Cover art by Shawn McManus
On the darkened streets of Gotham City, Batman rescues an African American named Eric Wood from being executed by a passing car. “The Brotherhood of the White Knight, that’s what they call themselves,” Batman says to himself of the shooters. “Junior fascists. Picking off blacks at random, just to prove they can do it. What do they think? This will give them credentials with the Aryan Brotherhood when they get to prison? If there’s justice, they’ll find out.”
Batman hears a nearby police siren and decides to leave the wannabe killers for them to handle. Instead of going after the escaping shooters, however, the officers confront Eric Wood, delivering their own brand of “justice” in the process. When a news reporter named Mark Merkling accuses the cops of committing murder the next day, Chief of Police Yeats replies, “Policemen defending themselves. You call that murder?”
“Guess who got a videotape from one of Wood’s neighbors,” Merkling shouts back. “It’s the icing on a big, big, cake. And you get to swallow every bite. See you on TV, chief.”
Thus begins Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #44, with a cover date of April 1993. One year earlier – on April 29, 1992 – a California jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers on assault charges in the beating of African American Rodney King. Just like in Gotham City, the incident was videotaped by someone living nearby, but despite the graphic details contained on the tape, a “not guilty” verdict was handed down nonetheless, resulting in six days of riots and a day of reckoning for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Back in Gotham City, police Captain Jim Gordon is reviewing the Eric Wood file when Batman pays him visit. Although the file mentions guns, drugs, and the victim’s violent state, the Dark Knight realizes it’s nothing more than lies when he sees a photo of the man the police killed. “This is Wood?” he asks Gordon. “This is the time he was shot? I saved his life, three minutes earlier. He wasn’t carrying, wasn’t packing.” Batman slips out the window of the captain’s office without saying another word.
Journalist Mark Merkling, meanwhile, is sitting at home watching the videotape of Wood’s murder when his doorbell rings. A rifle shot hits him in the chest as soon as he opens the door. Four police officers wearing masks then enter the apartment, find the tape, and leave with it. The youngest cop – Ernie Rogers – is unsettled by the turn of events and the others realize he’s a liability. Batman has reached the same conclusion and heads to Rogers’ apartment to interrogate him. He arrives at the same moment that the other three police officers, again wearing masks, gun down their former partner.
“Gangbangers,” Gotham City police Captain Huss tells the media regarding the murder of Ernie Rogers. “Avenging one of their own. They crossed the line when they killed a cop. They think they’re tough? We get done with ’em, they’ll wish they never heard of tough.”
Chief Yeats agrees. “These crybabies are getting on my nerves,” he says of protesters outside his window. “Gang violence on the rise, crime up. How do they plan to deal with it? Hard to tell the difference between them and the gangs they’re desperate to protect, isn’t it? Stands to reason what kind of people think the police are their enemy.” He then orders his men to implement a curfew, conduct random searches, and make mass arrests in the African American neighborhoods of Gotham City.
As John Ganz writes in his 2024 book When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s, Rodney King was a twenty-five-year-old part-time groundkeeper on parole for second-degree robbery when he was chased by the California Highway Patrol. After finally pulling over in the San Fernando Valley, King was yanked out of the car and relentlessly beaten. A tenant at Lake View Terrace heard a “commotion,” grabbed his video camera and filmed the pummeling from his terrace. The footage was shown on CNN on March 5, 1991.
Earlier that day, President George H. W. Bush spoke at a Crime Summit in Washington, D.C. and referred to Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates as one of the many “all-American heroes” of law enforcement. African and Hispanic Americans living in Los Angeles had a different viewpoint, having been routinely harassed and beaten by the LAPD for decades. Gates simply brushed aside each accusation, going as far as to claim that Blacks were dying from police choke holds because their “veins and arteries do not open up as fast as they do normal people.” In regard to a Hispanic suspect in a police shooting, meanwhile, Gates referred to him as an “El Salvadoran drunk – a drunk that doesn’t belong here.”
A more conciliatory, as well as contradictory, Gates initially emerged after the release of the Rodney King tape – the police chief said that watching it made him “physically ill,” for instance, while maintaining that “one incident doesn’t indict an entire department.” He also offered King an apology but added that it was “in spite of the fact that he’s on parole and a convicted robber.” As for calls for his resignation, Gates refused, although he did concede that if a specially appointed commission investigating the King beating found him “derelict,” he would step aside.
By now, the Gotham City police officers who stole the videotape of Eric Wood’s death realize it is an edited version and track down Mark Merkling’s editor, Lisa Chase. Batman has already found Merkling’s dead body – as well as removed it from the scene – and likewise heads to Chase’s home. The resulting confrontation ends with the house exploding. Although one of the cops dies, everyone else safely escapes the blast.
The next day, an apparently alive Mark Merkling appears on television. “First my apologies for taping this segment,” he begins. “I’m in hiding after a savage attempt on my life by members of the Gotham City Police Department. If you think my case is unique, watch the following videotape – though it will turn your stomach. This was Eric Wood, former gang member turned street minister. He had a dream of turning the gangs from violence to positive social action, a dream that shockingly ended three nights ago in a little-publicized execution at the hands of Gotham’s finest.”
An independent commission tasked with investigating the Los Angeles Police Department uncovered a pattern of excessive force that was “aggravated by racism” and tolerated by higher-ups, who never took any actions against “problem” officers. Snippets of computer messages sent by officers to each other were contained in the report, adding substance to the accusations – “I almost got me a Mexican last night but he dropped the dam gun too quick,” and “If you encounter those negroes shoot first and ask questions later” were among them. As for Police Chief Daryl Gates, the commission wrote, “If the leaders are careless in their comments or equivocal in their commitments, some rank-and-file officers may find encouragement for their misconduct.”
Gates remained defiant, however, first refusing to retire, then naming a retirement date only to delay it. Then came April 29, 1992 – the day the four police officers were found “not guilty” of using excessive force against Rodney King. Los Angeles erupted as a result and many blamed Daryl Gates for the following six days of rioting. He finally succumbed to the inevitable and officially resigned on June 27. A special commission investigating the riots later wrote, “During the entire crisis, the Chief of Police appears never actively to have taken command of the Department and its responses, preferring to leave that critical responsibility in the hands of less experienced subordinates.”
After Gotham Police Captain Larry Knox is arrested for orchestrating Eric Wood’s death, journalist Mark Merkling makes another television appearance from the grave. “While there’s no evidence directly tying Chief Yeats to a murder squad, certainly he created an atmosphere where brutality and intimidation were acceptable weapons in a policeman’s arsenal,” he says. “Where officers were encouraged to ignore a citizen’s basic rights – as long as that citizen is not white, male, and well-dressed – and will feel assured they can escape the consequences of ending that citizen’s life.”
Batman later pays a visit to Yeats, telling him, “Policemen should be liked and respected by citizens, not reviled and hated. No one wants crime, but no one wants a police state either.” Yeats – like Daryl Gates – remains defiant, accusing the Dark Knight of using the same vigilante tactics as his police officers.
“No,” Batman replies. “I hate crime, Yeats. Not other people.”
Anthony Letizia