Legal Advice: Ghostbusters Edition

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you know that there is a new Ghostbusters film on the horizon.  Before that film hits theatres, let’s take a look at Ghostbusters of yesterday and how they would be thrown into a prison so deep and dark they’d never see the light of day.

Flash back to 1984 and the Ghostbusters are working on their little kickstarter business working off the money Ray Stantz borrowed against his mother’s house.  They proceed to start “busting ghosts”, which we’ll address directly in a moment.  What is the equipment they are using.

“Each one of us has an unlicensed nuclear accelerator strapped to his back.”  Bill Murray’s performance makes that sound like a very funny line, until you start thinking about the implications of that.  First off, it’s a miniature particle accelerator, like the one at CERN (which is licensed).  Now I understand that the Ghostbuster tech is all fictional, so I thought I’d take a look at what their specific fictional universe said about the proton pack.

Fudging of science aside, the tie in media states very plainly that each one of these things has a self-destruct blast radius of ½ a mile.  That’s roughly a six city block radius from ground zero.  See the map for details.  Destruction of that magnitude would be very similar to the Oklahoma City Bombing only with the destruction being almost all inclusive.  A typical explosive device has directionality to it.  Any explosion will always follow the path of least resistance.  The afore mentioned bombing shows half the building destroyed, because the explosion, as it expands found the weaker materials to be the path of least resistance and affected them more profoundly.

 

A nuclear explosion is a different kind of event though.  Its far more powerful.  The blast radius may “only” be ½ a mile, but the destruction in that half mile will be far more severe.  On top of that, there are four of these things.  Now that’s not saying the radius would be 2 miles, but rather in that half mile the rather than charred people and crushed buildings you’d probably just have a crater.  Even then, that’s only if the packs were sitting next to each other.  If they were spread out over half a mile in radius from the pack that exploded, each of those would have a blast radius of half a mile.

But the Ghostbusters are scientists, I hear you say.  Well they are, but they aren’t exactly “ethical”.  There’s a very good reason why Peter Venkman stonewalls the EPA lawyer and they packs are unlicensed, what they are doing is very illegal and they could go to jail and no licensing agency with even an atom of common sense would authorize them to build or carry those things.  The proton packs along promise a major fine, confiscation of their equipment and a potential of 10 years in prison, which explains part of the legal case against them in the beginning of Ghostbusters 2.  Why they still had physical access to the proton packs I have no idea, unless due to their “saving the city” warranted them the right to keep the devices but never turn them on.

Imagine a 10 year prison sentence for flipping on a switch.

Now about the containment unit, or “busting ghosts”; this is where we get into some fun “unknown” laws.  Specifically we are going to talk about the “Undiscovered Species Act”.  What this boils down to is if a scientist in the field locates a creature nobody has ever seen before, like bigfoot, and captures or kills it without just cause (ie they were defending their own life), they could face up to 10 years in prison and or have lose any money you received for it because you removed such a rare creature from its habitat.  While this is a county law almost exclusive to Skamania County, Washington this sets what prosecutors can use as a legal precedent to base their case off of.  The ghosts would actually fall under the protection of this act.  They are a rare creature, so rare that we have no way of knowing if they can reproduce.  They seem to consume some sort of fuel to stay active, they have a general habitat, and they are rare enough that most people don’t believe they exists.

In the Ghostbuster’s first real case, in which they capture Slimer, they charge the hotel manager $5,000.  By law, they have to turn that money over to a university, probably the very university they were fired from, along with Slimer for proper scientific study.  They are not an accredited institution, and therefore cannot keep the creature.

But ghosts are just dead people, I hear you say.  Are they?  What do we really know about them given the context of the films and television show?  They are basically energy based life forms.  They have a degree of sentience, an ability to identify and react to danger, an ability to choose based on available data.  At best this is an “Undiscovered Species Act” issue, at worst you are looking at a civil rights suit.

So yes, for their first act as the Ghostbusters, they would be facing terrible fines and possibly up to 20 years in prison.

Who are you going to call, indeed?

 

Thanks for reading.

Gotham: Into the Woods: A Review

Well, it’s been more than a minute since our last episode of Gotham, so let’s talk really quick about “Into the Woods”.

                                                                  No, not that.  Stop that.

Yes, “Into the Woods”.  So we kick off with Bruce and Kat running away from a thief they stole from, resulting in both teenagers leaping to the next roof top, and Bruce openly mocking the full adult criminal who’s probably about to have a coronary from the whole event.  This is punctuated by Bruce tossing some of the ill-gotten cash off the roof top.  Why did he do that, I have no idea.  Maybe he was just caught up in the moment; maybe he likes it when Selena beats him for throwing away the money they could have died trying to get.  I don’t know.

But that’s not why you’re here.  You’re here because of Jim Gordon, on the run from the law and trying to clear his name.  Through Bullock’s, ahem, contact inside internal affairs (imagine the Harvey Bullock from the animated series “distracting” someone like that!) Gordon obtains a tape recording of the anonymous tip placed to IA about his involvement in the Galavan murder.  Gordon, after running afoul of the law yet again, because “lay low” means make a spectacle of yourself in Jimbo’s mind, he takes it to Ed Nygma to see if he can clean it up and they can identify the man who framed him.

Oh good old Ed cleans it up, and during their conversation leading to the fateful playback, Gordon figures out that Ed was the one who set him up.  Ed gets the upper hand by shocking Gordon and prepares to deal with him by driving him out to the woods and burying him.  Gordon wakes up and takes off, but not before getting shot in the leg.  After a brief chase, Ed loses Gordon, but not before spelling out the entire situation to him; that he’s trying to dodge the rap for killing Kristen Kringle.

Gordon finds his way back to Selena, which is weird because as far as I knew this was a new place for her to stay at so how would he know where to find her?  I suppose he could have asked around, because as man bleeding from an open wound on his leg asking about a teenage girl doesn’t draw any suspicion.

Well, then again, this IS Gotham.

So he passes out on the couch and Bruce calls in Alfred for an assist.  While back at stately Wayne Manor, Alfred does a fair amount of berating both Bruce and Gordon for their questionable judgement calls as of late, but ultimately is willing to help both out.

They convince Selena to tip off the police about Gordon’s activities, making sure Nygma overhears.  Gordon has gone to track down the Penguin to find out where Kristen Kringle is buried.

Let’s talk about Penguin for just a bit.  Grieved over the loss of his father, which is understandable considering until about two episodes ago he didn’t know the man existed and he showed honest to goodness love towards the often abused Oswald.  About to be kicked out, he strikes a deal with his stepmother; he will stay on as the family’s servant and they don’t throw him out into the cold.  They abuse the crap out of him and plot to fake his suicide, but they will let him stay for a little while if only to save cash on actual servants.  While performing his duties in the kitchen he discovers the decanter of liquor that had been tainted (at the cost of one of the household dogs) and plots his revenge.  It’s a very “Cinderella” story; if Cinderella murdered, mutilated, cooked and fed her step siblings to her evil step mother, only to brutally stab her to death after the big reveal.

Like Disney by way of Stephen King!

Nygma treks out into the woods (TITLE!) and starts digging up Kristen to move her body when he’s confronted by Gordon.  Holding the disposed detective at gun point, he gives a full confession only to be swarmed by police, led by Barnes, and is taken into custody, clearing Gordon’s name in one fell swoop.

Gordon is offered his job back, and will return to work after tracking down more information on the Wayne’s murder.  Barnes agrees, but only if he promises to call Leslie Tompkins.  Later Gordon tries to call, but can’t bring himself to talk to her.  His brooding is interrupted by Barbra Keane, who’s fresh out of Arkham.

Meanwhile back at the manor, Alfred tells Bruce that the mysterious computer is fixed, but if he’s going to pursue the secrets of his father, he’s going to have to leave Selena and his life on the streets behind.  Granted it was more akin to an elaborate sleep over, but still the decision is hard but he tells an angry Selena that his place is in the Manor.

There were a lot of strong points to this episode and everyone brought their A-game.  I didn’t necessarily appreciate seeing how Bullock stays off of IA’s radar, but I guess it makes sense.  This is clearly not a show for kids.  It was great to see the Penguin unleashed again, and you can tell this re-born bird of crime is going places.

But what about Gordon?

So not too long ago, last week I believe, I proclaimed that Gordon was bad at his job and this week kinda sorta didn’t convince me otherwise.  He’s a decent detective, but ultimately it came down to him being in the right place in the right time and having an opponent who gave all but a power point presentation for his evil plan.

I’m glad we got a reasonable conclusion to the storyline, at least as reasonable as you can get with Gotham, and it’s important for viewers like myself to not judge it by either the rules of real life police work or by the standards of criminal procedural shows.  It’s not fair to the show at large because it’s so very different, so very grounded as being a comic book that you can’t measure it by the same lengths.

So did we get redemption for some off kilter story telling?  Yes and no; Gordon’s return from the gutter was expected, but putting a character that’s eventually going to be Police Commissioner through that kind of thing really questions his qualifications for that job.  Nygma being locked away in Arkham was nice, Penguin returning from his sniveling form was satisfying because you really hated those three, and I’m interested to see where they go with the “healed” Barbra.  The Bruce, Selena, Alfred dynamic was a little more subtle this time around but Alfred was making a good point, that Bruce needed to focus on one thing or another, but he can’t have both right now.

So while I don’t think Gordon is any better at his job than he was last episode, I think the show redeemed some of itself for me to keep me interested in where this is all going.

Til next time.

Jim Gordon...What were you Thinking?

(Quietly banging head into desk) Okay, okay, okay…so recall how made a blog on March 10^th about how Jim Gordon was bad at his job because his ethical choices have really, really, really sucked.  I almost wish I did v-logs just so you could actually see how agitated I am at what I saw on last week’s Gotham.

Seriously, we’re talking hands shaking I am so mad at this show right now.

So, I love the Penguin subplot, that was very well done and I frankly wish Reubens had been with the show longer, but take what you can get.

Bullock’s big plan to help Gordon clear his name is to have him escape Blackgate under the ruse that he was killed by a fellow inmate, and is aided by Carmine Falcone.

That’s your plan.  That is the absolute best you can come up with?  “Carmine still has the resources to…” do a prison break?  Yes, actually that I believe, but you’d think that it would make more sense for Carmine to come out of the shadows, use a judge he had in a back pocket to overturn the conviction and have Gordon freed that way.  Sure he wouldn’t be a GCPD detective anymore, but he could work to clear his name without having to hide from literally the entire city.

But he faked his death, they won’t be looking for him! I hear you saying it, and here’s the problem with that.  The warden is still alive.  He saw, physically saw Jim Gordon alive and escaping and was knocked out.  Unless that guard proceeded to pummel the warden to death after Gordon fled, there’s a very credible witness to tell the police that Jim Gordon is a fugitive in the wind and decidedly not dead, which makes the whole “free to clear your name” thing a lot more complicated.

So let’s look at the absolute best case scenario.  Jim Gordon clears his name.  He can’t legally be reinstated into the GCPD, or join any other law enforcement agency.  While he may have been sent to prison under false pretenses, he still knowingly and willingly escaped of his own accord and that’s still a crime.  Will they throw him behind bars for it?  Eh maybe not, but he’s still guilty of it.  With that on his record, the closest thing he can do to law enforcement might be as a life guard at the public pool.

The major issue I’m having is that a police procedural show, even one based on a comic book, should have some foundation in actual law enforcement practices.

Jim Gordon is Bad at his Job…

 

It’s right there in the title, and I mean it.  Jim Gordon is not a good policeman.  Let’s jump off with the series that chronicles his eventual rise to police commissioner, “Gotham”.  This is a detective that isn’t very effective.  Sure he starts with that white-knight thing going, the one incorruptible cop in all of Gotham, and he has a really good start, but then cracks start appearing in his veneer.  As the cases escalate in craziness, he starts going more and more to the local criminal element for help.  On more than one occasion he sought out aide from Fish Mooney and Cobblepot.  His relationship with Cobblepot has been, without a doubt, the worst for his credibility, but to make matters worse, he double-crosses Penguin.

Regardless of what I’ve said in the past about Batman’s tactics, there is one indelible truth to the man.  He doesn’t double cross.  Even when he’s had to team with his own villains, he never does it at a compromise to his own integrity, and he never lies to them about the terms of their “cease-fire”. 

And it’s not just in the series “Gotham” where this is evident.  Throughout the various incarnations (with the exception of the 1960’s where it’s apparently acceptable to have a masked vigilante do your crime fighting) the very fact that he associates with Batman and allows him to operate within the city compromises his integrity.  Batman as a vigilante cannot affect an arrest regardless of the circumstances.  Any time he stops a purse snatcher or a jay walker, never mind anything higher, that case cannot be admissible in a court of law.  In order for these cases to stick, some serious blurring of facts has to happen.  Gordon didn’t eliminate the corruption of the police force, he just tweaked it.

In the Nolan Trilogy, Gordon is aware of the ethical challenges in associating with a caped lunatic, however this is taken a step further in “The Dark Knight” when he covers up the facts surrounding the death of Harvey Dent and allows Batman to take the heat for Two-Face’s crimes.  This was at least addressed in “The Dark Knight Rises”, but the failure in that instance is that Gordon is still unethical.  He may have been unethical for the right reasons, but if he’s supposed to be the last ethical man in Gotham, he’s failed in that effort.

In the Tim Burton films he ends the first film allying himself with Batman, and the second film basically endorsing violent crime every time the Bat-Signal is lit.  I won’t address the Joel Schumacher films because, as I said in a previous blog, they are just 1966 Batman with a modern spin.

In the famous animated series, he again has to compromise himself in order to work with Batman and condone Batman’s methods.  Other police officers are seen as heels or bad because they look down on this relationship, but as law ENFORCEMENT personnel, they should look down on it.  It’s a violation of public trust to say that these crimes are bad but this crime is okay.  His hand-shaking with Batman make Bruce Way the most successful violent criminal in Gotham’s history.

Well, that’s all I’ve got.

Have a great day.

 

Legal Advice: The Crimes of The Batman, The Superman, and Lt. James Gordon

There seems to be a skewed image in DC fandom concerning the events of Batman Begins vs. The Man of Steel.  The battle cry is that Batman doesn’t kill, and that Superman could have found a way to stop Zod without killing him.

Let’s take this to the courts:

The charge is homicide, and the definition goeth thusly:

Second degree murder usually applies to cases in which the killing may have been intentional but was not premeditated. These are often referred to as “crimes of passion.” A common example is the jealous husband that flies into a homicidal rage and kills his wife and her lover when he finds them in bed together.

“Some states also consider grossly wanton and reckless behavior that results in the death of another to be second degree murder. This applies in situations where one's actions were so wanton and reckless that the death of another person was almost assured, even if the killing was not intentional.

Second degree murder is also very serious, and in most situations the defendant could face decades to life in prison, though the death sentence is not a possibility in these cases.” (http://www.hg.org/murder.html) 

Does this sound familiar?  In Batman Begins, Ra’s Al Ghul has commandeered a commuter train and is intending to evaporate the city’s water supply and thus spread a fear toxin through the air causing mass panic and death.   Batman’s response to this is to destroy the train before reaching “the central hub”.  He has Lt. James Gordon destroy the supports to the tracks and Batman splits the train in half sending Ra’s Al Ghul and the train plummeting into a parking garage where it explodes, taking the “microwave emitter” with it.

During this event, Batman escapes, leaving Ra’s in the runaway train, stating “I’m not going to kill you, but I don’t have to save you either.”  This is not a morally ambiguous line.  This is a lie Batman has just told himself.  According to the above accepted definition of Second Degree homicide, Batman killed Ra’s Al Ghul.  His actions meet the elements of the crime as defined by Frank Schmallenger’s Criminal Justice Today: 1.  An unlawful killing (Batman has no legal authority to take a human life), 2. Of a human being (Ra’s according to the film was human), 3.  Intent (Batman intended to have Ra’s die in a crash), and 4. With Planning (Batman always has a plan).

Now the question to respond with is “Did Batman have a choice?”  As a matter of fact, he did.  It’s never established that the emergency brake could not be engaged.  It’s never established that the microwave emitter couldn’t be disabled, and despite popular belief, it would be possible to put Ra’s Al Ghul in prison for his crimes.  Even if you consider the “corrupt nature” of Gotham’s police force, they would still take a very dim view of a man trying to annihilate their entire city.  After all, the city he was trying to destroy happens to be the city those “corrupt” officials happen to live in.

Not only did Batman commit Second Degree Murder, he also destroyed any evidence that would corroborate the accusation that the League of Shadows existed or was trying to poison Gotham.  By taking matters into his own hands he actually caused more harm than good.  Further, Lt. Gordon should have been stripped of his office and put into Federal custody for his criminal actions in detonating a high explosive in a urban area causing millions of dollars of damage.

To add to the list of offenses, Batman also committed attempted manslaughter earlier in the film when questioning Dr. Jonathan Crane.  During his assault on Arkham, Batman forcefully exposed Crane to his own fear toxin, the same toxin that threatened to kill the assistant district attorney.  Once Batman realized that the dosage was potentially fatal (never mind that he had already experienced the chemical compound first hand and understood its dangerous, even life threatening effects) he made no attempt to notify medical or legal authorities to have them administer aide to the now poisoned Dr. Crane.  Rather he left him in the Arkham basement to die, driving away now with full knowledge that Crane could, in fact die from the exposure.

But what about Superman?

Let us examine the case against him.  When a small army of super-powered aliens attempted to take over the Earth, Superman extensively worked with the United States armed forces (not just one person) to stop them.  The actions of said super-powered army caused a massive amount of destruction.  Superman, by comparision, caused much less by fighting them.  This was a war-time event.  The aliens were hostile and the military responded as such.  This means that any deaths caused indirectly by the physical confrontation between the aliens and Superman would be considered collateral damage.  Further, had the aliens not attempted to take over Earth, none of these deaths would have occurred.  There is evidence severs the link between Superman and the collateral damage (from a legal standpoint).

But what about Zod?  This is an area referred to as “justifiable homicide”. 

“Justifiable homicide is not murder at all, as it is not considered criminal. Rather, it is the taking of another's life in circumstances in which the killing was necessary as the only means of preventing the murder of one's self or to protect another. Because the killing was justifiable, the person who committed the killing will not be held criminally liable for the death, though civil liability may still exist (i.e. the decedent's family could bring a wrongful death lawsuit).”  (http://www.hg.org/murder.html) 

At the time of the incident there was no means available of effectively subduing or detaining Zod.  The military had already exhausted its attempts to detain Superman earlier, which proved futile.  There was no time or available resources to establish a detainment system to prevent Zod from continuing his rampage (the Phantom Zone generator having been destroyed at this point).  Superman’s attempt to steer Zod away from populated areas was futile as Zod was intent on returning to hot zones in an effort to inflict the most possible damage.  Lastly Zod’s next action would have resulted the immediate death of a family.  Superman’s only recourse to was to end Zod’s life, making it justifiable homicide.  Further, because he was working with an official representative of the United States armed forces with authority to move forward with defensive military actions at the time, this made his actions sanctioned by the military.

Batman, by comparison, coerces James Gordon into becoming an accomplice.  Gordon has no official authority to enlist the aid of Batman.  Batman functions as a vigilante who while sounding cool, is incredibly illegal and Gordon actively harbors him and hinders his apprehension.