History Main / JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife

* ''Film/TheThinning'': TheBGrade jacked UpToEleven. In response to the United Nations forcing everyone to decrease their population "by any means necessary", the bottom 10% of academics are purged. [[spoiler:Except not really. In reality, the bottom 90% in terms of rebels (intelligent but incapable of questioning the system critically) and children of rich people are spared, while the top 10% are enslaved and forced to work in a collective "thinkshop", creating technology for the corporation controlling the education system]].

* 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 [[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.

* There are a bunch of RealLife examples of people being locked up for life for relatively minor third crimes under [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_strikes_law#Controversial_results "three strikes" laws.]]

* In Shenzhen, China, [[SinisterSurveillance hi-tech surveillance]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg literally detects jaywalkers]], then publicly names and shames them. Now it's happening in other cities too. There is 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.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* One arc in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' does this, wherein Belkar and Roy are sentenced to the live out the rest of their (possibly quite short) lives as gladiators for not having identification. To be fair, the place they are at the time ''is'' called "{{the Empire}} [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace of Blood]]"...
** Roy initially assumes that another gladiator, the incredibly dangerous, ShippedInShackles Champion, must have done something to deserve his sentence. He becomes reluctant to fight him after learning that he's been given this effective death sentence for [[spoiler: public urination]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/COPSAnimatedSeries'', 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.

* 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 point 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]].
** 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. 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.

* The rather tragic case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Smith_inquest Ashley Smith]] is a sad example of this. She was a teenager originally arrested and sentenced to a short sentence in a juvenile detention facility for throwing crabapples at a mailman in late 2003. However, her sentence - which was originally supposed to be for only a few weeks - quickly extended into years after she racked up 50 additional charges while in custody for fighting with the guards or damaging the facility. Her sentence was eventually converted into an adult sentence and she was moved to an adult prison, where she committed suicide in 2007, four years after first entering the prison system for what amounted to a minor harassment offence.

* In Shenzhen, China, [[SinisterSurveillance hi-tech surveillance]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg literally detects jaywalkers]], then publicly names and shames them.
** Now it's happening in other cities too. There is 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.

** The person who paid the highest price was the Other Woman, Monica Lewinsky. Despite being highly educated, she hasn't been able to find a steady and respectable job and had to resort to being a Z List Celebrity to pay off her legal fees to insure her freedom from imprisonment (because Starr wanted to jail her for lying on her affidavit about the affair), all because corporations and organizations didn't want to hire her because of her association with the affair. She talks about this in her interview with Creator/JohnOliver.

* UsefulNotes/BillClinton was impeached for having an extramarital affair in the Oval Office. Sort of. Impeachment is just the first two stages. Bill only technically got in trouble for perjury, because he lied under oath about having an extramarital affair... had he just said "I like thick chicks," he'd have been fine from a legal standpoint. He no doubt lost a few points for trying to question the definition of "is" as well. (And if the Starr Report had focused more on that, then it would have been easier to convince the public that perjury was the true intent. It was hard to doubt that Clinton was impeached for adultery in all but name.)

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

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with]] TVTropesWillRuinYourLife.

* Less of an example now due to SocietyMarchesOn, but in ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', the main character is convicted for statutory rape, a crime many considered laughable and "not a real crime" back in the days when the book was written and the film adaptation was made. He accepts the offer to be placed in an asylum instead of a jail, but once there he gets horrified with how the staff treats the inmates including himself. [[spoiler:They eventually shut him up by literally destroying his brain. After the lobotomy, one of his friends gives him a mercy killing and then finally follow his previous advice and escapes.]]
* An even worse case of SocietyMarchesOn to modern readers would be ''Literature/TheScarletLetter''. Poor Hester's "crime" of adultery was made worse because of the [[MarkOfShame red letter A]] she was made to wear because of it. (And her loyalty to the child's father, which prevented her from leaving and starting her life elsewhere.)

* Subverted in The ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode [[Recap/BlackMirrorShutUpAndDance Shut Up and Dance]]. A group of blackmailers are sending orders to do dangerous and/or illegal things to different characters so they won't reveal their secrets (a CEO who made racist comments and a businessman who was cheating on his wife). The protagonist was simply recorded having a DateWithRosiePalms and he is going into all the terrifying tasks because he doesn't want the video to be spread. [[spoiler: Then at the end we get the revelation that the reason he didn't want it spread was because he was masturbating to ''child porn'']].

** In the "Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E4TreehouseOfHorrorIX Treehouse of Horror IX]]" short "Hell Toupee", Snake Jailbird ends up violating Springfield's three strikes law by smoking in public and is instantly sentenced [[DisproportionateRetribution to death by electric chair]]. Bear in mind that the actions he did to get the first two strikes were [[WouldHurtAChild set an orphanage on fire]] and send [[BusFullOfInnocents a bus full of nuns]] off a cliff (to which Snake says that he did it in self-defense).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Homer At the Bat", Steve Sax is pulled over by Eddie and Lou for speeding and ends up being charged for every unsolved murder that's ever happened in New York, with the only evidence they have being that he is from New York.
** "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" had Homer speeding and getting pulled over. He admitted to speeding and wanted to just take the fine but instead they threw him in jail for the night. Maybe not that bad compared to the others on this page but Homer thought he only had a matter of hours left to live and he wanted to spend it with his family.
** In "The Seven-Beer Snitch" in order to fill a quota the police dig up old and obscure laws, including one against kicking a can in the street at least 5 times ("illegal transport of litter"), which Homer unknowingly breaks as Wiggum, Eddie and Lou are watching him.

** In the WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror short "Hell Toupee", Snake Jailbird ends up violating Springfield's three strikes law by smoking in public and is instantly sentenced [[DisproportionateRetribution to death by electric chair]]. Bear in mind that the actions he did to get the first two strikes were [[WouldHurtAChild set an orphanage on fire]] and send [[BusFullOfInnocents a bus full of nuns]] off a cliff (to which Snake says that he did it in self-defense).

* ''Series/TheMrPotatoHeadShow'': In an episode of Mr. Potato Head's [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe show]], where Mr. Potato Head and Baloney are playing cops, and they arrest Sweet Potato for jaywalking. The implication is that the entire in-universe episode had been them trying to arrest her.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In a SundayStrip of ''{{ComicStrip/Garfield}}'', it was implied that the police were after Jon for trying to redeem expired coupons at the supermarket.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Homer At the Bat", Steve Sax is pulled over by Eddie and Lou for speeding and ends up being charged for every unsolved murder thats ever happened in New York, with the only evidence they have being that he is from New York.
** Another episode had Homer speeding and getting pulled over. He admitted to speeding and wanted to just take the fine but instead they threw him in jail for the night. Maybe not that bad compared to the others on this page but Homer thought he only had a matter of hours left to live and he wanted to spend it with his family.

* Inverted in the Arlo Guthrie song "Music/AlicesRestaurant". Littering is what kept him out of the army, and out of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, quite possibly saving his life.

* UsefulNotes/AlCapone, an infamous gangster was ultimately charged and convicted for ''tax evasion''.

* 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. To be fair, the place they are at the time ''is'' called "{{the Empire}} [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace of Blood]]"...

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.

Some crimes are less serious than others. In "ArsonMurderAndJaywalking", Jaywalking is typically thrown in just for laughs.[[note]]For those not in the US, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking jaywalking]] is crossing the street without using a designated pedestrian crosswalk and is ''the'' archetypal "crime so minor it doesn't even qualify as a misdemeanor."[[/note]] 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.

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