History Main / JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife

!!Examples

* {{Subverted}} in the ''FanFic/TheWinxClubLoops'': While illegally making and selling mint-flavored milk is a serious crime, non-Looping witch Rachel got in trouble because she almost killed Stella by doing it with her chemistry set ''and'' because Stella got expelled from Alfea for one year, potentially causing a war had Griffin not come down hard on her.

* Played for absurdity in ''Film/{{Dogma}}'', when the angel Loki murders an entire board of directors for being idolaters and for their various personal sins, except for one member of the board [[GuiltByAssociationGag who turns out to be a pure soul]]. He then threatens to murder her for not saying "God bless you" when he sneezed. [[spoiler: Bartleby talks him out of doing so.]]

* ''Film/HorribleBosses'': Dale got drunk at a bar that was next to a playground, and committed public urination. It was night, and there were no kids there, but he's still a registered sex offender. And Motherfucker Jones spent 10 years in prison for [[spoiler: pirating ''Film/SnowFallingOnCedars'']].

* ''Film/TheThinning'': In response to the United Nations forcing everyone to decrease their population "by any means necessary", the bottom 10% of academics are purged. [[spoiler:Except not really. In reality, the bottom 90% in terms of rebels (intelligent but incapable of questioning the system critically) and children of rich people are spared, while the top 10% are enslaved and forced to work in a collective "thinkshop", creating technology for the corporation controlling the education system]].

* ''Theatre/{{Urinetown}}'': Public urination is punishable by death. {{Justified}} in that the play takes place in a dystopian future where private toilets are outlawed to conserve water and [[MegaCorp Urine Good Company]], which operates the public facilities, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive practically owns the police]].

* Played for laughs in Season 2, Episode 19 of ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'' with the last skit revolving around Jaune on the run from the Junior Detectives thinking that it was forgetting to pay for a candy bar.

* In ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', Randle "R.P." McMurphy is convicted of statutory rape, a crime many considered laughable and "not a real crime" back in the days when the book was written and the film adaptation was made. He accepts the offer to be placed in an asylum instead of a jail, but once there he is horrified with how the staff treats the inmates. [[spoiler:After attacking the manipulative Nurse Ratched, McMurphy is given a lobotomy and rendered a vegetable. "Chief" Bromden gives him a mercy killing and then finally follow his previous advice and escapes.]]

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Assassins Creed|I}}'' had guards that would attack Altair just for running in a crowded area.
** They would also attempt to kill you if you rode a horse past them at anything other than a slow walk. It makes sense, since riding a horse at full sprint is more than enough to be suspicious of your character and they're trying to prevent damages to people and property.

* The backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' included a US President being impeached for jaywalking. Then again, this was [[JustifiedTrope Congress retaliating after said President invaded and conquered Canada through legal means]].

->''"That's gonna look real good on his gravestone in Arlington: Here lies John Rambo, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, survivor of countless incursions behind enemy lines, killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA."''
-->-- '''Col. Trautman''', ''Film/FirstBlood''

* ''VideoGame/YesYourGrace'': Ending the game with one of the ressources technically in the negative will result in a bad ending associated with the ressource being greatly mismanaged. This means it's possible, for example, to get the ending in which the Bank of Florentini takes over Davern because of a debt so low the money could have easily been made back within a week of normal gameplay.

* ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'' had the hard-boiled Mickey character on the run after breaking out of jail. He was imprisoned for the same crime as the Serta sheep. Or so he claims.

* One of Creator/LarryNiven's themes in his ''Literature/KnownSpace'' universe is that of body-part replacement technology. At one point (the novel ''Literature/AGiftFromEarth'' centers around it), the demand for replacement parts is so high that crimes like running stop signs and littering are punishable by the death penalty (so that your parts could go into the organ banks).

* In ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', the main character is convicted for statutory rape, a crime many considered laughable and "not a real crime" back in the days when the book was written and the film adaptation was made. He accepts the offer to be placed in an asylum instead of a jail, but once there he gets horrified with how the staff treats the inmates including himself. [[spoiler:They eventually shut him up by literally destroying his brain. After the lobotomy, one of his friends gives him a mercy killing and then finally follow his previous advice and escapes.]]

* Subverted in the ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode "[[Recap/BlackMirrorShutUpAndDance Shut Up and Dance]]". A group of blackmailers are sending orders to do dangerous and/or illegal things to different characters so they won't reveal their secrets (a CEO who made racist comments and a businessman who was cheating on his wife). The protagonist was simply recorded masturbating and he is going into all the terrifying tasks because he doesn't want the video to be spread. [[spoiler:Then at the end we get the revelation that the reason he didn't want it spread was because he was masturbating to ''child porn''.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' there was a woman in a Saudi Arabian prison who was sentence to life in jail, and had her hand amputated. Her crime? Stealing a candy when she was a kid.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'''s BadFuture Episode, Danny cheats on his CAT test. Indirectly causing his friends and family to die. Which causes him to ask his nemesis for help. Which prompts his nemesis to remove his ghost half from him. Who then kills his human half. And then becomes just about [[KnightOfCerebus the most evil villain the series ever had]].

** In the two-part episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E25WhoShotMrBurnsPartOne Who Shot]] [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Mr. Burns?]]" Charles Montgomery Burns spends the entire first episode performing all kinds of absurdly villainous acts that ends up filling the entire town with murderous rage aimed at him, including stealing the oil from Springfield Elementary, getting Moe's Bar and the Retirement Castle closed because of collateral destruction, blocking the sun, nearly crippling Santa's Little Helper and forgetting Homer's name one time too many, it turns out that what got him shot and nearly killed was [[spoiler:trying to steal candy from Maggie, because in the struggle Burns' own pistol fell off its shoulder holster and went off.]]

* There are a bunch of RealLife examples of people being locked up for life because of relatively minor third crimes under [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_strikes_law#Controversial_results "three strikes" laws.]]

* The ''first'' United States President to be impeached, UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, got hit with this. To sum up: Johnson wanted to sack his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, a member of the Radical Republicans who felt that Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, was far too lenient towards [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the defeated former Confederacy]]. Stanton supported the Reconstruction measures that his fellow Radical Republicans had come up with to protect civil rights for newly-freed ex-slaves and punish the South for its secession -- and since they had veto-proof supermajorities in both houses of Congress, Johnson's role as the commander-in-chief of the military was the only obstacle to those measures' full enforcement. Knowing that Johnson would replace Stanton with a more pliant Secretary of War in order to impede Reconstruction, Congress passed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenure_of_Office_Act_(1867) the Tenure of Office Act,]] a law designed specifically to entrap Johnson, barring the President from removing Cabinet members (i.e. Stanton) without the Senate's confirmation. When Johnson did indeed replace Stanton with UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, (who, as President, was very much in favor of Reconstruction) Congress used the legal figleaf of the Tenure of Office Act to pounce on him.
* UsefulNotes/BillClinton was impeached for having an extramarital affair in the Oval Office. Sort of. Impeachment is just the first two stages. Bill only technically got in trouble for perjury, because he lied under oath about having an extramarital affair... had he just said "I like Monica Lewinsky," he'd have been fine from a legal standpoint.[[note]]It should be noted that impeachment is not a criminal proceeding, but really a political one. The Constitution gives impeachment as the punishment for "high crimes and misdemeanors" without specify what those crimes might be, apart from treason and bribery. So an impeachable offense is, in practical terms [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem whatever a majority of the House of Representatives says is one.]][[/note]] He no doubt lost a few points for trying to question the definition of "is" as well. (And if the Starr Report had focused more on that, then it would have been easier to convince the public that perjury was the true intent. It was hard to doubt that Clinton was impeached for adultery in all but name.)

* This is one of the principles behind the campaign for reforming or eliminating cash bail. If somebody is charged and assessed bail, they can pay it if they can come up with the money, or they can get a loan from a [[LoanShark bail bondsman]]. Somebody unable to do either is forced to sit in jail until the trial, which might be a longer term than the punishment for some low-level offenses. Not only is the idea of avoiding pre-trial detention simply because you have money considered unfair, the prospect of spending time locked up awaiting trial can persuade innocent people to plead guilty, just to get it over with. A person who doesn't have bail money probably doesn't have much savings, and the time away from work (often leading to getting fired) can cause bills to pile up, make it harder to get another job, and cause that person to [[HadToComeToPrisonToBecomeACrook turn to crime just because they have no other options]].

* In Shenzhen, China, [[SinisterSurveillance hi-tech surveillance]] literally [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg detects jaywalkers]], then publicly names and shames them. Now it's happening in other cities too. There is a screen at the busy intersection in the city of Ningbo. The information is redacted (only the surname of the person is shown). Also, public shaming works ''really'' bad in China, if at all and the fines for smoking everywhere, spitting everywhere or littering everywhere are usually not enforced despite all the efforts of the government.

* The ''first'' United States President to be impeached, UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, got hit with this. To sum up: Johnson wanted to sack his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, a member of the Radical Republicans who felt that Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, was far too lenient towards [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the defeated former Confederacy]]. Stanton supported the Reconstruction measures that his fellow Radical Republicans had come up with to protect civil rights for newly-freed ex-slaves and punish the South for its secession -- and since they had veto-proof supermajorities in both houses of Congress, Johnson's role as the commander-in-chief of the military was the only obstacle to those measures' full enforcement. Knowing that Johnson would replace Stanton with a more pliant Secretary of War in order to impede Reconstruction, Congress passed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenure_of_Office_Act_(1867) the Tenure of Office Act,]] a law designed specifically to entrap Johnson, barring the President from removing Cabinet members (i.e. Stanton) without the Senate's confirmation. When Johnson did indeed replace Stanton with UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, Congress used the legal figleaf of the Tenure of Office Act to pounce on him.
* UsefulNotes/BillClinton was impeached for having an extramarital affair in the Oval Office. Sort of. Impeachment is just the first two stages. Bill only technically got in trouble for perjury, because he lied under oath about having an extramarital affair... had he just said "I like Monica Lewinsky," he'd have been fine from a legal standpoint. He no doubt lost a few points for trying to question the definition of "is" as well. (And if the Starr Report had focused more on that, then it would have been easier to convince the public that perjury was the true intent. It was hard to doubt that Clinton was impeached for adultery in all but name.)

* Vagrancy laws are written to invoke this trope. Many cities keep a law stating that you must have a photo ID and $10 cash on hand while in public. If you can't produce these items, it's vagrancy. Cops use this to pull someone off the street that they ''believe'' is up to no good. But said laws are usually targeted towards suspected homeless people. Moreover, criminal convictions -- even for minor crimes -- can create barriers to obtaining critical public benefits, employment, or housing, thus making homelessness more difficult to escape.

** In the two-part episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsWhoShotMrBurns Who Shot Mr. Burns?]] Charles Montgomery Burns spends the entire first episode performing all kinds of absurdly villainous acts that ends up filling the entire town with murderous rage aimed at him, including stealing the oil from Springfield Elementary, getting Moe's Bar and the Retirement Castle closed because of collateral destruction, blocking the sun, nearly crippling Santa's Little Helper and forgetting Homer's name one time too many, it turns out that what got him shot and nearly killed was [[spoiler:trying to steal candy from Maggie, because in the struggle Burns' own pistol fell off its shoulder holster and went off.]]

* In the older ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' games, just running or even walking "suspiciously" can get you shot.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Subverted in the ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode "[[Recap/BlackMirrorShutUpAndDance Shut Up and Dance]]". A group of blackmailers are sending orders to do dangerous and/or illegal things to different characters so they won't reveal their secrets (a CEO who made racist comments and a businessman who was cheating on his wife). The protagonist was simply recorded having ADateWithRosiePalms and he is going into all the terrifying tasks because he doesn't want the video to be spread. [[spoiler:Then at the end we get the revelation that the reason he didn't want it spread was because he was masturbating to ''child porn''.]]

* And the ''first'' United States President to be impeached, UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, also got hit with this. To sum up: Johnson wanted to sack his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, a member of the Radical Republicans who felt that Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, was far too lenient towards [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the defeated former Confederacy]]. Stanton supported the Reconstruction measures that his fellow Radical Republicans had come up with to protect civil rights for newly-freed ex-slaves and punish the South for its secession -- and since they had veto-proof supermajorities in both houses of Congress, Johnson's role as the commander-in-chief of the military was the only obstacle to those measures' full enforcement. Knowing that Johnson would replace Stanton with a more pliant Secretary of War in order to impede Reconstruction, Congress passed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenure_of_Office_Act_(1867) the Tenure of Office Act,]] a law designed specifically to entrap Johnson, barring the President from removing Cabinet members (i.e. Stanton) without the Senate's confirmation. When Johnson did indeed replace Stanton with UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, Congress used the legal figleaf of the Tenure of Office Act to pounce on him.

* And the ''first'' United States President to be impeached, UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, also got hit with this. To sum up: Johnson wanted to sack his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, a member of the Radical Republicans who felt that Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, was far too lenient towards [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the defeated former Confederacy]]. Stanton supported the Reconstruction measures that his fellow Radical Republicans had come up with to protect civil rights for newly-freed ex-slaves and punish the South for its secession -- and since they had veto-proof supermajorities in both houses of Congress, Johnson's role as the commander-in-chief of the military was the only obstacle to those measures' full enforcement. Knowing that Johnson would replace Stanton with a more pliant Secretary of War in order to impede Reconstruction, Congress passed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenure_of_Office_Act_(1867) the Tenure of Office Act,]] a law designed specifically to entrap Johnson, barring the President from removing Cabinet members (i.e. Stanton) without the Senate's confirmation. When Johnson did indeed replace Stanton with UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, Congress used the legal figleaf of the Tenure of Office Act to pounce on him.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher''

* In ''ComicBook/TheOneHundredNightsOfHero'', being a woman and knowing how to read is enough to get you executed in Migdal Bavel, where the story is mostly set. Sassiness is apparently also a crime there, but it's unclear how big a deal it is.

* {{Subverted}} in the ''FanFic/TheWinxClubLoops'': while illegally making and selling mint-flavored milk is a serious crime, non-Looping witch Rachel got in trouble because she almost killed Stella by doing it with her chemistry set ''and'' because Stella got expelled from Alfea for one year, potentially causing a war had Griffin not come down hard on her.

* In ''Film/FemalePerversions'', the main character's sister gets arrested for shoplifting. She can't pay the fine/bail, so she is kept in jail. Because of this, she risks missing getting her doctorate, tarnishing her academic career.

* This is the premise of "One Million Yen and the Nigamushi Onna", where Suzuko's life is actually ruined for having thrown out her roommate's belongings.

* Played for absurdity in ''Film/{{Dogma}}'', when the angel Loki murders an entire board of directors for being idolaters and for their various personal sins, except for one member of the board [[GuiltByAssociationGag who turns out to be a pure soul]]. He then threatens to murder her for not saying "God bless you" when he sneezed. [[spoiler: Bartleby talks him out of doing so.]]

* Played for laughs in ''Film/MysteryTeam'', where sneaking into movies, sticking fingers into pies and taking two milks at lunch are SeriousBusiness
* ''Film/HorribleBosses'': Dale got drunk at a bar that was next to a playground, and committed public urination. It was night, and there were no kids there, but he's still a registered sex offender. And Motherfucker Jones spent 10 years in prison for [[spoiler: pirating ''Film/SnowFallingOnCedars'']].
* ''Film/TheIdesOfMarch'' explores the inherent hypocrisy and double standards of politics.
-->'''Stephen:''' You broke the only rule in politics. You wanna be president? You can lie, you can cheat, you can start a war, you can bankrupt the country, but you can't [[spoiler:fuck the interns]]. They get you for that.

* ''Film/CatsEye'': The main method of Quitters Inc., is to enforce this trope on their clients as harshly as possible. All to get them to quit smoking. First they torture their loved ones with electrocution, then proceed to mutilation with further "transgressions". If the smoker still can't quit, Quitters Inc.'s management "[[DeadlyEuphemism give up]]" on their clients.
* At the beginning of ''Film/AntMan1'', Scott Lang gets fired from his job running the counter at a Baskin-Robbins because of his criminal record. And that was the best job he had been able to find after getting out of jail, despite having a post-graduate degree in Electrical Engineering.

* One of Creator/LarryNiven's themes in his ''Literature/KnownSpace'' universe is that of body-part replacement technology. At one point (the novel ''Literature/AGiftFromEarth'' centers around it), the demand for replacement parts is so high that crimes like running stop signs and littering are punishable by the death penalty (so that your parts could go into the organ banks).

* In ''Literature/TheInvisibleLibrary'', there is an incident in Irene's past, which is hinted at several times, which is her reason to hate one of her colleagues. It turns out that [[spoiler: Irene had tried to persuade a woman to give her a specific, valuable book (it is implied she seduced the woman) and her colleague just broke into the house, stole the book, and somehow caused the seduction to be made public, completely ruining the reputation of the book owner. (And, of course, Irene's, but as MagicLibrarian, Irene could escape.) The parallel universe wherein this happened seemed to consider theft a rather harmless crime, while "indecent behaviour" was punished much more severely.]]

** There was also the time they're tracking a suspected rapist and murderer who they ''know'' did it, but can't hold him. Every effort to get evidence before he flies off fails, [[spoiler:until Stabler arrests and holds him for jaywalking across an airport crosswalk.]]
* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': A blonde and her boyfriend broke into a house just for fun, the house they broke into happens to be inhabited by a family of [[BearsAreBadNews Jägerbar]] who capture them, and decide to use them as part of their "rite of passage" in which case they hunt them in the woods. By the time the police rescue them, they are still arrested for breaking and entry and vandalism.
* Oliver from the ''Series/BreakoutKings'' episode "Steaks" was sent to prison for a joyride that went wrong. He was repeatedly raped, and became a torturer and murderer on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
* A VictimOfTheWeek on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' was a HangingJudge that was believed at first to have been targeted by the Russian Mafia. In the end, it turned out that a) said HangingJudge was corrupt and received kickbacks for sentencing kids to a specific juvenile detention center (the bigger the sentences, the better) and b) the murderer was a young man that had his whole life destroyed (up to and including being abused at the center) because the judge sentenced him there for stealing a pack of gum.
* In ''Series/BetterCallSaul'', Chuck snags his neighbor's newspaper off her driveway and leaves $5 in compensation. She calls the cops on him anyway. They break in, taser him, and arrest him, ultimately leaving him hospitalized.
* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' as a few examples.
** Piper was a mule one time, ten years ago, but this caught her back when her name was mentioned in the break up of the drug cartel that used her.
** Poussey was incarcerated for carrying some drugs in her backpack, likely to use it for herself and friends. To compare, [[spoiler: white male Bayley]] was arrested for the same thing in his youth and released with a shrug after a night in jail.
** Flaca is imprisoned for [[spoiler: selling damped paper and calling it LSD at school, thinking that couldn't possibly end wrong. Unfortunately, one kid jumped off a building under the impression that he was high, and the police went up to her and arrested her for fraud sale.]]
* The contestant "Creature" was eliminated during the first season of ''Series/WhoWantsToBeASuperhero'' for her past crimes of littering and, yes, jaywalking. Had she been repentant she might have been saved, but her defiance sent her packing.
* In ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', a suspect alibis out of the Murder of the Week, but as his alibi consists of having a consensual affair with an underage senator's daughter (his alibi was a {{paparazzi}} photo of them going into a hotel), Ziva promptly arrests him for statutory rape to get him back for being mouthy.
-->'''Suspect:''' ''(while being cuffed)'' Uh, she told me she was eighteen.

* Subverted in The ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode [[Recap/BlackMirrorShutUpAndDance Shut Up and Dance]]. A group of blackmailers are sending orders to do dangerous and/or illegal things to different characters so they won't reveal their secrets (a CEO who made racist comments and a businessman who was cheating on his wife). The protagonist was simply recorded having ADateWithRosiePalms and he is going into all the terrifying tasks because he doesn't want the video to be spread. [[spoiler: Then at the end we get the revelation that the reason he didn't want it spread was because he was masturbating to ''child porn'']].

* The Music/WeirdAlYankovic song "[[DigitalPiracyIsEvil Don't Download This Song]]," which couples this with JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope, as you'll go from pirating music to robbing liquor stores and committing vehicular homicide.
* Zig-zagged in the Arlo Guthrie song "Music/AlicesRestaurant". Most of the song is about the huge hassle that a small case of littering causes him, and he's treated by the system as morally equivalent to "father stabbers, mother rapers, and father rapers" and in need of serious rehabilitation. On the other hand, littering is what kept him out of the army, and out of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, quite possibly saving his life.

* "Deadhead in Prison" by Music/DavidRovics is based on the true story of a woman who spent 20 years in a Texas prison after being arrested for dealing small amounts of marijuana and LSD to support herself while following Music/TheGratefulDead on tour in her late teens.

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games, the slightest bump into a police car apparently gives cops enough of a reason to try and arrest you in and of itself. Police in real life have a number of good reasons for doing this (making sure it was really an accident, that the violator isn't mentally or physically unstable and is in a good enough condition to be out and about in public, that no collateral damage was inflicted, etc.) but the ones in this series aren't doing it for the sake of thoroughness, they're just really that brutal and corrupt. Because of the way the wanted stars work in the game (merely moving away from the cop while they're approaching to arrest you is enough to bump you from one to two stars), the aforementioned "bumped my car" offense can quickly snowball into a huge city-wide manhunt with SWAT teams shooting at you from helicopters.
* In the older ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' games, just running or even walking "suspiciously" can get you shot.

* In VideoGame/HalfLife2, the Civil Protection guard near the beginning of the game would assault the player for not putting a can (that was already there) in the bin, repeatedly attempting to gain passage without placing the can in the bin would result in the player being being beaten to death. ([[WreakingHavok Throwing the can at the guard's face]] leads to him to skipping right to the beating.) The guards will also react this way if you invade their personal space.
* ''VideoGame/YokaiWatch'': You better use the crossing signal when crossing the street, or else [[spoiler:Snartle]] will [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] your Yo-Kai.
* In ''Videogame/EliteDangerous'', traffic violations near space stations carry the death penalty. If you forget to request docking permission before entering an airlock, the station opens fire. Hover in the airlock or near a landing pad for too long and the station opens fire. Dump cargo within radar range of a station and they place a bounty on you, leading to the CityGuards chasing you down guns blazing [[FelonyMisdemeanor over the 100 credit fine]].

* In the [[Creator/ColumbiaCartoons UPA]] short ''WesternAnimation/TheJaywalker'', a mild-mannered average Joe literally becomes addicted to jaywalking, and ends up losing his job, his money, [[spoiler: and eventually his life.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E17HomerAtTheBat Homer at the Bat]]", Steve Sax is pulled over by Eddie and Lou for speeding and ends up being charged for every unsolved murder that's ever happened in New York, with the only evidence they have being that he is from New York.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E11OneFishTwoFishBlowfishBlueFish One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish]]" had Homer speeding and getting pulled over. He admitted to speeding and wanted to just take the fine but instead they threw him in jail for the night. Maybe not that bad compared to the others on this page but Homer thought he only had a matter of hours left to live and he wanted to spend it with his family.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E14TheSevenBeerSnitch The Seven-Beer Snitch]]" in order to fill a quota the police dig up old and obscure laws, including one against kicking a can in the street at least 5 times ("illegal transport of litter"), which Homer unknowingly breaks as Wiggum, Eddie and Lou are watching him.
** In the two-part episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsWhoShotMrBurns Who Shot Mr. Burns?]] Charles Montgomery Burns spends the entire first episode performing all kinds of absurdly villainous acts that ends up filling the entire town with murderous rage aimed at him, including stealing the oil from Springfield Elementary, getting Moe's Bar and the Retirement Castle closed because of collateral destruction, blocking the sun, nearly crippling Santa's Little Helper and forgetting Homer's name one time too many, it turns out that what got him shot and nearly killed was [[spoiler:trying to steal candy from Maggie, because in the struggle Burns' own pistol fell off its shoulder holster and went off.]]
** In the "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E4TreehouseOfHorrorIX Treehouse of Horror IX]]" short "Hell Toupee", Snake Jailbird ends up violating Springfield's three strikes law by smoking in public and is instantly sentenced [[DisproportionateRetribution to death by electric chair]]. Bear in mind that the actions he did to get the first two strikes were [[WouldHurtAChild set an orphanage on fire]] and send [[BusFullOfInnocents a bus full of nuns]] off a cliff (to which Snake says that he did it in self-defense).
* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'''s BadFuture Episode, Danny cheats on his CAT test. Indirectly causing his friends and family to die. Which causes him to ask his nemesis for help. Which prompts his nemesis to remove his ghost half from him. Who then kills his human half. And then becomes just about [[KnightOfCerebus the most evil villain the series ever had]].
* There's that BadFuture Episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' where he turns into the fearsome Darkwarrior Duck, ruling St. Canard with an iron fist and levying harsh punishments on even the most minor offenses. Lifetime imprisonment for jaywalking, maybe... or was it littering? Either way it was probably moot, Darkwarrior considered having ''high cholesterol'' a crime.

* The justice system in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' pretty much is this trope. If you litter, if you have no front license plate, IF YOU RUN A STOP SIGN, ''EVEN ON FOOT''; you better believe they will be ready to take you to jail.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' there was a woman in a Saudi Arabian prison who was sentence to life in jail, and had her hand amputated. Her crime? Stealing a candy when she was a kid.

* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'': In "The Origin of the Beginning of the Incredible Taz-Man", Taz gets arrested for attempting to remove junk mail from someone's letterbox.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "Rarity Investigates", Rainbow Dash is framed for the "crime" of forging a note to Spitfire claiming her mother was sick, so that Rainbow Dash could fly in her place as an alternate at a Wonderbolts air show. If Rainbow was found guilty of sending the note, she would have been banned from the Wonderbolts forever, crushing her lifelong dream.
* In the early seasons of ''Series/SesameStreet'', there was an animated segment featuring Batman and Robin pursuing the Joker, who jaywalks the street and ends up [[HumiliationConga being hit by a car, sent down a manhole, and arrested by the police]]. Batman even notes that the Joker was ''one of the lucky ones'', and [[NeverSayDie all but states]] that a person could ''get killed if he doesn't cross the street properly''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' Bubbles once went into KnightTemplar mode, where she beat up a guy for stepping on a single blade of grass, and another guy for littering, before his wrapper touched the ground.