History Main / IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon

I fought the law and the law won."''

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' follows the ''GTA'' model with progressively larger and better armed police response teams coming after Wei Shen. If you're on foot, cops can tackle Wei and attempt to handcuff him at a [[WantedMeter low heat level]]; you can run for a while, but eventually they'll catch up, and you simply can't fistfight them. If you reach high heat, they'll bring out guns, which can make short work of you. They never get to the point of deploying helicopters and tanks, but the Special Duties Units never stop coming. You can get an achievement if you can kill 50 of them before you're brought down. Promptly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] if you manage to grab a car, at which point Wei can either escape with a bit of persistence or almost effortlessly ram the cop cars off the road.

* The ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' series, with the [[WeHaveReserves endless waves]] of cop cars (which can be [[ImprobablyCoolCar improbably cool]]) pursuing you until you manage to hide long enough from them. In ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'', all bosses require you to endure pursuit in a determined length of time before you can challenge them. [[spoiler: The final stage is you desperately fighting to {{def|iedTrope}}y this trope.]]

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do]] with being defeated by [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Marshall Law]].

** As long as you remain in secure space, CONCORD will respawn at your position until your ship is destroyed. If you were thinking of leaving secure space to escape them, they have locked down the jumpgates to keep you here. [[DevelopersForesight They will even use "mysterious voodoo" on your ship to keep you from escaping via wormhole.]] If you still manage to find some way to escape their wrath... they will declare you a cheater abusing an exploit and you'll be banned. However, while CONCORD (the Po Po) may believe ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill, even [[StreetFighter CONCORDOKKEN]] isn't punishment enough when DeathIsCheap and [[SuicideAttack suicide]] [[{{Griefer}} griefing]] is a [[BerserkButton fiercely defended]] playstyle.

* In ''Videogame/DungeonsOfDredmor'', [[ShopliftAndDie stealing from the shop]] causes the high-level shopkeeper, Brax, to attack you, and summons mass armies of powerful "Dread Collector" demons to dogpile you.

* The guards in ''Videogame/UltimaIII Exodus'' are highly overleveled, fast, and like to respawn a lot. Stealing treasure or worse, attacking royalty tends to bring them out in force.
** In ''Videogame/UltimaIV Quest Of The Avatar'' doing this not only gets you the guards, it makes the game {{Unwinnable}} because you're supposed to be virtuous to win, and doing things like stealing or attacking townspeople takes your KarmaMeter to the floor, unable to ever raise it again. Though if the point is playing the very opposite of a PacifistRun...
** In ''Videogame/UltimaV Warriors of Destiny'' guards are massively powerful, able to take out a low to mid-level party with ease. This even applies to the ''villain's'' guards -- if, of course, they don't simply "strike thee unconscious" and capture you without a fight. Fortunately, there is a shop where you can buy unlimited numbers of [[GameBreaker invisibility rings]] ...
** In ''Videogame/UltimaVIII Pagan'' there's only one guard -- Beren -- but he's completely invincible. You can, however, exploit a [[GoodBadBugs glitch]] to [[LordBritishPostulate kill him]].

* In the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'', fighting the [[CityGuards Police and Border Patrol]] is [[PoliceAreUseless generally not difficult because they mount terrible weapons]], but god help you if you piss off the racial naval fleets enough that they start chasing you down, especially in ''Albion Prelude'' or with the [[GameMod Rapid Response Fleet mod]], where they will react much more aggressively to player hostility - typically by siccing a couple corvettes on the player. Blow those up, and they'll start throwing [[MileLongShip frigates and destroyers at you]]. The one law enforcement/navy faction you ''do not'' want to piss off is the [[PlanetTerra Earth State's]] [[EliteArmy AGI Task Force]] - partly because if you make them angry, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you cannot get back on good terms]], and partly because their ships are [[PurposelyOverpowered apocalyptically powerful]], especially their [[MacrossMissileMassacre Skirnir missile frigate]] which can destroy an entire fleet from 60 kilometers away.

* Played straight in the first ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' in the scenes where the cops chasing Max actually catch up to him. In most levels the police never actually show up regardless of how long Max hangs out at the scene of a shootout, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation despite ambient siren noises and comic book cutscenes frequently trying to sell the idea that they're right behind him]]. However, in the scenes where they are scripted to show up, they do so in the form of heavily-armored, riot-masked FacelessGoons that immediately open up with automatic rifles. While the player can shoot at them, shots landed have no effect and the only option is to run. Nowhere in gameplay is it possible to actually kill the pursuing police.

* Cops in ''VideoGame/{{Turok}} 3'' are unkillable by the player, and ''will'' ventilate you if you attack them or try to cross a police checkpoint.

* In ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan'', destroying a car as Venom will cause a [[WantedMeter point score]] to appear and endless waves of police to attack. Rack up enough points, and SWAT, helicopters, and SHIELD join in. The police spawn in around every corner, and while you can eat them to regain health (Venom's health gradually decreases) they don't nearly give as much as civilians, making the mini game a show of how many points Venom can rack up before being shot down himself.

The {{Trope Namer|s}} is the chorus to "I Fought the Law" by Sonny Curtis and the Crickets, which has been [[CoveredUp famously covered]] by Bobby Fuller, Music/TheClash, Music/GreenDay, Music/DeadKennedys, Music/HankWilliamsJr, and various others. Compare SuperCop, in which a single officer is extremely strong rather than the entire force. Contrast PoliceAreUseless.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheBluesBrothers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blues_brothers_1980_pic_5.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Okay, ''okay'', we'll share the [[DonutMessWithACop donuts]]. Jeez!"]]
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* Michael from the ''Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries'' refuses to bring in a murder suspect who he discovers is innocent, knowing that the court he's expected to take her too will be stacked against her for political reasons. Unfortunately, he's required by law to catch her, and his refusal to bring her in gets him branded as a criminal.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Okay, ''okay'', we'll share the donuts. Jeez!"]]