Yes, Dent. It's not forestalling the inevitable at all. I don't think it'll be too tough to defend the prosecutions given the nature of his psychotic break; it's not like he prosecuted anyone after his accident. They just need some preparation and some psychiatric experts to come in and testify about what happened to him and what the Joker did to him.
The problem isn't letting those guys out of jail. You're missing the point. It's a morale issue. People need hope. They need someone to believe in. They need a guy they can look up to and say "He was a great man. We need more people like him." Later, when the city is better and crime is lower, they can reveal Dent's psychotic break. Really, it doesn't diminish the man he once was; it just needs to be broken to the public gently and in a time when it's ready to hear it. Right now it would be disasterous.
A psycho was running around killing people at random and the local hero who was looking to turn things around just died after getting mangled, his girlfriend was blown up, a judge was blown up, the police commishioner was poisoned, the police station was bombed, and numerous cops were killed and injured. That's going to cause a pretty damn serious morale problem. My analogy isn't perfect but I don't think it's as bad as you seem to think. Gotham is fighting for its life right now. You tell the people right now that it's local hero went psycho and killed cops, that could be a backbreaker.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: That's exactly the point
Date: 2008-07-25 05:13 pm (UTC)The problem isn't letting those guys out of jail. You're missing the point. It's a morale issue. People need hope. They need someone to believe in. They need a guy they can look up to and say "He was a great man. We need more people like him." Later, when the city is better and crime is lower, they can reveal Dent's psychotic break. Really, it doesn't diminish the man he once was; it just needs to be broken to the public gently and in a time when it's ready to hear it. Right now it would be disasterous.
A psycho was running around killing people at random and the local hero who was looking to turn things around just died after getting mangled, his girlfriend was blown up, a judge was blown up, the police commishioner was poisoned, the police station was bombed, and numerous cops were killed and injured. That's going to cause a pretty damn serious morale problem. My analogy isn't perfect but I don't think it's as bad as you seem to think. Gotham is fighting for its life right now. You tell the people right now that it's local hero went psycho and killed cops, that could be a backbreaker.