Brazilian Military Police are planning on introducing a very special recruit to help curb the rapid rise of crime to the Esplanade St Therese neighbourhood of Taubaté. This recruit will be Batman.

They will be enlisting 50-year-old retired soldier André Luiz Pinheiro to dress up in the Batman body armor and take to these high crime neighbourhoods and do what Batman does!

Bleeding Cool quotes Andre Luiz Pinheiro: “I am eager to knowhow we can work together. If I can bring the character’s story to at least one child, it would be very cool,” said Pinheiro (translated). A local resident added: “The project will help return values that are lost here.”

When I first read the story, I thought this was just ludicrous. However, it seems more likely that they intend to use this retired soldier to share the story of Batman to youth in hopes of steering them away from a life of crime. He won’t actually be taking physical action against these drug dealers.

Reaching kids early with a relevant character they may already be familiar with is a good idea, and likely a lot more effective than some oversized cartoon dog that “Takes a bite out of Crime”

It would seem that this is not an infringement of copyright as they are not profiting from the use of the Batman story or likeness, unless you count “instilling the values of a positive role model” as “profit”.