History Main / ArrestedForHeroism

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', the girls and the Professor move home to "The Town of Citysburg", where the crime is far higher but life is also far more gritty and mundane...and thus, completely unprepared for three superpowered toddlers to show up fighting crime. While they don't quite get thrown in jail, the girls end up getting pulled in front of the Mayor who is angry at them for...destroying a bridge just to stop some jewel thieves...yeah, the Mayor [[DestructiveSavior was going REALLY easy on them.]]

** During his stint as [[CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown The Captain]], though, Steve Rogers did get arrested for heroism a couple of times, since he no longer had government sanction to act as a superhero. The first was in Las Vegas for helping to stop some villains despite being warned off by the local cops, and the second was for saving Washington, D.C. (and, more directly, the President) from the Viper's scheme to turn the population into snake-people, though this time it was the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Commission on Superhuman Activities]] (the government organization that had forced Rogers to resign as Captain America in the first place) that took him in. Both cases were related, since the Vegas caper was an ad-hoc audition for the villains to join the [[WeirdTradeUnion Serpent Society]] as [[TheMole moles]] for the Viper.

* In the ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry Dresden himself often has no worse enemy than his own side. The causes are numerous - his genuinely DarkAndTroubledPast puts him under a certain amount of legitimate suspicion and a great deal of irrational suspicion from InspectorJavert types in the White Council. Rumor has him in league with "Gentleman Johnny" Marcone, the chief crime boss of Chicago, [[EnemyMine mostly because he kind of is, very much against his will]]. He has a bad habit of withholding important information from allies to try to protect them. Maybe most importantly, as much as he brings the bad guys down, many of his methods are, well, [[WrongfulAccusationInsurance still totally illegal]].

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', because of the regulated nature of Quirks, it is against the law for anyone to use their powers to help people or fight against villains whether it was for self-defense or not unless they are certified to do so.

* Happens to Makoto Naegi in ''Side: Future'' of ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'' as a consequence of [[spoiler: saving the Remnants of Despair]] during ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''.

* The ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' CrisisCrossover and the general status quo afterward consisted Marvel doing this to their superheroes and then wondering why people thought ComicBook/IronMan was a jerk for setting this plot up in the first place.

* Immediately after Ichigo defeats Aizen in ''FanFic/SwingingPendulum'', he is arrested by Central 46 and sent to prison without trial. Ichigo got off lightly, the Visored were '''executed''' for their help in the war effort.

* VideoGame/MassEffect3 begins with Commander Shepard having been stripped of their military rank and Specter status and placed under house arrest after saving the galaxy (again) in the previous game. Granted, this is justified as in the process of saving the galaxy they worked with a known terrorist organization and, depending on if you bought a certain DLC, blew up an entire Solar System, both of which are acts that would get anyone else a much worse punishment than what they got.

* Immediately after Ichigo defeats Aizen in ''FanFic/SwingingPendulum'', he is arrested by Central 46 and sent to prison without trial. Ichigo got off lightly, the Visored were '''executed''' for their help in the war effort.

* In ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'', Peter is constantly on the run from police as superpowered vigilantism is actively prosecuted in Izuku's universe.

* VideoGame/MassEffect3 begins with Commander Shepard having been stripped of their military rank and Specter status and placed under house arrest after saving the galaxy (again) in the previous game. Granted, this is justified as in the process of saving the galaxy they worked with a known terrorist organization and, depending on if you bought a certain DLC, blew up an entire Solar System, both of which are acts that would get anyone else a much worse punishment than house arrest.

* ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'': Mind-controlling supervillain Universo once secretly took control of the government and passed laws forbidding the Legion from using their powers. When several members use their powers to save people during a monorail accident, they are arrested and sent to a prison planet.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Mr. Incredible gets sued for "saving someone who didn't want to be saved", the person in question being a man who had jumped off a building to commit suicide. This leads to more lawsuits and the eventual government banning of superheroes. In the sequel, the family members are held at gunpoint and brought to the police station, but ultimately not arrested, after another act of heroism.

* Happens in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' with a twist at the end. A terrorist puts a small detonator on a fuel truck with the intention of blowing up an airliner. En route, James Bond fights with the terrorist (causing several crashes), but he gets away and a bruised and bloody Bond barely manages to stop the truck before stumbling out and being arrested while the terrorist looks on not too far away. But when he triggers the detonator, [[spoiler: he finds out that Bond found the detonator and pinned it on the terrorist. Cut to Bond smiling while the terrorist blows himself up.]]

** In another, the girls are framed for crimes they didn't commit, and get thrown in jail until they piece the clues together, break out of prison and bring the real criminal to justice. The Mayor of Townsville thanks the girls for saving the day again, then laughs that they'll have to go to jail again anyway for the crime of breaking out of prison...[[RealityEnsues then reveals he's not joking, since that is a real law.]]

** This is standard policy for most retail businesses for a very good reason: [[RealityEnsues Thieves almost never pull out guns unless they're prepared to shoot somebody.]] It's better to let the shoplifter get away and give the cops whatever details you can afterwards than take a course of action that could get you - or a bystander - injured or killed.

Compare CrimeOfSelfDefense, TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw, PoliceBrutalityGambit, WoundedGazelleGambit, PersonaNonGrata, WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou, EtTuBrute.

* [[VideoGame/SpaceQuestVIRogerWilcoInTheSpinalFrontier Space Quest VI]] starts with Roger Wilco being [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished court-martialed for saving [=StarCon=] ]] from [[ThePlague Pukoids]] in the previous game, on the grounds that Roger disobeyed orders [[spoiler: and killed their golden boy Captain Quirk]] to do so. Roger is then forcibly demoted from Captain to Janitor Second Class, to the point of being [[InsigniaRipOffRitual stripped bare of his uniform]]. Roger gets [[KangarooCourt no say whatsoever in the matter]], let alone a lawyer.
* One sidequest in ''[[VideoGame/{{Gothic}} Gothic II: Night of the Raven]]'' involves robbing brainwashed agents of GodOfEvil Beliar. At least one of them is in the area protected by guards and surrounded by {{Badass Bystander}}s who don't know of his crimes, thus attacking him or taking his possessions may have dire consequences. This may be a programmers' oversight, because the quest is given by local authorities (one of several). But since the game is a sandbox, there are several ways to deal with that.

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While {{Villain}}s often face terrible fates, the life of a {{hero|es}} isn't always a happy one either. This {{subtrope}} of NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished pits two heroes against each other.

* The boys from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' have to constantly evade the authorities, unless they want to be tried for multiple murders (various human-form monsters or possessed humans), grave desecration (having to burn the remains of a ghost), etc. On the other hand, they ''do'' commit other crimes (credit card fraud and cheating at games) to support their monster-hunting lifestyle, but those are secondary to the crimes they get charged for while actually doing a heroic thing. On top of the murders, they've been charged with kidnapping and armed robbery. They've also [[Recap/SupernaturalS07E06SlashFiction had]] shapeshifting monsters impersonating them as {{Doppelganger}}s in a violent multi-state serial-murder and robber spree (so they wouldn't be around with their heroics to interfere with the monsters' plans), so they get framed for stuff they really, ''really'' didn't do.

* The boys from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' have to constantly evade the authorities, unless they want to be tried for multiple murders (various human-form monsters or possessed humans), grave desecration (having to burn the remains of a ghost), etc. On the other hand, they ''do'' commit other crimes (credit card fraud and cheating at games) to support their monster-hunting lifestyle, but those are secondary to the crimes they get charged for while actually doing a heroic thing. On top of the murders, they've been charged with kidnapping and armed robbery.

** Also happens to Mike in the 2008 sequel series, where he openly wonders if being arrested is going to become a regular occurrence. In one instance, KITT temporarily allows himself to be towed before rescuing Mike from an arrest attempt, because driving himself off with no visible driver would have been too suspicious under the circumstances.

* Although the facts of the case are complex, this trope was the editorial stance of some UK media outlets with regards to the case of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Martin_%28farmer%29 Tony Martin]], a British farmer who shot at two burglars on his property, killing one and wounding the other. Martin was arrested, tried for murder and attempted murder, and found guilty, although the murder conviction was reduced to one of manslaughter on appeal - the substance of the appeal was that Martin suffers from [[InsanityDefense paranoid personality disorder]], and the courts agreed, reducing his conviction on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The case was extremely divisive, and touched off a national debate about whether the law in Britain was rather too keen to arrest people for defending themselves or others.

* [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] often has no worse enemy than his own side. The causes are numerous - his genuinely DarkAndTroubledPast puts him under a certain amount of legitimate suspicion and a great deal of irrational suspicion from InspectorJavert types in the White Council. Rumor has him in league with "Gentleman Johnny" Marcone, the chief crime boss of Chicago, [[EnemyMine mostly because he kind of is, very much against his will]]. He has a bad habit of withholding important information from allies to try to protect them. Maybe most importantly, as much as he brings the bad guys down, many of his methods are, well, [[WrongfulAccusationInsurance still totally illegal]].

* There's a story of [[http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/01/28/2-students-face-expulsion-for-sharing-an-asthma-inhaler/ a student who gave a fellow asthma sufferer her breather]] when she was hit by a particularly bad asthma attack and didn't have hers with her. The parents considered her a hero. The school, citing their Zero Tolerance policy, suspended both students for "passing drugs".

* Happens to Makoto Naegi in ''Side: Future'' of ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'' as a consequence of [[spoiler: saving the Remnants of Despair]] during ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2''.