History Main / ArsonMurderAndLifesaving

--> '''President''': So entered. Because of certain... mitigating circumstances... all charges but one are summarily dismissed. The remaining charge, disobeying orders of a superior officer, is directed solely at Admiral Kirk. I'm sure the Admiral will recognise the necessity of keeping discipline in any chain of command.

--> '''President''': James T. Kirk... It is the judgment of this Council that you be reduced in rank to Captain. And that as a consequence of your new rank, you be given the duties for which you have repeatedly demonstrated unswerving ability: the command of a starship. ...Captain Kirk, you and your crew have saved this planet [[{{GreenAesop}}from its own short-sightedness]] ...and we are forever in your debt.

* Done at the end of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. Kirk and the crew have their LongList of offences read out from the [[{{Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock}} previous film,]], then thanks to 'mitigating circumstances' (like SavingTheWorld) they are all dropped except one, which only applied to Kirk. For that one, they demote him from DeskJockey Admiral to TheCaptain -- or, in other words, quite deliberately [[{{Unishment}} tossed him in the Briar Patch]].

* Done at the end of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. Kirk and the crew have their LongList of offences read out, then thanks to 'extenuating circumstances' (like SavingTheWorld) they are all dropped except one, which only applied to Kirk. For that one, they demote him from DeskJockey Admiral to TheCaptain -- or, in other words, quite deliberately [[{{Unishment}} tossed him in the Briar Patch]].

* Residents of Detroit, Michigan were once subjected to hoax robocalls claiming that absentee voting would make them subject to [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers 'arrest, debt collection, and vaccination.']]

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In the seventh season episode "Reckoning", [[spoiler: after Castle sets himself up as the bait to lure serial killer 3XK into a trap so he and the police could take the killer down and find out where he was holding Beckett hostage,]] Captain Gates gives Castle one of these:

* This Website/NotAlwaysRight [[https://notalwaysright.com/i-dont-speak-racist/81055/ entry]] where a call center worker tells off a racist. The worker is reported and is told that it's disrespectful and not to do it again or get fired...and also good job, the managers were all laughing over the call. Just, you know, don't do it again.

* The tradition is alive and well in ''Series/StarTrekPicard''. In "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS3E10TheLastGeneration The Last Generation]]", [[spoiler: Captain Tuvok confronts Seven Of Nine for helping the old Enterprise crew hijack the Titan. Before he can finish, Seven Of Nine announces that she is resigning from Starfleet. Tuvok then shows her a holo-recording of Captain Shaw (shortly before his death), giving her crew evaluation, commending her for her courage, loyalty and willingness to [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight go against the rules if it's the right thing]], and recommends her for promotion. Tuvok then tells Seven, "Resignation denied. Captain."]]

* The tradition is alive and well in ''Series/StarTrekPicard''. In [[/Recap/StarTrekPicardS3E10TheLastGeneration "The Last Generation"]], [[spoiler Captain Tuvok confronts Seven Of Nine for helping the old Enterprise crew hijack the Titan. Before he can finish, Seven Of Nine announces that she is resigning from Starfleet. Tuvok then shows her a holo-recording of Captain Shaw (shortly before his death), giving her crew evaluation, commending her for her courage, loyalty and willingness to [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight go against the rules if it's the right thing]], and recommends her for promotion. Tuvok then tells Seven, "Resignation denied. Captain."]]

* In the Franchise/{{DCAU}} [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries Superman]][=/=][[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Batman]] crossover, ComicBook/LoisLane describes [[{{Franchise/Batman}} Bruce]] as "rich, spoiled, and absolutely gorgeous".

* ''Fanfic/ThePalaververse'': From the first chapter of ''Wedding March'', the names of a "a great and mountainous formation of ridges and river-carved canyons", when ends on a much less threatening note:
--> Willing visitors to the formation - which was varying known as the Black Defiles, the Obvious Location of Horror and Death to be Shunned by Any Ponies With the Sense the Creator Gave a Stoat (Literal Minded was generally regarded as one of the best pony explorers of the last few centuries, albeit as good with names as polio was with infants), or Home

-->'''Ross:''' "I agree to One. Simple. Test. And you trash a shuttle, wreck Vegas and reveal yourselves to the public in a way we cannot hide or go back from... and for what? For what, Mr. Richards?"
--> '''Reed Richards:''' "That's a hand-held death ray, General. Pretty easy to reverse-engineer and produce."
-->'''Ross:''' "...I love you, boy."

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'': After eating one of his trademark "Sandviches," the Heavy will sometimes yell "You're a loose cannon, sandvich! But you're a damn good cop!"

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', Batman delivers one of these in episode four. Particularly notable for coming from ''Batman'', who in a lot of media is obsessively controlling to the point of being unable to deal with any deviation from his orders, no matter how justified. He scolds the team for not obeying his order to not interfere and then praises them for reacting well once contact with the enemy inevitably changed the game.

* This is practically the whole reason for Cuddy's existence in ''Series/{{House}}''. Except she's less threatening and more yappy, like a small dog. However, she is a well-developed character in her own right, even if House goes behind her back and rarely takes her seriously.

-->'''Miss Schlowski''': Now Mr. Kimble, I have checked, and there's ''no record'' of you teaching anywhere in Florida, or in the US, for that matter. Now, let's see... I thought that introducing a ferret to the class was a terrible idea, but the children seem to ''[[RidiculouslyCuteCritter like it]]''. I thought that the whistle and drills were ''outrageous''--

-->'''Miss Schlowski''': Please... allow me to finish. I thought that the whistle and drills were ''outrageous'' ...but ''[[SternTeacher it worked.]]'' Now, I don't know what kind of cop you are, Mr. Kimble, but you are a ''very'' good teacher. Now. I want you to answer one more question -- don't lie. What did it feel like to hit that son of a bitch?

* WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends: An inverted example from the episode "Duck Takes Charge":

* In Fanfic/TheSagesDisciple, this could be considered Team Caster's MO. They have either assisted with or directly committed two cases of arson, one case of manslaughter, two cases of breaking and entering, four cases of kidnapping, one case of extortion, and more cases of theft than one can count. However, [[spoiler: along their "crime spree", they succeeded in rescuing Sakura and preventing Shinji from being manipulated by his grandfather, and coercing Kariya to work with them. Because of this, the death toll is significantly reduced from canon, the manslaughter victim being [[SerialKiller Ryuunosuke Uryuu]] and the only other death being Kiritsugu Emiya, which was definitely a case of self-defense. While Crow did significantly rough up Kayneth, both he and Sola-Ui are ultimately able to leave Fuyuki alive.]]

* The Puritans were strict and no-nonsense. In England, they used a stance against theatres and plays to force the demolition of the Globe Theatre early on in the English Civil War. Almost midway, they also committed regicide. In America, they instigated an infamous witch hunt in a small Massachusetts town called Salem. They also introduced vaccination to the Western world.

* UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat was a [[TheDreaded much feared conqueror]] who killed many people. He also helped spread the knowledge and technology of Greece (which was one of the most advanced civilizations at the time) throughout the world. His successor also helped build the Library of Alexandria.

* Residents of Detroit, Michigan were subjected to hoax robocalls claiming that absentee voting would make them subject to [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers 'arrest, debt collection, and vaccination.']]

-->'''Mr. Boorg''': Mr. Munson told us about the booze,and lusting, the late nights, the lying and the gambling. He told us how you got him to quit all that. How you got Roy to straighten his life out. And how you got Claudia to quit being so much of a whore that.. she is. And son, we're mighty proud of you"

-->''"[[AngerBornOfWorry You! What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed!]] Did I not say that you would be a burden, that you would not survive in the wild and that you have no place amongst us? I've never been so wrong in all my life."''

* ''Literature/Catch22'': Military police chase Aarfy and Yossarian to Rome; they completely ignore the body of the woman Aarfy has raped and murdered, because they came to arrest Yossarian for going AWOL.

* Commander Blaine gets one of these at the beginning of ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye'' for leading his [[SpaceMarine marines]] in a coup de main against a rebellious planet's [[DeflectorShields shield generator]]. If he had failed, the admiral would have had no choice other than orbital bombardment, killing most of the population and dooming what remained to a slow death by starvation. In the end, Blaine's action was successful, so he was promoted and given command of a battlecruiser.

* Beregond from the ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' books. During the siege of Minas Tirith, he deserted his post and killed the porter with the keys to the Silent Street, as well as two members of the Guard. However, he only did this to protect Faramir from a premature funeral pyre, and only slew the others because [[PoorCommunicationKills they would not listen to him]] and attempted to kill him first. After the crowning of King Elessar, Beregond is brought before the new King. King Elessar spares him from execution because of the circumstances, but discharges Beregond from the Guard and orders him out of Minas Tirith... so that he may be reassigned to Faramir's newly-formed personal Guard in Ithilien as its captain.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

--->The embezzeler...who stole all of those investors' money...tsk tsk tsk, shamed your father and brother...and almost destroyed their company. Well done

** A notable subversion occurred in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', where Lieutenant Tom Paris acted against the captain's wishes in order to do the Right Thing... and got chewed up and demoted to Ensign for his troubles. This stuck for several episodes, and was worth a small ceremony when he was reinstated.

** In a similar vein, when Garibaldi takes over his fiance's company as the new CEO/Chairman of the Board, he calls a meeting with about eight notorious troublemakers, upstarts, whistleblowers and worrywarts. One of them gets up and exclaims how none of them did anything wrong, there's no way Garibaldi can just fire them; Garibaldi instead says how he just fired the ''old'' board of directors, who were nothing but sycophantic yes-men, and this RagtagBunchOfMisfits is the ''new'' board. Specifically, it's their job to tell him when he, or anyone else in management, is screwing up or generally [[CorruptCorporateExecutive acting like an ass on company time]].

* In one episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'', after becoming incredibly frustrated with some new regulations, Hawkeye drives to Seoul and manages to bluff his way into the meeting room where negotiations with North Korea are being held, and give the ambassadors a pep talk. Later, a messenger from the general who was at the meeting shows up at the 4077th to deliver a message: If the general ''ever'' saw him again, he'd have him arrested and court martialed. However, the messenger adds that the general also wished he was a "crazy surgeon who had the guts" to do something like that.

%% * Damon from ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''. A strange example, since the literal murders include people who most certainly did ''not'' have it coming.

* Often the case with Jimmy [=McNulty=] of ''Series/TheWire''. Described by one of his peers as " a picture postcard of a drunken, self-destructive fuck-up", none of this stops Mcnulty from taking on cold and dead cases and knocking them out the park. May not be saving lives, but he's certainly saving the Homicide Unit's clearance rate [[spoiler:when he's not trashing it with vindictive (yet factual!) memos]].
* Reid got a [=McCloud=] speech from Hotch in the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Elephant's Memory". [[spoiler:When the Un-Sub, a teenager who killed bullies who targeted him, was approaching the police station to retrieve his runaway girlfriend, Reid confronted him and purposely extended his arms and body in such a way to shield him from potential gunfire from his teammates, not wanting the Un-Sub to go down in a hail of bullets since Reid identified with him in a way having been a victim of bullying himself. Hotch mentions at the end of the episode about how he should fire Reid for his actions- since he put himself and his teammates in danger- and "next time (he) will", before telling him at the end that he "did a good job"]].
* Happens frequently in ''Series/{{Psych}}'', though it's more about him solving murders that the police either wouldn't have been able to solve or would taken a longer to do it.

'''Doyle''': You have threatened, stalked and basically freaked out every religious leader within a hundred mile radius. This paper has never received so many complaints in the history of its existence. And how the hell did you get Jesse Jackson’s barber’s number? How?\\

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In the seventh season episode "Reckoning", [[spoiler: after Castle sets himself up as the bait to lure serial killer 3XK into a trap so he and the police could take the killer down and find out where he was holding Beckett hostage,]] Captain Gates gives Castle one one of these:

* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': In "A Murder in Portrait", Ruby stops a fleeing suspect by dumping a trailer load of coconuts on hill, causing the suspect to swerve his scooter and crash. It is later revealed that coconuts continued down the hill and crashed through a wedding, resulting in an extremely irate bride. Ruby is called on the carpet by the Commissioner, who is also her uncle. He starts off by by telling her that what she did was reckless, but then goes on to say that a good police officer needs to be able to think on their feet, and that her actions resulted in the capture of the suspect, and that lead to the evidence which ultimately cracked the case, so as far as he is concerned, she did the right thing.

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod:'' At the end of the Untrustworthy Room arc, [[DaChief Augusgus]] chews Mule Love out for acting independently to get revenge, conducting an unauthorized test and thus indirectly causing a Regular's death. Furthermore, he criticizes him for not being even able to kill another Regular (as a Ranker, Love should outclass any Regular) and giving him great publicity that way. But he still can see the right side of the matter and is glad that first of all, the Regular in question didn't die and even got the team mates he needed through that test. [[spoiler: If this sounds a little wonky, that's justified: Augusgus is actually a sleeper agent for the same criminal organization that employed the Regular and killed Mule's parents, and Mule's independent action contributed greatly to their plans.]]

* In ''VideoGame/WingsOfGlory'', the player's chracter and his friend Charles Dearing steal planes for an unauthorized mission to bomb a German aerodrome. Upon returning, the squadron commanding officer will chew you both out for taking the planes on an unauthorized mission, then give you a medal for bombing the airfield and send you back on duty without repercussions.

-->'''Professor Xavier:''' Your training has shown you to be unpredictable, unconventional, insolent and... An X-Man.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', Batman delivers one of these in episode four. Particularly notable for coming from ''Batman'', who in a lot of media is obsessively controlling to the point of being unable to deal with any deviation from his orders, no matter how justified. He scolds the team for not obeying his order to not interfere, and then praises them for reacting well once contact with the enemy inevitably changed the game.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': In the first episode, Scrooge starts to chew out Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby for unleashing several ancient evils and nearly getting him killed, and then starts gushing about how awesome they acted while they helped him defeat a gold-eating dragon, a thrill he hadn't experienced since he retired from adventuring ten years ago.

* Even university textbooks get in on the act. ''Discrete Structures, Logic, and Computability'' by James L. Hein contains this fantastic illustration of the [[UsefulNotes/LogicalFallacies Non Sequitur Fallacy]]: "You squandered the money entrusted to you. You did not keep required records. You incurred more debt than your department is worth. Therefore, you deserve a promotion." The text states that [[DeadpanSnarker most people can probably agree that that is indeed a fallacy]].

* During WWII, Jean de Selys Longchamp, a Belgian, enlisted in the RAF, and while returning from a bomber escort mission abandoned his mission, flew to Brussels, and proceeded to strafe the Gestapo headquarters in Avenue Louise, killing four Nazis. Said Gestapo was never taken seriously in Brussels for the rest of the war. Longchamp was demoted several ranks for abandoning his post, and awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TGf-0aHVbY here]] for a short video detailing his story.
* Residents of Detroit, Michigan were subjected to hoax robocalls claiming that absentee voting would make them subject to [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers 'arrest, debt collection and vaccination.']]

* In Fanfic/TheSagesDisciple, this could be considered Team Caster's MO. They have either assisted with or directly committed two cases of arson, one case of manslaughter, two cases of breaking and entering, four cases of kidnapping, one case of extortion, and more cases of theft than one can count. However, [[spoiler: along their "crime spree", they succeeded in rescuing Sakura and preventing Shinji from being manipulated by his grandfather, and coercing Kariya to work with them. Because of this, the death toll is significantly reduced from canon, the manslaughter victim being [[SerialKiller Ryuunosuke Uryuu]] and the only other death being Kiritsugu Emiya, which was definitely a case of self-defense. While Crow did signficantly rough up Kayneth, both he and Sola-Ui are ultimately able to leave Fuyuki alive.]]

* In ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'', our heroes are caught and brought before King Osric the Usurper after a successful run on the Tower of the Serpent (ie. the bad guys). The king begins his speech by listing the grievances this act caused him, brings up their daring, arrogance, outrageousness, insolence, and then... he salutes them. Turns out, he was really impressed by the fact that somebody at last stood up to Thulsa Doom.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Davos was a lifelong smuggler who smuggled vital supplies into Storm's End during a seige. He's now Sir Davos Seaworth, and one of Stannis Baratheon's most trusted advisors. Somewhat subverted in that he was punished for his life of crime at the same time, by having one joint of each finger on his left hand removed. But that seems relatively lenient by the standards of Westeros, and it certainly doesn't seem to bother Davos. He'll argue with anyone who suggests it's unfair.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie'', [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsIntoAzure Lloyd Bannings]] pulls this off towards [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Rufus Albarea]]]] by arresting him like this. Lloyd cites that his crimes are that he broke out of jail, [[GildedCage many other things]], and [[spoiler:not trusting in his friends to do his ZeroGambitApproval]].

* Pretty much the modus operandi of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''. Collateral damage is usually expected when they battle aliens or criminals, but the people of Townsville seem to be good with it. Subverted however, when the girls temporarily move to Citiesville and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome get chewed out by the mayor]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero for causing over 3 million dollars in property damage by blowing up a bridge to stop a couple of criminals who stole $400]].

Example: "You threatened civilians, wrecked three squad cars, started a public disturbance in a night club, blackmailed a librarian, threw the head of the city council into the lake, destroyed the Hope Diamond, dropped the destroyed diamond [[TheDitz shards into a nearby volcano after tripping on your flip-flops' shoelaces]], destroyed my yacht's propellors, hit me in the eye with a champagne cork, left a virus on the mint's computer in an attempt to increase speed, [[OverlyLongGag unleashed all the inmates from the asylum]], set three buildings on fire, knocked four down, locked the mayor in his own building... and saved the President's daughter from terrorists."