Judge (2000 AD)

Template:In-universe

Judge (2000 AD)
Judge Rico, a street judge, painted by Carlos Ezquerra
Publication information
Publisher(s)	Rebellion Developments
Debut	2000 AD #2
Creators	John Wagner (writer) Carlos Ezquerra (artist) Pat Mills (editor)
In-story information
sortkey(s)	Judges
Base (s)	Grand Hall of Justice
Roster

Judge (or street judge) is a title held by several significant characters in Judge Dredd and other series which appear in the British comics 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine. In the fictional future history of the series, the role of "Judge" combines those of judge and police officer, thus avoiding long legal wrangles by allowing for criminals to be tried and sentenced on the spot. Since they overthrew the US Constitution in 2070 they have also held supreme political power in Mega-City One. Collectively they are known as the Justice Department.

Overview

Judges are the product of many years' training and psychological conditioning. Training, which takes place in the Academy of Law, generally begins at age five. The Judges recruit promising children, and grow their own clones. Judge Dredd is himself one of the clones of the Judges' founder, Chief Judge Fargo.

The Judges themselves are not above the law – a violation that would earn a citizen a few months in an Iso-Cube would get a Judge a twenty-year sentence, to be served as hard labor on Saturn's moon, Titan, after surgical modification to enable the convict to survive in Titan's atmosphere without needing an expensive space suit.

The Judges are led by a Chief Judge and a Council of Five. The Judges have their own domestic intelligence division (the Public Surveillance Unit), and their own medical facilities. There are a number of specialist divisions within the Judges, notably Psi Division, which consists of psychic judges used to predict the future and read minds, and Tek Division, made up of forensic scientists and engineers. The SJS (Special Judicial Squad) monitor and police the Judges internally.

In the Judge Dredd future history, the Judge System originated in the United States (see History of Mega-City One), but spread to other countries around the world. In most of these nations the Judges are not only responsible for law enforcement but also control all aspects of the government. Of course, not all of these different Justice Departments are identical to the Mega-City One Judges. The Judges of Ireland, for example, are not only allowed to drink and smoke, they are also allowed to get married, whereas MC-1 Judges are prohibited from having love lives and have virtually no private lives of their own. Corruption is endemic amongst the Judges of Brit-Cit, and bribery is often essential to progress through the ranks of what is, compared to Mega-City's Judge system, little more than an authorized militia- or protection racket.

Judges also hear civil cases in block courts. These are courts in each City Block, where judges are assigned to try civil cases, such as compensation claims, libel, slander, divorce, alimony and small claims matters.

Notable Judges appearing in the series include Judge Anderson (of Psi Division), Judge Hershey, Judge Kraken, Judge Giant and the eponymous Judge Dredd.

Divisions/Bodies

Within the Mega-City One legal system there are numerous bodies and divisions who have specialised tasks:

• Street Division (normal Judges)
• Riot squads
• H-Wagon crews (aerial units)
• Heavies/Manta Tank crews (artillery)
• Academy of Law
• Psi Division (judges with psychic powers, encompassing Exorcist Judges and the Department of Magic)
• Special Judicial Squad or SJS (internal affairs)
• Technical Division, a.k.a. Tek Division (scientists)
• "Wally Squad" (Undercover Division)
• Space Corps
• Public Surveillance Unit (PSU)
• Black Ops
• Defence Division (army)
• Public Relations Division
• Accounts
• Traffic
• Med Division
• Meat Wagons (corpse disposal, often using civilian auxilaries)
• Township deputies (mutant deputies drafted to police Cursed Earth townships)
• Holocaust Squad (teams of disgraced Judges who undertake suicide missions at times of extreme peril to Mega-City One)

In 2134, there was an across-the-board divisional merger, creating:

• Street Division: absorbing Meat Wagon, H-Wagon, Riot, and Sniper divisions
• Undercover Operations Division: newly created and encompassing SJS, Black Ops, Wally Squad, and PSU.

Training

A rookie judge (illustrated by Will Simpson)

Before becoming fully fledged street judges, cadet judges usually must spend 15 years (or, exceptionally, 13 years for fast-tracked cadets) at the Academy of Law, where they receive the intensive training and conditioning that will enable them to enforce law and order in the chaotic and confusing environment of Mega-City One.

A cadet is inducted into the Academy either as a cloned infant (as was the case with Judge Dredd), or as a child aged five (although in exceptional cases older children have been recruited). After this the Academy is the recruit's entire world; unsupervised contact with the city outside is forbidden under any circumstances in order to maintain the strictest discipline and mental conditioning.

However, cadet Judges must leave both the Academy and the city itself during their "Hotdog Run". This is a training mission into the Cursed Earth, in order to test the cadets under combat conditions; fatalities are not unknown. A senior Judge will command and assess the cadets during the Hotdog Run.

On graduating from the Academy, cadets become known as rookie judges. A rookie's uniform is similar to that of a full judge, with two differences: the helmet is white rather than black and red, and the badge consists of only one half of a full judge's badge and does not show the rookie's name (this design is sometimes varied by artists; see illustration, right). (Note however that some artists have wrongly depicted cadets in rookies' uniforms, and rookies in full judges' uniforms.)

Before becoming a full judge, a rookie must undergo assessment on the streets by a more experienced Senior Judge in order to gauge their suitability and competence. The failure rate is extremely high, with no second chances allowed. The few who pass their Final Assessment exchange their white helmet and "half-eagle" for the black and red helmet and "full eagle" at a brief ceremony before the chief judge.

Notable characters who have been seen taking their final assessments are the original Judge Giant, the other Judge Giant, Judge Rico, Judge Kraken, and Dredd himself (in flashbacks). The film Dredd depicts Judge Anderson's final assessment.

Cadets who fail to graduate are expelled from the Academy. Rookies who fail their final assessment used to have no right of appeal, but this has been shown to no longer be the case. Failed cadets and rookies become civilians, and are either employed as auxiliaries or leave the Justice Department altogether.

Retirement

Judge McGruder taking the Long Walk (drawn by Cliff Robinson)

When a street judge retires from service at the end of his career, he may choose to leave Mega-City One and live out his final days in exile outside the city. He may do this either in the Cursed Earth, a radioactive desert outside the city walls, or in the Undercity, the paved-over ruins of New York that lie beneath the mega-city. The Long Walk begins with a brief ceremony at the city gates. The retiring judge walks through an honour guard of judges as they discharge their firearms into the air, while another judge formally bids him farewell. Once they take the Long Walk, judges are expected never to return, but to die "bringing law to the lawless."

Retiring judges may also be given the option to be placed in administrative or teaching posts, instead of taking the Long Walk. The Long Walk may however be the best option open to a judge who has been subject to disciplinary proceedings for misconduct not warranting criminal prosecution.

The Long Walk was introduced in 2000 AD #147, in the 1980 story "Judge Minty," written by John Wagner.

Notable instances

Two unprecedented exceptions to the normally inflexible rule that judges who take the Long Walk do not return from it were Chief Judge McGruder and Judge Dredd himself:

• Chief Judge McGruder resigned in 2108 when she blamed herself for an error of judgement which cost hundreds of lives, choosing exile to the Cursed Earth. Dredd presided over her Long Walk ceremony.

• Dredd took the Long Walk in 2112, after succumbing to doubts he had long held regarding the ethics of the entire Judge System. These were brought to a head after he received a posthumous letter from William Wenders, a child who had been killed as an indirect result of the Judges' suppression of the Democratic March. Whilst roaming the Cursed Earth, however, Dredd learned about the catastrophe known as Necropolis, and so he returned to Mega-City One in order to defeat the Dark Judges, recruiting McGruder along the way. Thus Dredd and McGruder were the first judges ever to return to the city after taking the Long Walk. This later became the focus of former Chief Judge Silver's legal challenge to McGruder's return to office, as Silver insisted that McGruder was disqualified from being chief judge as "Judges don't go back." However, Silver did not object to Dredd adjudicating between them even though Dredd had also returned from the Long Walk.

• In the 1995 film, Chief Judge Fargo (played by Max von Sydow) takes the Long Walk into the Cursed Earth, and shortly afterwards is murdered by Mean Machine Angel. (However the 2000 AD comic strip version of this character never took the Long Walk.)

• The forthcoming fan film "Judge Minty" shows one of the comic's minor characters, Judge Minty taking the Long Walk and his first encounters in the Cursed Earth.

History

The Judge System was created by Eustace Fargo, special government prosecutor for street crime, between 2027 and 2031, to combat a rising tide of violent crime and to speed up the process of justice. While there was heavy protest in Congress over the idea of abandoning due process, the electorate was in favour and President Gurney (who supported Fargo's plan) was re-elected with a massive majority. The original uniforms heavily resembled that of normal American police officers, albeit with helmets and heavy body armour, and drove Lawranger motorcycles.

Following the Third World War of 2070 and discovering that President Booth had stole the election, the Judges invoked the "oldest law of them all" overthrowing the Government of the United States and seizing power, with popular support, and the chief judge became the country's ruler. The Judicial model has subsequently spread throughout the globe becoming the most common form of government on Earth by the 22nd century.

Foreign variations

A 1988 poster of foreign Judges (illustrated by Brendan McCarthy)

Every Mega-City seen is policed and run (either completely or partially) by a Judge system, which more or less resembles that of Mega-City One. Variations exist on the uniforms and overall system of government:

• Some Judge systems, such as the Irish (Murphyville) and Australian (Sydney-Melbourne Conurb) ones, have far more lenient and relaxed laws and codes of practise for Judges. Conversely, Russia's East-Meg Two has a far more militarised and oppressive law, while Japan's Hondo City has a more disciplined and stoic culture among the Judges. Casablancan Judges operate under Sufi-based law.

• Several systems are openly corrupt and serving the ruling figures - Ciudad Barranquilla is traditionally the main example, and the mafia had taken over and become the Judges in Las Vegas. (An extremely high number of foreign Judge systems have been revealed to be corrupt in spin-off strips - Armitage reveals Brit-Cit justice to be corrupt and run by former ganglords, Shimura has Hondo justice infiltrated by the yakuza, Breathing Space has corrupt Luna-1 Judges...)

• The remit of the Judges may be different – the Pan-African Judges are an inter-continental peacekeeping force.
• Control may not rest solely with the Judges, or at all: Japan still retains the Shogun as constitutional monarch, the Vatican's Judges (and the city itself) are still answerable to the Pope and senior priests, and Scotland's Cal-Hab Judges are a subordinate branch of Brit-City.
• Lunar colony Luna-1 traditionally gained many of its Judges from foreign Mega-Cities, and until 2099 the position of Judge Marshal was replaced every six months and held by a senior Earth Judge. It finally gained a mostly domestic Judge system solely because, following cataclysms like Judgement Day, the Earth cities could not afford to send off any Judges.
• Brit-Cit's Justice Department has much of its internal work done by Administrators, who do not have judicial powers; in other Mega-Cities, almost every worker is a Judge (up to and including accountants).
• The Judicial forces of Brit-Cit, Murphyville, and Sino-Cit allow Judges to marry, have children and have some form of civilian life. Many other Mega-Cities stick with a monastic code, especially MC-1.
• Some Judges deliberately pattern their uniforms after their country's flag.

The foreign Judge stories and spin-off strips have been criticised for relying too much on foreign stereotypes and cliches – Egypt's Judges are based on Ancient Egyptians, the South American Judges are corrupt and incompetent and speak in exaggerated accents, Japanese Judges are samurai figures etc.

Places that lack a Judge force include the Mediterranean Free State, Mongolian Exclusion Zone, Canadia (Canada), and the Web (Borneo and Indonesian islands). In some cases, this is a deliberate choice; in others, such as the Web, it is because they cannot afford it.

Dark Judges

The Dark Judges are undead creatures from an alternative reality ("Deadworld").

Because all crime is committed by the living, the Dark Judges have concluded that life is a crime and the punishment they have decreed is death. They travel through different realities delivering their justice. As they do not live and cannot die, they therefore are not guilty. Their leader, Judge Death, is Judge Dredd's arch-enemy.

Before its extermination, Deadworld was ruled over by a murderous and corrupt Judge force; their uniforms were a grey, black and dark-red variation of Mega-City One's, with pterodactyls in place of eagles as decoration. There does not appear to have been an Atomic War in this world, as the cities shown resembled run-down 20th Century cities rather than the Mega-Cities. The Dark Judges took control of this Judge force and used it to assist them in their global genocide before disposing of it.

Judges

Chief Judges

Judge Dredd and Chief Judge Volt (painted by Carlos Ezquerra)

1. Judge Fargo
2. Judge Solomon
3. Judge Goodman
4. Judge Cal
5. Judge Griffin
6. Judge McGruder
7. Judge Silver
8. Judge McGruder (second term)
9. Judge Volt
10. Judge Hershey
11. Judge Francisco
12. Judge Sinfield (acting chief judge)
13. Judge Francisco (second term)
14. Judge Hershey (second term)

Other notable judges

• Judge Joe Dredd
• Former judge Rico Dredd
• Judge Rico
• Judge Anderson
• Judge Buell
• Former judge Galen DeMarco
• Judge Edgar
• Judge Giant sr
• Judge Giant jr
• Judge Grice
• Judge Guthrie
• Judge Janus
• Judge Kraken
• Judge Lopez
• Judge Niles
• Judge Shenker

Dark Judges

• Judge Death
• Judge Fear
• Judge Fire
• Judge Mortis

See also

• List of minor characters in Judge Dredd, which contains details of other Judges.

References

• Mega-City Judges and Judges of Note from Other Cities at the International Catalogue of Superheroes
• Judges at the Comic Book DB