City Block

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City Blocks are a part of the fictional universe recounted in the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD.

Overview

Also known as "starscrapers" or "stratoscrapers" (compare skyscraper), they are the most common form of mass-housing in Mega-City One, averaging a population of 60,000. Most city blocks are between four to seven hundred stories in height, though the very tallest ascend into the thousands. The larger city blocks are like a small nation unto themselves, almost completely self-reliant like arcologies. Most are named after celebrities of past and present, reality and fiction, eg. Marlon Brando Block. Other blocks are 'in-jokes', named after people known to the creators, such as editorial staff or other creators.

All modern city blocks have their own defense force, Citi-Def, reserves recruited from the residents supposedly to assist the Judges in times of citywide emergency. More and more Citi-Def units are seeing active service as Auxiliary Judges, to help make up for the lack of manpower available to the Justice Department.

Tensions

In an overcrowded city like Mega-City One, tensions and rivalry between neighbouring city blocks are inevitable and, very occasionally, these feelings spill over into full-scale wars. Because each city block is an independent unit in its own right, a sense of patriotism is often attached to them by their residents and wars can break out with "enemy Blocks" over the most trivial matters. For the Judges, a Block War is one of the toughest situations to police, simply because there are usually so many people involved and arrests generally have to be made in vast numbers before things can be properly cooled down and peace restored.

Although Block Wars are common enough in Mega-City One, when in 2104 three quarters of the city started fighting each other, the Judges knew that there must be some outside force inspiring the violence. Indeed the madness, which came to be known as 'Block Mania', was caused by a Sov drug which had been put into Mega-City One's water supply by Orlok, the East-Meg One assassin. As the Western Judges were about to find out, Block Mania was just a prelude to the Apocalypse War, as the Sovs began their nuclear assault on a weakened Mega-City One.

Until 2130, genetic mutants were exiled from the city. However in that year the law was changed to allow them to live in the city, but they were housed in a segregated "Mutie Block." This Block was attacked by an organised, armed mob, causing substantial loss of life.

Iso-blocks etc.

Prisoners are incarcerated in iso-blocks, or isolation blocks, while they serve their sentences. Their cells are called cubes; the sentence is referred to as "encubement."

Readers have in recent stories been introduced to cityblocks made specially for the criminal classes. There are "ASBO Blocks" where instead of going to the cubes citizens are watched over by a sophisticated A.I.. While there they are treated and attempts are made to rid them of criminal tendencies. Although punishments are strictly enforced it is not like prison, as they are permitted to leave the block and go about their lives. When they are found likely to commit serious offenses again they can instead of going to the cubes be fitted with personal ASBO collars with built in A.I.s that watch them all the time.^{[citation needed]}

In the story Psycho Block which appeared in the Judge Dredd Megazine^{[volume & issue needed]} readers were informed that Mega City One has several facilities called Psycho Blocks which house those who are totally immoral and insane. There are no Judges present in these blocks; instead there are privately-run guards and staff. There are rumours of mistreatment which at Psycho Block 12 were verified: Dredd - acting on information supplied by a prisoner - was able to put a stop to unlawful killing and experimentation. It is unknown how other similar Blocks are run (but we can safely assume they are all similar drab and unpleasant institutions).

Storylines

A number of storylines have focused around the pressures of living in such high density housing, while others have featured threats to city blocks. One story, Total War, was about the terrorist organisation of the same name setting off bombs in a number of city blocks, eventually killing around 4,000,000 citizens^{[volume & issue needed]}.

Spin-offs

The phenomenon of Block Warfare became a board game in 1987 when Games Workshop released Block Mania, one of several games based on the world of Judge Dredd.

Examples of block names

• Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were the names of two warring blocks featured in a story produced shortly after the real-life couple separated.
• For around twenty years, Judge Dredd lived in Rowdy Yates block, named after a character in the TV series Rawhide who was played by Dredd's own inspiration, Clint Eastwood.
• In Judge Death Lives, the Dark Judges, led by Judge Death, took over Billy Carter block (named after the brother of former US president Jimmy Carter).
• In Four Dark Judges, the Dark Judges attacked Ronald Reagan block (named after the 1980s US president) and massacred its "elderly and infirm" citizens, before proceeding to Caspar Weinberger block (named after Reagan's long-serving Secretary of Defense) and overwhelming its City-Def squad. They also attack Dunc Renaldo and Doug Church blocks during their rampage, the former (named after a Western actor) becoming important in the later story Necropolis as the entry-point of the Sisters of Death into Mega-City One.
• The first name ever featured as a block name was Charlton Heston in 1979.