Go ahead, make my day!

It would take quite alot to get the legal system to allow so much violent action, and disregard of civil rights post 1960's. On the other hand I can easily see a period of small groups of police moving about and acting in such a manner and the police or public turning a blind eye to the harsh treatment of criminals.
 
The problem is that it would create two very big problems. First, in the world after the 1965-Watts Riots, many people are going to equate police violence to "legal lynching". This would be particularly underlined in the states below the Mason-Dixon line wherein police officials actually participated in African-American Lynchings throughout the first half of the 20th Century (see: Incognegro by Mat Johnson). To make matters worse, for many LGBT people, the vigilante-style of justice is synonmous with gay-bashing, especially after the 1969 Stonewall Riots. For many Latino/Chicanos, the police violence is an unkind reminder of things like the Zoot Suit Riots of 1942,the 1954 Operation Wetback, or the 1994 Minuteman Militias. In any event, "Dirty Harry" justice usually means a reputation of corrupt racist, misogynistic, and sexist "loose cannons" with no respect for the law....

The second problem is that this easily justifies the escalation in violence that comes from these tactics. Fors instance, the 1965 rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California was started as a result of the police brutality of local officers. The Symbionese Liberation Army was formed in 1973, because of perceptions of police brutality in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. The Weathermen (a.k.a. the Weather Underground) was built in 1968, on the basis that the country was being "run by jack-booted stormtroopers". A "Dirty Harry" universe would cause a massive escalation, wherein the Bloods and the Crips would be romanticized even further than in OTL, because of the violence brought by the police....
 
*slaps DMA* :mad: Its a .44 Magnum!


Actually there's a lot of debate on what gun Harry actually used as it changed all the time, even in the original movie. To quote from Wiki:

Wiki said:
The gun used by Clint Eastwood in the filming of the movie was reportedly not a .44 Magnum. According to a story related by a member of the studio's prop department, Smith & Wesson did not have a Model 29 in stock at the time one was requested for filming. Instead, they used a Smith & Wesson Model 57 in .41 Magnum.[citation needed] The Model 29 and Model 57 are identical except for minute differences in bore size, chamber dimensions, and exterior markings, none of which are visible in the film.

Another version of the Dirty Harry gun story: In the scene where we see Inspector Callahan drawing his oversized revolver for the first time, the gun used was a Smith and Wesson Model 29 in .44 Magnum with an 8 3/8" barrel, but subsequent shooting (both with the cameras and the gun) was conducted using a Smith and Wesson Model 25 in .45 Long Colt with a 6" barrel. The choice of .45LC over .44 Magnum was to use the standard "Four-In-One" blank cartridges, which were widely used in filming cowboy movies, and thus readily available (unlike blanks for a .44 Magnum, which the prop department would have had to fabricate from scratch.) As in the story above, the Model 25 and Model 29 are so similar that it would be impossible to distinguish them at a glance.
 
So what if policing today was conducted Dirty Harry style?

Discuss

Well David,

There'd be more respect for the police and overcrowding of prisons wouldn't be as big a problem.:D:D

Those G8 protesters would have gotten a big surprise.:D

I say bring it on.

Go ahead make my day.

Although I still think the security guard at work has the right idea.
All violent criminals are sent for gladiator games to be played at the MCG.
The winner gets a full pardon but it's fight to the death.
All paid for by selling TV rights and corporate sponsorships.

Just imagine some hood being offered 20 grand for him if he wins or his family if he loses and all he had to do is be tattooed with the company logo and latest slogan.:D:D
 
Go ahead make my day.

Although I still think the security guard at work has the right idea.
All violent criminals are sent for gladiator games to be played at the MCG.
The winner gets a full pardon but it's fight to the death.
All paid for by selling TV rights and corporate sponsorships.

Just imagine some hood being offered 20 grand for him if he wins or his family if he loses and all he had to do is be tattooed with the company logo and latest slogan.:D:D

Something like?
86615_the_running_man.jpg
 
On a more serious note ;),

I think it would be but a short step to death squads killing not just "obvious" criminals but anyone deemed a danger to society or even just unwanted.

Several countries have experienced police death squads and none enjoyed the experience.
 
well, ol' Harry never killed anyone but out and out criminals unerringly, so justice would be swift and brutal, and no one would ever be arrested by mistake...

though how you get a real world policeman to do that is beyond me...
 
well, ol' Harry never killed anyone but out and out criminals unerringly, so justice would be swift and brutal, and no one would ever be arrested by mistake...

though how you get a real world policeman to do that is beyond me...

Well you give every cop a good dose of luck as Harry always manage to be there at the right moment (when they were commmiting a crime but before the deed was over) and usually had a whole bunch of witness to prove it was a legitimate kill
 
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