It's really pathetic. Near every instance after Fool Moon, Rudolp practially bullied Harry Dresden. And what did Harry do? Nothing. Stood there and took smack from him.
He can go up against monsters but is too chicken shit to beat up a regular mortal without breaking the laws?
He’s not a psychopath? So he follows the conventions of human society and only offers violence to literal monsters? And isn’t insecure enough to use his disproportionately greater power over a jerk?
How do you beat up a cop over petty bs without breaking the law?
I think OP is refering to the Laws of Magic. And that he forgot that mundane laws exist too.
Did you read your own post? 😅
If Harry used his magical powers to get back at Rudolph even with in the bounds of the laws of magic it pushes him from troubled but good to asshole. He becomes the same as any of a number of supernatural beings who have no problem using their abilities to shit on normal mortals. With his tendencies towards darkness that's probably the start of a slippery slope for Harry.
If Harry uses his physical abilities to get back at Rudolph who is much smaller and likely weaker than even Death Masks era Dresden he gets thrown in jail because Rudolph is a cop. Even just a bar fight off duty puts him on Chicago PDs shit list because of the blue wall.
Harry is too poor to economically ruin Rudolph.
Harry doesn't have the social pull to screw with Rudolph with out going to Lara or Marcone and owing them a favor plus it probably puts him on Murphy's shit list because blue wall.
Anything Harry does to Rudolph, both Harry and Murphy will have to pay for. Even earlier on, Harry is cognizant of the fact that he makes Murphy's professional life difficult. That doesn't stop him from keeping secrets from her that he thinks would endanger or otherwise bother her. He is a damn wizard after all. But he's definitely smart enough to not make it worse by unnecessarily harming some vanilla-mortal manlet who is also a cop
Because one does not assault a cop if one wishes to retain one's freedom.
If you're not already aware of that, you have bigger problems.
And or life.
Harry has enough self control that he's not going to let a petty tyrant cause him to make his own life harder.
To harry it simply Is Not Worth It. What does he have to prove to Rudolph? Pushing around someone weaker than yourself makes you a bully, and Harry hates bullies.
Tell you what, you trying talking back to an asshole cop. Let us know how that goes for you when you get out.
Assuming they survive the experience.
Bingo.
I think we can assume OP is white /s
When you fight monsters, insects don't really seem worth the effort. Rudolph didn't really become worth Harry's Attention until......recently.
Hmmm I wonder why he wouldn't beat the shit out of a cop, gee what could be the reason....
There is still time to delete this.
Cool. Didn't know I could beat up a cop without breaking the law.
In theory, in a few states you can actually fight back if they're making an unlawful arrest.
Good luck with that, though.
It’s kinda like a witch trial, you’ll be innocent. And dead. Oh and they’ll get off scot-free of course.
Or they’ll frame you after death.
“We have investigated ourselves and found ourselves innocent of any wrongdoing doing. All charges have been dropped, on ourselves.” -the cops-
Terrifying insight into what the OP would do if they had a degree of power.
They’d be Rudolph is the answer.
I feel like you have some problems that need resolving.
What exactly do you expect him to do here, that is not going to make his life harder.
Simply put? Because Murphy did not want Harry to do it, and because doing so would have put Murphy in a bad place.
If Harry takes down Rudolph without breaking the laws of magic, then Harry hops into the Never-never and goes somewhere else. However, Murphy does not have that luxury. And the CPD would take out Harry's actions on Murph. Harry does not want that.
Also .... Harry has a temper. It would be easy for him to go too far in taking on Rudolph, and thad would send our hero down a very dark path.
There's a lot of things Harry could do if he really felt like it, that doesn't means he should. In the case of Rudy it's less about him being a cop and more that it's just not worth the hassle the fallout will cause for himself or Murphy, who would get pulled into whatever trouble/drama happens just because it happened on her watch/in her department. It doesn't help that Rudolph is a little too well connected, not a lot but enough that people would take notice if Harry started bouncing his face off the wall.
At any point Harry could do any number of things to deal with Rudolph that either couldn't be traced back to him or wouldn't need magic to do, and he knows it. Murphy knows it. Hell the entirely of the SI department and Rudy's current partner know it. And on a fundamental level even Rudy knows it, which is part of the reason he's so hostile. When he thinks he has the upper hand he can delude himself into hiding behind the badge and thinking it carries more weight then it does, but we've seen multiple points that when Harry gets serious Rudolph will fold with very little resistance and/or try to get away.
Harry doesn't pay Rudolph any mind because 90% of the time he literally has more important things to deal with. And for all his threats Rudolph can't actually do anything to Harry legally without Harry instigating, the few times he's tried have never stuck and all backfired because Rudolph is not as clever or capable as he thinks he is.
If Harry pisses off the mortal authorities, then what’s the endgame? Rudolph can make Harry’s life and the lives of his allies pure hell.
When you get pulled over for a traffic infraction (speeding, running a red light, driving while on your cell phone, etc), do you give lip to the police officer; or are you polite with a “yes, sir. no, sir”, take your ticket without complaint and then go on with your day?
I mean, I know a dude whose go-to is "Shouldn't you be out stopping real criminals?!?"
Strangely, he has never received a warning. Lots of tickets but never a warning.
And I’ve managed to talk my way out of several. It also helps to have a wife in the passenger seat giving the “don‘t worry officer, I’m going to take care of this” look.
Aside from hexing his car regularly to make him late for work... Nothing Even then Rudolph is paranoid. He catches a whiff of anything even potentially Dresden, he will crawl further up his backside.
Where are you in the series?
Part of it is Harry has compassion early on, he knows norms block out their encounters with the supernatural. Rudolph takes this to pathological denial. Harry understands this.
The second part is Harry hates bullies, he talks back to people he really shouldn’t because of his pathological need to punch bullies in the nose.
Third part spoiler spoiler spoiler .
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Murphy tells him no. Multiple times.
He's a cop. Harry decends to that level and he's gonna have the CPD on his ass. No amount of friendship with Murphy or SI is gonna help him.