A regular citizen dressed as Batman attempted to insert himself into a police matter in Canada last weekend, and was politely turned away. In the Batman franchise, the Caped Crusader has enjoyed a fractured relationship with Gotham City's police department, at times working alongside cops and on other occasions being relentlessly chased by them, accused of doing just as much harm as the city's criminal contingent. In Batman's defense, he is a highly trained ninja and a master detective, while Gotham's law enforcement is more crooked than Bruce Wayne's spine after a fight with Bane.

Of course, the small matter of Batman's peak human conditioning hasn't stopped regular people all over the world from suiting up and taking to the streets as real-life vigilantes. Inspired by their favorite comic book superheroes, citizens concerned by rising levels of violent crime are now spending their evenings "on patrol" in an attempt to make their neighborhoods safer places to live. Naturally, people take this hobby to different extremes and there are certainly arguments for and against the practice, but the message from law enforcement has been steadfast: leave crime fighting to the pros.

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This sentiment was very much lost on an aspiring superhero in Canada last Saturday, as footage recorded by bystander Melissa Parent (via PQB News) demonstrates. Law enforcement had cordoned off a section of road to deal with an incident and had firearms drawn. A passing vehicle then stopped and a man got out in full (possibly Tim Burton-era?) Batsuit. The figure slowly strides up to the scene and appears to ask police if his assistance is required. It wasn't, obviously, and the Bruce Wayne wannabe trudges back to his Batmobile (a truck with the Batman logo on the back) and heads home. Police later confirmed that they were responding to a domestic incident where a firearm was potentially involved and stated:

“As to the presence of ‘Batman’ at the scene, when there is an unfolding event which is potentially serious in nature, as most people would assume by the fact that members were deployed with Carbines out, the public should remain away from the area as they are putting themselves and the lives of the responding members in jeopardy. Situations like this are dynamic and subject to change very quickly, the presence of ‘Batman’ or anyone else is an unwanted distraction and foolish as they are placing themselves at risk.”

At a surface level, the video footage is certainly amusing in a completely surreal sense. The sight of someone dressed as Batman in broad daylight and trying to fight crime is funny in itself, but watching said person get swiftly turned away and have to get back in their car is something not even the Joker's twisted mind could envisage.

As the police statement makes clear however, there is a far more serious side to the situation. Not only was "Batman" putting himself in danger by walking towards a situation where guns were drawn, but the time it takes for a cop to tell a do-gooder to back off could prove enough of a distraction for the situation to take a turn for the worse. It's not clear whether the man in question was genuinely on the lookout for crime to fight, or was heading to a costume party that he'd put far too much effort into, but in either case, the Dark Knight should stick to fighting fictional baddies next time.

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Source: PQB News