History Main / JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{COPS}}'', the new Justice Unit police robots are seen from the very beginning to be very hard on very small offenses. "Crime: Jaywalking! Verdict: Guilty! Sentence: Four years hard labor!" They dole out similar sentences on a guy whose hat blew off in the wind ("littering") and a guy who parked illegally. Later, when Berserko and Ms. Demeanor rob a bank, the Justice Units let them go and claim the overwhelming evidence as "circumstantial" - as we see, the Justice Units were a plot by the Big Boss to get free rein to do whatever he wants.

* 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 the most evil villain the series ever had.

* 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 [[CompleteMonster the most evil villain the series ever had]].

* 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 the most evil villain the series ever had.

* At the beginning of ''Film/AntMan'', 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.

* 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 implies, [[NeverSayDie but doesn't mention]], that a person could ''get killed if he doesn't cross the street properly''.

* And the ''other'' 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 the [[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.

* A VictimOfTheWeek on ''Series/CSINewYork'' was a HangingJudge that was believed at first to have been targeted by the Russian Mafiya. In the end, it turned out that a) said HangingJudge was corrupt and received kickbacks for sentencing kids to a specific juvenile detention centre (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 on the centre) because the judge sentenced him to do time because he stole a pack of gum.

[[folder:Commercials]]
* A Serta mattress advertisement once had the counting sheep getting [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErbKAWueD3g thrown in jail for tearing the "Do Not Remove Under Penalty Of Law" tag off a new Serta mattress.]] It's actually only the ''dealer'' who's not supposed to remove the tag, not the ''consumer'', not that it's stopped [[MattressTagGag the same gag]] from coming up in dozens of cartoons, sitcoms, and comedic films as well.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* Brought up by Amy in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12207935/9/Faith-The-Vampire-Slayer Faith the Vampire Slayer]]'' when she warns Eric off taking candid photos of the girls in school. She explains that while he doesn't mean any harm, taking photos of them without consent is sexual harassment and could get him suspended or expelled. If those pictures end up online, he could be looking at jail time for dissemination of child pornography and labelled a sex offender for the rest of his life.
* {{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.
[[/folder]]

->''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, [[UndignifiedDeath killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA.]]"''

* EasilyCondemmed, where a FrameUp turns ''everyone'' against a character no matter how absurd.

* One arc in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' does this, wherein Belkar and Roy are sentenced to the live out the rest of their lives as gladiators for not having entrance papers.

** Now it's happening in other cities too. This troper has witnessed 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.

* Invoked in ''Film/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 former CO has this to say:

* Creator/MelBrooks's ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights'', Robin meets [[TheLancer Ahchoo]] in a Muslim prison. Robin was there for being present at a crusade. Ahchoo was in there for...wait for it...jaywalking.

** It's even corroborated by the very law in those countries. In Brazil, for example, [[SubvertedTrope while there are projects to enforce jaywalking as a minor crime]], it's stated that pedestrians always have preference over any kind of vehicle, whether or not a crosswalk was being traversed. [[CaptainObvious Jaywalkers aren't driving any vehicles]], so, for all intents and purposes, in case of accidents the blame falls squarely on the party who ''is'', for disregarding the previous statement and for lack of attention while driving.

Very much TruthInTelevision; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement Felony disenfranchisement]] isn't explicitly ''legal'', but throughout the industrialized world employers put a little box on hiring applications asking if the applicant has a criminal record - ''not'' checking that box if you have said record permits summary firing, and there AintNoRule against discriminating against ex-cons.[[note]]Except where there is, but the business can always claim some other reason, and if the ex-con files a lawsuit (which other businesses can cite when refusing to hire), [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections who is the judge going to believe, the ex-con or the business that contributes to the local economy?]][[/note]] As one would expect, this results in a ''lot'' of {{Justified Criminal}}s, as they cannot find legal employment.

* Way too many cases with the Sex Offender List. Public Urination or sleeping with your underage girlfriend despite you're only one year older than her? You're treated the same as child molesters and violent rapists. You can get on the list even if you weren't convicted.

* Often happens to people overstaying a visa or are otherwise illegal immigrants if the police pick them up on an unrelated crime and check their immigration status.
* This is ''one hell'' of ValuesDissonance for Latin American (and possibly other countries) immigrants, since in many of those countries, jaywalking is tolerated, but not in the U.S., to the grade there's [[TranslationYes no equivalent to jaywalking in Spanish and other languages]]. This is sometimes used as a visible example of the necessity of reforming the laws of many countries regarding this, [[EaglelandOsmosis using the U.S. as a main example]].

* [[Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver John Oliver]] has covered several such incidences on his show were relatively minor offences like traffic stops, can end up ruining peoples lives due to fines. Low income people have a hard time paying the fine on time which leads to more fines and, if it keeps building, jail time. He has also done stories on how just having the right to a lawyer can lead to problems as court appointed lawyers are overworked and underpaid, so they have very little time to look at your case and even less interest in doing so. Then there are some states that require a defendant to pay for a court appointed lawyer out of pocket, and if they can't they get fined and then the first story comes back.

* [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/raquel-nelson-jail-for-jaywalking_b_905925.html The case of Raquel Nelson,]] who elected to jaywalk from the bus stop to reach home across the street, as opposed to walking over half a mile, burdened with bags of groceries while keeping track her three tired young children, to cross through the nearest painted crosswalk.[[note]]Georgia's roads are infamously unfriendly to pedestrians, bicyclists, and basically anyone not in a high-speed vehicle[[/note]] A drunk driver[[note]]who is also partially blind, took pain meds, and has a history of DUI[[/note]] hit the group, killing her son. The kicker? '''She''' gets convicted of second-degree vehicular homicide, reckless conduct, and yes, jaywalking - despite ''not even owning a car''. The drunk driver, who was on his third DUI accident, plead out[[note]]He was originally charged with hit and run, first degree homicide by vehicle and cruelty to children.[[/note]] and served a mere 6 months for ''hit-and-run'' (with the rest of the 5-year sentence on probation), while she got ''36''. [[http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43896116/ns/today-today_people/t/mom-thankful-no-jail-sons-jaywalking-death/ The conviction was later changed to community service and probation]].

* Pirates infielder Jung-ho Kang had his baseball career derailed over a DUI in his native South Korea, preventing him from getting a work visa for travel to the United States thanks to a suspended sentence over the DUI conviction. He would ultimately not return to baseball until 2019, for Triple-A Indianapolis, despite being finally being cleared for a visa and removed from the Restricted List the year before.

* In Shenzhen, China, hi-tech surveillance [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg literally detects jaywalkers]], then publicly names and shames them.

Let's 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 criminal, divorces him.

* In VideoGame/HalfLife2, the 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. The guards will also react this way if you invade their personal space.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' has ComicBook/TheJoker begin dressing as Batman and assaulting people who commit minor infractions ([[SugarWiki/FunnyMoment 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 poisoned the mayor's wife for having too many items in the express checkout lane at a supermarket.