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Shouldn't Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD hate Batman's guts?


Of course, Tim Burton and company weren't aiming to do a super-doper plausible, "grounded-in-reality" take on Batman. But has anybody else noticed that the Gotham City Police Department in the pre-Christopher Nolan Batman movies, are pretty one-dimensional and lacking in depth? The only cop in Batman (1989) who is presented in a decidedly negative light or being an antagonist for Batman is the Harvey Bullock expy Lt. Eckhardt.

For one thing, the cops could have a reasonable grind to ax against Batman for spoiling crime scenes and operating without the constraints they suffer under. Also, it isn't like Batman could able to testify in court. So wouldn't it be highly likely that a majority of his captures would walk?

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"pre-Christopher Nolan Batman movies"

It might be unrealistic, but it didn't stop at Nolan.

In Batman Begins Gordon is only confrontational towards Batman when they first meet and that's because he think's Bruce has a gun to his head. As soon as Bruce hands over Falcone, Gordon is putty in Batman's hand. By the end of the movie Gotham P.D. has installed the bat-signal and Gordon is sharing information on an open case with Batman.

In The Dark Knight, Batman was actively working cases with Gotham P.D and even snatched a Chinese national out of his country for them. Wouldn't that spark an international incident, maybe a war, if Gotham prosecuted instead of returned him? The police also gave Batman first crack at a crime scene and even let him walk off with evidence. Batman was allowed to interrogate a suspected terrorist inside the police station and then beat on him with impunity. By the end Gordon and Batman were covering up crimes together.


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They did at the start. Which is why they constantly denied his existence, even when Gordon himself saw him. The police even tried to arrest him after he dropped Jack into the chemicals. However Gotham was so over run by crime and the police weren't equipped enough to stop it, that some vigilante dressed as bat, beating up thugs in an alley wasn't a very high priority for them. Had Knox not been writing about it in the paper, then they might have been fine just letting him do his thing.

Their opinion started to turn when Batman broke the Jokers code for poisoning everyone. Even then the news mentioned not being sure what to make of Batman.

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I mean in comics, Batman was a hero in Gotham. The police would call him via the Bat signal when a crime was committed. I frankly don't want realism in my Superhero movies.

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