civil obedience. You want the Joker to become less of a threat in future? Vote prison reform. The Gotham judicial system has been trying to move his ass to Blackgate for YEARS but there are laws in the way specifically to prevent those in enforced mental healthcare from being transferred to criminal penitentiaries for "misbehavior"
This is actually a REALLY good law, and a sign of Gotham's deeply progressive character. Because 99% of the time when a mental patient is being threatened with incarceration at a criminal facility its because of overreach or abuse by staff. Putting the Joker in Blackgate needs to be done in such a way where it doesn't open the door for a suicidal 14 year old to be shipped there because she spoke up when a nurse was stealing from her purse.
The idea of giving a this kind of power to a man whose NAME is not even known to the public is horrifying.
The idea that people are trying to come up with justifications as to why it would be ok just this once? Is doubly so.
