History Main / JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife

** The story is about the fact that some people trick other people into parenthood by pretending to be on contraceptives and then let these contraceptives conveniently "fail". In the world of SVU, this is a kind of rape that ought to be punishable by prison. The law disagree, but that's just because the law is stupid and should be disregarded in favor of the police force playing social vigilante. While in RealLife a huge majority of all people who trick people into parenthood this way are women doing it to men. But in the world of SVU, [[TheUnfairSex it is ''always'' men doing it to women]], in this case by sabotaging his own condoms rather than pretend to be on the pill.

** The story is about the fact that some people trick other people into parenthood by pretending to be on contraceptives and then let these contraceptives conveniently "fail". In the world of SVU, this is a kind of rape that ought to be punishable by prison. The law disagree, but that's just because the law is stupid and should be disregarded in favor of the police force playing social vigilante.

** The story is about the fact that some people trick other people into parenthood by pretending to be on contraceptives and then let these contraceptives conveniently "fail". In the world of SVU, this is a kind of rape that ought to be punishable by prison. The law disagree, but that's just because the law is stupid and should be disregarded in favor of the police force playing social vigilante. Of course, in RealLife, over 99% of all people who trick people into parenthood this way are women doing it to men. But in the world of SVU, [[TheUnfairSex it is ''always'' men doing it to women]], in this case by sabotaging his own condoms rather than pretend to be on the pill.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In one episode of ''LawAndOrderSVU'', the detectives uncover that a man has misplaced some paperwork. For this misdemeanor, they get his cell phone tagged so they can follow him around everywhere. They also do some intensive lobbying - trying to convince a lot of women to hate him, eventually leading one of them to murder him.
** They didn't have any evidence that he misplaced the paperwork on purpose, but they chose to assume that he did - backing this hypothesis with the fact that the misplacement made it harder for his drug-addicted ex to get custody of their son. He had gotten her into rehab and she stopped doing drugs, but then she started inviting her old junkie friends to come over to her place and get high with her while watching the baby.
*** The detectives and the narrative is very clear that this mother deserve full custody of the child - she is the ''mother'' after all, never mind that she's back on the drugs and turning her kid into the center of little getting high parties. It is totally monstrous of the father to convince her to adopt the child to his new fiancée - especially since he's a lawyer. (That his fiancée is a career woman with a stable life seem to make it worse as well.) However, this is not his ''true'' crime...
** The story is about the fact that some people trick other people into parenthood by pretending to be on contraceptives and then let these contraceptives conveniently "fail". In the world of SVU, this is a kind of rape that ought to be punishable by prison. The law disagree, but that's just because the law is stupid and should be disregarded in favor of the police force playing social vigilante. Of course, in RealLife, over 99% of all people who trick people into parenthood this way are women doing it to men. But in the world of SVU, [[TheUnfairSex it is ''always'' men doing it to women]], in this case by sabotaging his own condoms rather than pretend to be on the pill.
**

* AllCrimesAreEqual, when this trope is taken to its logical extreme.

* In the Arlo Guthrie song "Alice's Restaurant", the hardcore criminals at the draft center ask Guthrie what he did. They all move away from him when he says, "Littering."
** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny And then move back and become friends when he adds "And disturbing the peace".]]

* ''JudgeDredd'' is built on this. Littering, for example, usually carries a sentence between six months and two years. It's also illegal for parents to spank their own children as an act of discipline.
** Spanking is illegal in many countries in real life.

Lets say that Bob jaywalks. Not a car within a thousand miles, perfectly safe. But a cop arrests him. This makes his boss consider Bob a "criminal", and fires him. His wife, not wanting to be married to an unemployed loser, divorces him.

** Drug laws. 'Nuff said.

** To be fair, they had been warned that this was the only tree from which they could not eat, and their introduction of imperfection necessitated serious repercussions.

* Invoked in ''FirstBlood'', the original Rambo-movie: Rambo gets picked up by the police for 'Vagrancy', which leads to them messing with him and dredging up his Vietnam-war trauma, which leads to rapidly escalating troubles, which leads to several dead cops and, eventually, Rambo working a prison-quarry. Towards the end of the movie, during the police's HopeSpot when they ''think'' they've managed to kill him, Rambo's old general has this to say:

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

* One episode of ''TheBatman'' has the Joker begin dressing as Batman and assaulting people who commit minor infractions ([[CrowningMomentOfFunny And his Batmobile is a go-kart...]]). Security camera footage shows a guy missing when he tries to throw a can behind his back into a trash can, the Joker swoops in on him and drags him screaming into the shadows. In that same Batman cartoon, The Joker killed the mayor's wife for having too many items in the express checkout lane at a supermarket.

Some crimes are less serious than others. In "MurderArsonAndJaywalking", Jaywalking is typically thrown in just for laughs. However, sometimes the smallest crimes have really serious consequences. This trope is for when the crime is treated as minor and the consequences are a matter of punishment and ostracism.

* The KevinBacon movie ''Murder in the First'' has the main character imprisoned in Alcatraz as a youth for stealing $5 from a general store (granted, the store doubled as a post office, making the crime a felony.) The film actually is concerned with his other crimes, and excessive punishments, since... but still.\

* Played for [[strike:laughs]] absurdity in ''{{Dogma}}'', when the angel Loki murders the entire board of directors of the Mooby's Restaurant chain for corruption and Child Sex Abuse, except for one person, and then threatens to murder her for not saying "Good bless you" when he sneezed. [[spoiler: Bartleby talks him out of doing so.]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* An episode of ''{{CSI}}'' had a suspect who had ended up on a sex offenders' registry after being arrested for public urination.
** This happens in RealLife.

* As mentioned above, many people on the sex offenders' registry are there ''for life'' for minor offenses such as public urination

* In one ''[[ThePunisher Punisher]]'' story, Frank has been brainwashed by his archenemy Jigsaw and is set out for blood. He starts killing jaywalkers, red light runner, and litterers.
** Jigsaw himself has been known to impersonate Frank and behave similarly. Frank also ran up against a group of vigilantes who included among their number a rich man who just kills people who do things he doesn't like - a ''hot dog stand''? In ''his'' neighborhood?

* The KevinBacon movie ''Murder in the First'' has the main character imprisoned in Alcatraz as a youth for stealing $5 from a general store (granted, the store doubled as a post office, making the crime a felony.) The film actually is concerned with his other crimes, and excessive punishments, since... but still.

* Apparently there's this one ''[[ThePunisher Punisher]]'' story in which he goes insane and starts killing ''everybody'' guilty of a crime, including a guy who ran a red light and a few jaywalkers.