>>123361398it's not just super heroes though, the dirty harry movies are a great example.
at least in fiction, if you're law enforcement in america, it doesn't matter if you follow the laws, as long as you don't break certain specific ones, mainly the ones you're killing/arresting people for. batman's not allowed to sell drugs on the streetcorner, no matter how ethically sourced or how non-exploited his customerbase. But he is allowed to break into places for evidence, assault suspects, assault people even tangentially related to suspects, hack literally anything from personal smartphones to the US military, cause unnecessary extensive property damage just hunting common thugs, and generally ignore all facets of due process.
And the stories warp themselves around making this (as best as they can twist things) RIGHTEOUS.
But it isn't just in fiction either, is it? There is a reason "thin blue line" and the Punisher logo have gotten so synonymous. A self-appointed manhunter who eschews the law to gruesomely torture and murder those he personally deems evil in order to satisfy his own bloodlust, motivated by a vendetta that generalized when he wasn't able to slake it just by killing his wife and daughter's murderer. That's who the modern US police officer identifies with. No wonder then, by those standards Dirty Harry and most Super Heroes are a boy scouts.
