Officer Bud White

Violence is the solution to every problem

Characters and Alignment: Officer Bud White

I started this blog in September, and it took me a month to figure out how to get the tech working, so I owe you 5 articles of this feature. Basically, I plan to find an historical figure, or a character from whatever source -- book, movie, video game, what ever -- and I figure out their alignment based upon D&D morality. Now this may be controversial, but, hey, what isn’t?

Let’s start with a controversial character from everybody’s favorite film noir “LA Confidential”: Officer Bud White, played by Russell Crow. At first glance, one might assume that White is Chaotic Good or even Neutral good, a tough cop who’s dedicated his life to defending the weak and fighting evil. Sounds nice, and I’m sure Bud thinks of himself that way. But let’s go into the gritty details. Protecting women and fighting evil is a good thing, no argument there, but Bud’s methods damn him. Take the first scene as one of his more light-handed examples of justice. Bud and his partner are watching a man beat his wife through a window. Now those of your familiar with the movie know what happens, so sorry for boring you. Basically, after watching the beating for about five minutes, Bud walks up to the front door; tears the Christmas decorations off the room that fall to the ground with a massive crash, then after insulting the wife-beater, beats him up, and handcuffs him to his porch. Then he calls for somebody to pick him up. Approach this logically. Bud has committed evil actions here. 1) He randomly smashes the man’s decorations for no reason other than to provoke him into punching first. 2) He deliberately goads him into a fight when other options were available. 3) After the fight, he keeps beating him until he is unable to move, then handcuffs him. Now this situation in itself isn’t that bad. For example, lets say Bud was a citizen and without power; beating the man up would be good. But Bud wasn’t desperate, and he had plenty of options where he wouldn’t have to resort to brutality. First, when the scene starts he has apparently been watching the assault for some time, and we see him watch for another few minutes. And yet he didn’t call for back up (i.e., dudes to take the man away after Bud was done with him) until he’d beaten the man to a pulp. It is a bit odd that he simply watches the woman get beaten for some time before doing something. Bud was a cop and he had a badge -- he could have simply arrested the man. Then he could have taken him to the station in his car, or handcuffed him to the porch and let the police pick him up. Beating the man is not evil if no other option presents itself, but when there was a nonviolent solution to the problem available, it is simple brutality. It is also worth noting that Bud deliberately goaded the man into fighting him. Apart from destroying his Christmas decorations, he responds to the man’s demand of an explanation by insulting him. He never shows his badge, demands surrender, or attempts to avert a conflict in any way. Bud simply wants to beat the man in order to use his own brand of justice, and goes out of his way to accomplish this. This is evil. He is beating the man because he likes to beat abusive spouses. That isn’t good, just indulging in a love of brutality. I mean, its like saying the Mafia in “M” are good when they put Peter Lorre on trial.

Bud’s attitude doesn’t change and he commits a whole list of controversial actions including:

1) Attacking Buzz Meeks without provocation. Ok this one is just chaotic not evil; he doesn’t hurt Meeks, who was a potential threat.

2) Taking part in Bloody Christmas. While at first he only wants to keep his partner under control, when one of the Mexican suspects has the audacity to insult him despite being handcuffed, he not only punches him, he helps his fellow cops in a full scale beating of the unarmed prisoners.

3) Refusing to assist the police in their trial against the abusive cops. Granted not that evil, but shows that he doesn’t care about justice very much when it comes to his friends.

4) Shooting an unarmed man in his underwear that had already surrendered, then putting a gun in his hand to cover his crime. The man being a rapist doesn’t justify the fact he is still a defenseless man. To make things worst, Bud went in alone specifically to do this, and the cops were right outside.

5) Acting as a torturer for the chief. While he doesn’t like this, most of the regret comes from the fact he has such a demeaning job more than anything else. He still beats people for information and does nothing to stop the chief on moral grounds.

6) Attempting to beat Officer Ed Exley to death for sleeping with his girlfriend. While he was talked out of it, that doesn’t change the fact he did fully intend to kill him and if Exley weren’t quick on the draw very well would have. And while it is understandable to get pissed at Exley, resorting to murder is not a sign of virtue.

7) Torturing the corrupt senator for information. Again, the fact that the man is corrupt doesn’t justify torture, when Bud beats him, semi-drowns him, then hands him out of a window until his gives information.

8) Beating his girlfriend. It was only one punch so I wouldn’t say evil, but certainly chaotic.

9) Almost castrates a person in order to gain information.

Now fans of the movie are going to be asking “But EE, how can he be evil, he is harming bad people”. Now I have to ask, have you heard of the well intentioned extremist? Just because the people he hurts are bad does not justify his brutality. They are still human beings, and no amount of negative film description changes that fact. In American law, Bud’s actions are illegal on many counts and he would be spending time in prisoner for abuse, battery, assault, and murder in the first degree (he planned to kill the rapist and make it look like an accident beforehand). Again, I know what some of you are going to say using my mind power. “But EE, Bud White is a hero, and everything he did is good in the film”. The thing is, the film simply glorifies Bud White’s actions in the same way a propaganda film might justify the elimination of the Jews. If you put the director’s approval of Bud’s actions aside, underneath Bud White is little more than a self righteous thug, who punishes those who offend him with their own methods and is more than willing to use torture to get what he wants. No respect for the law or order when it comes between him and his own idea of justice, and he is more than willing to put himself on the same level of those he hunts in his administration of so called justice. Clearly, Chaotic Evil.

I chose Bud White as my first example for three reasons

1) I had just watched LA confidential in my high school film class and I am sick of its justification of violence.

2) Bud White is a great example of how people can be evil without thinking themselves as of such. It also show how people that you might consider good people are in fact evil. I’m tired of the stereotype of D&D evil equaling total sociopath, so this is a good example of proving this assumption wrong.

3) Make it clear that just because somebody's actions are glorified in a film/book doesn't make their actions right in the eyes of the D&D morality, again an very specific ideal of good and evil

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