Judge Niles

Judge Roger Niles is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in British comic 2000 AD. He first appeared in 2000 AD prog 706 (1990). He was the head of the Special Judicial Squad (SJS) for ten years, and then the head of the Public Surveillance Unit (PSU) for twelve years. He was killed off in 2012, after 22 years in the comic.

Head of SJS

Niles was already an experienced judge when he first appeared in the comic after the story Necropolis. He argued that the judges were not culpable for the atrocities committed during that story, and that they should not make any changes out of a "misplaced sense of guilt". When Dredd pushed for a public referendum on whether to maintain judicial control or restore democracy, Niles was worried that the people would not vote for them^[1] (although in the end they did).

He was later appointed head of the SJS – Justice Department's internal affairs department – by Chief Judge McGruder in 2112. In that role he was responsible for ensuring that all of Mega-City One's judges met the highest standards of behaviour, competence and judgement. Yet when the Chief Judge herself began to exhibit increasingly poor judgement and erratic behaviour, he was powerless to intervene by himself, as by abolishing the Council of Five in 2112 she had removed the only constitutional way of holding her to account. Instead he was forced to resort to underhand means. In 2116 he conspired with Judge Hershey and others to remove McGruder from office by force.^[2] However, when the conspirators tried to recruit Judge Dredd's support, Dredd refused to cooperate, firmly declaring that he would not support a coup d'état. Anticipating Dredd's reluctance, Niles had come prepared: he informed Dredd of the location of a secret research facility in which McGruder was covertly developing a new production line of robot judges. Niles knew that Dredd believed the robot judge programme to be strong evidence of McGruder's deteriorating judgement, and that Dredd thought that the programme had been discontinued. Once Dredd had discovered the truth, Dredd agreed to join Niles and the others in a delegation to demand the Chief Judge's resignation.^[3] Although this step failed badly, it nevertheless set in motion a long chain of events which eventually did result in McGruder's resignation. In this indirect way Niles was therefore instrumental in bringing about McGruder's departure from office.

Council of Five

When McGruder resigned there was no Council of Five to choose a new chief judge. She therefore appointed an Interim Council of three judges to oversee the transition of power. Niles was a member of this council, and when the new chief judge was elected he appointed Niles to the new Council of Five. Niles himself had declined to run for the city's highest office.^[4]

In the following year (2117) Niles was the only judge on the Council to vote against Chief Judge Volt's sweeping political reforms. However, Volt kept him on the Council.^[5]

Head of PSU

In 2122 Niles handed new Chief Judge Hershey evidence which implicated Judge Edgar, the head of the PSU, in serious crimes.^[6] Hershey immediately had Edgar arrested, and appointed Niles to replace her as head of PSU. However, after the Council of Five heard Edgar speak in her defence, Niles joined the majority in voting for her acquittal. Nevertheless, she was not reinstated as head of the PSU, where Niles remained in charge for the next ten years. Invited by Hershey to nominate his successor as head of SJS, Niles chose Judge Buell, and his recommendation was accepted.

By 2122 Niles was the longest-serving incumbent member of the Council, and thus presumably the most senior judge after the chief judge. (However, it was never stated in the comic strip whether he was appointed deputy chief judge.) As head of the Public Surveillance Unit he was one of the most powerful men in Mega-City One, as he had detailed information on everyone in the city and almost everything that happened. Fortunately, he was always loyal to the chief judge, and Judge Dredd was usually able to count on him for support, to the extent that when Dredd threatened to resign unless the Council voted to abolish mutant apartheid, Niles voted against his conscience to keep Dredd on the force.

The change in the city's policy towards mutants was to cost Niles his seat on the Council, however. In 2131 Chief Judge Hershey was voted out of office as a result of widespread opposition to mutant rights, and new Chief Judge Francisco requested the resignation of the entire Council.^[7] In the following year his successor, Chief Judge Sinfield, removed Niles from the PSU.^[8] Niles responded by recruiting Dredd to run against Sinfield in another election and running Dredd's campaign, albeit on a platform of lesser mutant rights than Dredd had originally supported.^[9] When the election was aborted and Francisco returned to office, Francisco reappointed Niles to the Council^[10] and to the PSU.^[11]

Niles was killed in 2134 when the PSU headquarters was destroyed during the story Day of Chaos (2012).^[12]

Trivia

• Niles was the third black man in the comic strip to gain a seat on the Council of Five (in 1994), the previous ones being Judge Quimby (1980) and Chief Judge Silver (1986).

References

• The A-Z of Judge Dredd: The Complete Encyclopedia from Aaron Aardvark to Zachary Zziiz, Mike Butcher, St. Martin's Press, March 1995, ISBN 0-312-13733-8