Mutants (Judge Dredd Storyline) - "Tour of Duty"

"Tour of Duty"

"Tour of Duty" (2009–10) was the longest Judge Dredd story ever published up to that point, running for 46 episodes and 285 pages. It tells of Dredd and Beeny's mission in the Cursed Earth, overseeing the resettlement of mutants exiled from the city.

Dredd's assignment effectively amounts to exile from the city, to keep him out of the way while Francisco and Sinfield implement their policy of mutant segregation. Similarly, Hershey has been posted to a position on another planet.

Although Chief Judge Francisco favours exiling the mutants to the Cursed Earth, he nevertheless insists on doing so with some concern for their welfare, authorising increased expenditure on building the Cursed Earth townships, which initially were expected to be cheap shanty-towns. In this respect he is opposed by his Council, who are dismayed at what they see as his wasteful spending of the city's limited budget. Eventually, Deputy Chief Judge Sinfield resorts to illegally drugging Francisco with a mind control drug and persuading him to resign, thereby becoming acting chief judge. Sinfield immediately begins a crackdown on mutants, introducing automatic loss of citizenship and exile from the city for all mutants convicted of any crime, however trivial. The mutant population diminishes from two million to 170,000.

Under Sinfield's rule, criminal organisations exploit the newly vulnerable mutants: they are turned into slave labour in exchange for having faked citizenship papers, but whenever they work their debts off, the judges are tipped off about them. A new line in vi-zines (magazines featuring real torture) is created for mutants, helped by Justice Department being uninterested in crimes against mutants. Back in the Cursed Earth, suicides go up among the mutants who had to return home. However, for a brief time it was legal for mutants to work in pornography – helped by a mutant performer winning Mega-City One the gold at the World Sex Championships. Sinfield banned mutant pornography when he became acting chief judge, solely due to his own distaste for it.

Exasperated with Sinfield, Dredd eventually decides to run against him in another election. However in order to attract enough support to mount a serious challenge, Dredd is forced to compromise his mutant rights stance. Instead of promising a return to Chief Judge Hershey's policies, Dredd has to settle for returning to Francisco's. However before the election can take place, Sinfield's crime is uncovered and he is arrested. Francisco returns to office and appoints Dredd to the Council of Five.