History Main / LemmingCops

!!Examples

* Parodied in ''FamilyGuy'' when Stewie, Brian and Mort are in a submarine, being chased by another submarine. They manage to make their pursuer crash and the moment it does so, about two dozen police cars come in apparently from nowhere, crashing into the sub.
* In an episode of ''TheSimpsons'' Marge and her friend Laura Powers are being chased by the police across the desert. Homer, riding in Chief Wiggum's car ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]) successfully warns them that they're about to drive into The Grand Chasm and they brake to a stop in time, while Wiggum and Homer go hurtling past them and over the edge, but are both fine because they land in a giant heap of garbage on the bottom of the Chasm.

* Used in ''Franhise/TheMatrix'' series to almost comedic effect, while having a philosophical meaning at the same time, the Lemming Cops will always follow The Agents pursuing the heroes no matter what, being as reckless as The Agents are, causing much potential loss of human life as The Agents do, in their simple binary pursuit of the heroes, and becoming, as needed, the vessels that The Agents use to continue to chase the heroes down.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheBluesBrothers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blues_Brothers_lemming_cops.JPG]]]][[caption-width-right:350:Your tax dollars at work.]]

Of course this is quite different from RealLife where police have training and proceedures for pursuits. Watch any TV program on the subject and you will see the police are ''very'' careful, to the point of backing off and following by air if it looks like civilians will be harmed. RealLife cops will generally terminate (end) a pursuit when it becomes too fast or dangerous.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': In "Driver's Ed", a a trail of police cars chase Robin into a supermarket, where they pile-up.

[[quoteright:350:[[TheBluesBrothers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blues_Brothers_lemming_cops.JPG]]]][[caption-width-right:350:Your tax dollars at work.]]

* ''SinCity'' has wave after wave of cop cars getting wrecked or blasted by hookers in many stories that feature car chases. Leading a squad car into Old Town is the best way to avoid the cops.

* Movie example: ''SmokeyAndTheBandit''.
* Parodied in the ''BluesBrothers'' (picture above), with an ''unbelievably'' large number of cops. Made funnier in that, since the heroes are driving an old police car, the cops ''should'' be able to do what they do, though they didn't have the benefit of being on a MissionFromGod.

* The cops and FBI agents in ''EagleEye'' stupidly follow the protagonist through cross traffic at red lights, smashing into innocent civilians along the way. One even tries to ''ram'' him head-on!

* Used in ''Film/TheMatrix'' series to almost comedic effect, while having a philosophical meaning at the same time, the Lemming Cops will always follow The Agents pursuing the heroes no matter what, being as reckless as The Agents are, causing much potential loss of human life as The Agents do, in their simple binary pursuit of the heroes, and becoming, as needed, the vessels that The Agents use to continue to chase the heroes down.
* Played for laughs in ''BeverlyHillsCop'', as the police cars storming into the BigBad's mansion to rescue the heroes get into a chain-reaction rear-end collision when a pair of {{Mooks}} crashes during an attempted getaway.
* In ''{{Unstoppable}}'' a bunch of cop cars make a tight turn to keep up with an out of control train, causing one of them to completely flip over in the process...even though there was absolutely no reason to pursue so recklessly (or at ALL), especially given that there was nothing they could do except hurt bystanders.

* In an episode of ''TheSimpsons'' Marge and her friend Laura Powers are being chased by the police across the desert. Homer, riding in Chief Wiggum's car ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]) successfully warns them that they're about to drive into The Grand Chasm and they brake to a stop in time, while Wiggum and Homer go hurtling past them and over the edge.

* Parodied in the ''BluesBrothers'' (picture above), with an ''unbelievably'' large number of [[strike:lemmings]] cops. (Made funnier in that, since the heroes are driving an old police car, the cops ''should'' be able to do what they do.)
** The Blues Brothers were on a MissionFromGod.

* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt''. dear God, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hXqYHJ_kvg Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt]]. This has to be seen for yourself. Still, it may be a bit of a subversion in that the cops are on the protagonist's side, and they actually manage to do some real damage, even if it is, like expected of anything of lemming-like persuasion, the most pyrrhic victory ever.

* Cops in the ''Videogame/SaintsRow'' franchise are particularly dense, though they are ''mostly'' good about not plowing into cops on foot.

* The cops in the ''VideoGame/MidtownMadness'' games are ridiculously single minded in their attempts to run the player off the road, including crashing through other traffic.

[[quoteright:350:[[TheBluesBrothers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blues_Brothers_lemming_cops.JPG]]]][[caption-width-right:350:"Come on guys, we can still get them!"]]

* ''Film/BatmanBegins''. Despite Batman's "no killing" creed (which the cops don't know about), many cops engage him in a high speed chase through highways and back streets. Several spectacular crashes occur with 2 or 3 car pileups, grenades are deployed at one point, and the Batmobile even drives over a police cruiser, demolishing it. When he gets back to the Batcave, Alfred (who has been following the news reports of the chase) tells him "It's a miracle no one was killed." Er, yeah.

* ''TheDukesOfHazzard'', almost every episode.

* Subverted in ''BlueHeelers'' when Jonesy pursues a suspect. When he is ordered to terminate the chase, he does (reluctantly), but does not acknowledge it to his superior, and when the suspect wraps his car around a tree Jonesy is very nearly brought up on disciplinary charges - the only thing that saves him is the discovery that the driver was probably on his mobile phone. Before he was chasing the suspect on a dirt road, when he couldn't see in the dust only to discover the suspect had stopped the (stolen, natch) car in the middle of the road, causing the police car to smash into it before flipping the bird and driving off.

* The Bikini Bottom police are prone to this type of pursuit, notably when chasing WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants and Mrs. Puff during the former's driving test. There is a tanker truck of fruit punch for seniors involved.

* The Bikini Bottom police are prone to this type of pursuit, notably when chasing [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants]] and Mrs. Puff during the former's driving test. There is a tanker truck of fruit punch for seniors involved.

* The [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Bikini Bottom police]] are prone to this type of pursuit, notably when chasing Spongebob and Mrs. Puff during the former's driving test. There is a tanker truck of fruit punch for seniors involved.

* Partially averted in ''Film/TheOne'', where the police SUVs backtrack to avoid oncoming traffic on a bridge, and call in a helicopter to help track the suspect. However, they still end up crashing at the end of the pursuit anyway.

* Partially averted in ''Film/TheOne'', where the police SUV's backtrack to avoid oncomming traffic on a bridge, and call in a helicopter to help track the suspect. However, they still end up crashing at the end of the pursuit anyway.

Of course this is quite different from RealLife where police have training and proceedures for pursuits. Watch any TV program on the subject and you will see the police are ''very'' careful, to the point of backing off and following by air if it looks like civilians will be harmed. RealLife cops will generally terminate a pursuit when it becomes too fast or dangerous.

[[quoteright:350:[[TheBluesBrothers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blues_Brothers_lemming_cops.JPG]]]][[[caption-width-right:350:"Come on guys, we can still get them!"]]

[[quoteright:350:[[TheBluesBrothers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blues_Brothers_lemming_cops.JPG]]]]