Code of Honor (Honesty), point value?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Causing property damage to save human lives is not illegal. The law allows for such things. Nor for that matter is intervening to stop a felony in progress.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

<shrug> If there are "civil rights laws" that impact on what Superman usually does these days, I'm unaware of them. Superman (and by that I mean mainstream comic book Superman) is not a cop or government agent. He doesn't extract confessions, doesn't hospitalize criminals, doesn't break into private residences or even businesses except when someone is about to die, doesn't provide evidence to the authorities except incidentally, and doesn't interfere with people voting. The truth is under the law you can get away with a hell of a lot if people will die if you don't act.

The problem is when you deliberately set out to look for a criminal act in process and then use violent means to resolve it without official sanction, training or authority. At that point, you are no longer simply a private citizen acting to preserve life in an emergency, you've become a criminal who planned and executed an act of violent vigilantism.

In any reasonable setting, laws would be written to invest Superman with law enforcement authority and subject him to the same legal safeguards as other enforcers of the law. As most comics settings are rather more inconsistent than reasonable, this doesn't usually seem to be the case.

Modern nation states are quite jealous of their monopoly on the use of force. Most of them have tolerances that approach zero for those who would encroach on that monopoly. Hence, not a lot of legal leeway for vigilantes patrolling for trouble and subduing criminals with high-powered lasers and massive, building collapsing force.