The following contains spoilers for Batman: Fortress #1, on sale now from DC Comics.
Batman has dedicated his life to stopping crime, but how far is he willing to go to uphold the law? Although he's a hero, he's also a vigilante. By his very nature, he's breaking the law every time he goes out as the Dark Knight. So, how does Batman measure what is justice?
Batman: Fortress #1 (by Gary Whitta, Darick Robertson, Diego Rodriguez, and Simon Bowland) sees the Dark Knight fending off an alien invasion while Superman is missing. Before he can join the Justice League and attack this new threat head-on, he has to deal with the problems it's caused in Gotham first. A blackout worldwide hit Batman's city hard, and the streets are chaos. As the Dark Knight restores order, he has to pick and choose his battles, revealing an interesting insight into the character.
During this long night, Batman encountered some rioters looting local stores in the city. A riot seems like precisely the sort of thing that the Dark Knight would attempt to stop as a way to restore order. Except he doesn't. Instead, Batman continues to the next crisis. This seems oddly out of character until Batman explains his reasons, revealing what criminals and crimes he targets.
He's just one hero, so he had to prioritize. More significant threats like Joker and Penguin obviously come first, but Batman decided not to intervene here for a more important reason. Every store looted had insurance, meaning they wouldn't lose as much as most would that night. The hero went on to explain how different the American Dream has become. When his father was alive, it meant something. Now, however, it's only attainable by a few people. Everyone else has no hope. That observation lays the foundation for the type of hero he chooses to be.
This is much more socially conscious than some might expect of the Dark Knight. Usually, he stops crime wherever he sees. Now, however, when forced to choose between what crimes to stop, he's judged that the victims of the current capitalist system, who see an opportunity to take what they can never have, aren't worth the punishment he dishes out to Joker and his kind. This challenging situation shows what Batman truly values.
It's not entirely unusual for Batman to ignore certain crimes. He's been doing it since the beginning and continues to do so to this day. For example, he's let Catwoman off the hook multiple times. It's primarily because of his feelings for her, but how he justifies it is that stealing diamonds from the rich is nowhere near as severe as something like murder. Ultimately though, emotion outweighs the rule of law, to the point that he'll overlook certain crimes in certain circumstances. After all, that's how he justifies his unlawful crusade for justice as an avenging vigilante.
Batman has never followed the law to the letter. Instead, he follows the spirit of the law and pursues his sense of justice. In his eyes, the rioters he sees are victims, so if they want to fight back against the system that has victimized them, fine by him. He won't save them from the law if they get caught. However, he won't help the police enforce it either.
Considering his background as a billionaire himself, this shows a somewhat surprising level of self-awareness on his part. He's not ignorant of the causes of many of society's problems. In fact, he seems to hate the capitalist system that he was born into, to some extent. This shows that, despite his background, Batman is a hero to everyone - and he isn't afraid to call out injustice wherever he sees it.