History Main / VigilanteInjustice

** In another ''SVU'' episode, a teenage girl accuses a man of rape, and the detectives let him go due to a lack of evidence. The girl's father then kidnaps him and tries to beat a confession out of him but winds up killing him by accident. The kicker? He was just an innocent bystander [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished trying to return her purse]], the real rapist was the girl's dentist uncle who drugged her, and the ending implies that the father will probably get off easy since he attempted CPR.

** "Real Fake News" deals with a Congressman and a Chinese restaurant being smeared by a fringe website with false accusations of child trafficking. Earlier in the episode, a man with a rifle shows up at the restaurant to "rescue" children allegedly being held in the restaurant's basement and finds neither a basement nor any captive children. In the epilogue, the Congressman comes to the restaurant to prove that nothing sinister is going on, only to be shot by a man who sees the Congressman playing with his daughter and mistakes him for a pedophile.

* The VillainProtagonist of ''Manga/DeathNote'', Light Yagami, gets ahold of the titular artifact and decides to use it to kill criminals. While initially he targets genuine scumbags, he starts getting DrunkWithPower and killing a lot more people, building himself up as the "[[AGodAmI God of the new world]]" and soon trying to TakeOverTheWorld and kill anyone who doesn't fit his extremely high standards. The entire world is soon in fear of his power, and the story makes a point to show how cruel Light has become, and how his vigilantism has negatively impacted society as a whole.

This trope doesn't necessarily require the unlawful execution of an innocent person. Vigilantes can be shown altering, concealing, or outright destroying physical evidence to ensure an arrest or extrajudicial punishment for the accused. In real life, evidence needs to be gathered with a warrant from the authorities and a failure to do so violates the exclusionary rule (and fourth amendment in the US Constitution) that prevents unreasonable searches and seizures. If a vigilante tries to bring surprise evidence or witnesses; the evidence and testimonies would be deemed inadmissible, and the vigilante would be punished for committing obstruction of justice

In real life, vigilantes can't withhold evidence or bring in any surprise witnesses to a trial. In a court of law, the defense and prosecutor have the legal privilege to research evidence before a trial. To do so, they need to cross-examine physical evidence, electronic evidence, personal testimonies, etc. During a trial, any surprise evidence or surprise witnesses would be discarded. Not only that, the lawyer would be held in contempt of court, and the vigilante would be punished for committing obstruction of justice by altering, concealing, or outright destroying physical evidence. Evidence needs to be gathered with a warrant from the authorities and a failure to do so violates the exclusionary rule (and fourth amendment in the US Constitution) that prevents unreasonable searches and seizures.

In a similar vein, vigilantes can't withhold evidence or bring in any surprise witnesses to a trial. In a court of law, the defense and prosecutor have the legal privilege to research evidence before a trial, they need to cross-examine physical evidence, electronic evidence, personal testimonies, etc. Any surprise evidence or witnesses would be discarded and the lawyer would be held in contempt of court. Evidence needs to be gathered with a warrant from the authorities and failure to do so violates the exclusionary rule (and fourth amendment in the US Constitution) that prevents unreasonable searches and seizures. Finally, alteration, concealment, and destruction of physical evidence amounts to an obstruction of justice.

In the superhero genre, the SuperRegistrationAct is either a compromise or a punishment for when super-powered vigilantes escalate a problem rather than fix it. This trope is often accompanied by the AssholeVictim and WhoMurderedTheAsshole as it makes the audience question whether or not the victim deserves such a harsh punishment.

As most {{vigilante|Man}}s are untrained and undisciplined civilians who believe they know better than the justice system, their acts of justice often escalate crimes and do more harm than good.

* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'': While J. Jonah Jameson is usually portrayed in the wrong for his prejudice against vigilantes, he makes a point that Spidey should have joined the Police Academy and got a badge. At least then, his heroics could at least be made legal and sanctioned.
--> '''J. Jonah Jameson''': It is not helping when a vigilante leaps into the middle of a crime scene or emergency situation with no training, expertise, or public identity. What if he injures someone? Who holds him accountable?

** In another, three SerialKillers decide to band together to fight what they see as crime, in emulation of Frank. Unfortunately, these are The Holy (an AxCrazy priest), Elite (ANaziByAnyOtherName), and the only remotely sympathetic one is Mr. Payback, whose fully-automatic rampage did kill an entire board of CorruptCorporateExecutive but also a cleaning lady, and his dismissing her as unavoidable collateral gets him shot by Frank along with the other two.

The most common consequence of vigilantism involves the unlawful [[VigilanteExecution execution]] of an [[AcquittedToolate innocent person]], whose execution was either racially motivated, killed as {{collateral damage}}, or the crime was deemed so severe by vigilantes that it warranted the death penalty[[note]]These crimes range from murder, child abduction, pedophilia, and sex crimes.[[/note]]. Causing a {{miscarriage of justice}} and an impactful lesson on why police officers require training and are both legally and morally obligated to have an unbiased approach to their investigations. It also creates the darkest setting for a PrejudiceAesop as the target of a vigilante is often a victim of a {{hate crime|sAreASpecialKindOfEvil}} [[note]] Historically, the first generation of the [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan Ku Klux Klan]] took inspiration from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitecapping Whitecapping]], a violent vigilante movement of farmers in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [[/note]]

The most common consequence of vigilantism involves the unlawful [[VigilanteExecution execution]] of an [[AcquittedToolate innocent person]], whose execution was either racially motivated, killed as {{collateral damage}}, or the crime was deemed so severe by vigilantes that it warranted the death penalty[[note]]These crimes range from murder, child abduction, pedophilia, and sex crimes.[[/note]]. Causing a {{miscarriage of justice}} and an impactful lesson on why police officers require training and are both legally and morally obligated to have an unbiased approach to their investigations. It also creates the darkest setting for a PrejudiceAesop as the target of a vigilante is often a victim of a {{hate crime|sAreASpecialKindOfEvil}}.

Compare CopsNeedTheVigilante, where vigilantes are seen as a better alternative to cops. If the vigilante justifies the collateral damage as necessary, it may cross over with RationalizingTheOverkill. Not to be confused with ObstructiveVigilantism where the vigilante misleads the cops in order to take the law into their own hands. See also SentencedWithoutTrial where even ''the law'' bypasses the justice system.

'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' As vigilantism has a long, long history with lynching, witch hunts, hate crimes, and racial inequality. To avoid a FlameWar, entries must be in-universe only.

-->--''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS4E2HandsomeRansom Handsome Ransom]]"

'''Dr. Mrs. The Monarch:''' [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe Oh my god.]]\\

* ''Film/TheHunt2012'': In this 2012 Danish movie, Lucas is framed as a pedophile by a kindergarten student, Klara, after he rejected her PrecociousCrush on him. [[spoiler:The whole town eventually turns on him as they harass, assault, bully, and eventually kill his dog to punish him for this accusation. When Klara admits that she lied, Lucas's life seemingly goes back to normal until a stranger tries to kill him in the woods, presumably because they believe Lucas is still guilty of pedophilia.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': Parodied. In "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS4E2HandsomeRansom Handsome Ransom]]", Captain Sunshine fights Monarch's henchmen and when he finally reaches Monarch, he takes him to jail and physically drops him inside it. However, since Sunshine has no evidence of Monarch's wrongdoings and there's no official documentation for his arrest, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the warden just lets him go since Captain Sunshine didn't consider the legal requirements to actually put Monarch in prison]].

* ''Series/{{Peacemaker}}'': PlayedForLaughs. Adrian Chase, AKA {{Vigilante|Man}}, seems to be under the impression that AllCrimesAreEqual and doesn't [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity seem to understand moral ambiguity.]] Peacemaker, a HeroicComedicSociopath himself, is noticeably disturbed by Vigilante's indifference to human life, as he casually admits to [[DisproportionateRetribution brutally murdering people over graffiti.]]

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'': Two psychopaths, Brent "Slappy" Ernst and Carl Schliff fight Chuck under the belief he caused the outbreak that killed thousands.
** Brent is a socially awkward teen whose crush was killed by zombies after he had finally summed up the courage to ask her out on a first date. After learning that Chuck had allegedly caused the outbreak, he began stalking the Palasades Mall to find and kill Chuck in revenge. When he finally meets Chuck, Brent has clearly lost his mind as he refers to himself as Slappy and acts like he and his crush were already in a relationship.

** In one comic, Frank comes across a couple of police officers wearing pins of his skull insignia on their uniforms in a show of support for what he does. He takes them to task for this, saying they need to be emulating ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, not him.

** ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "Taxi", three taxi drivers kill another taxi driver, believing him to be the elusive [[DerangedTaxiDriver cabbie killer]]. Not only is he revealed to be innocent, but he turns out to be a police officer who was moonlighting as a cab driver.

** The disastrous results of [[spoiler:the Paranormal Liberation War]], along with [[spoiler:the massive breakout of villains from multiple prison facilities]] immediately after, leads to a severe drop in public opinion of heroes and the entire country falling to anarchy and chaos as massive numbers of villains start running riot. In response to the chaos, mobs of civilians start acting as vigilantes by arming themselves with support items and fighting back in self-defense. Having lost faith in the heroes, these mobs now believe that only they can protect themselves from the rogue villains. However, in their crusade to defend themselves, they soon begin attacking anyone who looks even remotely threatening. They especially start targeting [[FantasticRacism people that have Mutant Quirks]] due to their animalistic appearances, despite most being innocent civilians who are simply fleeing and trying to find shelter from the chaos. These mobs also cause enormous property/collateral damage due to their reckless Quirk usage, while also being wholly unprepared to handle the more hardened villains due to the cheapness of their equipment, as well as their lack of formal training. Not helping is the fact that whenever any heroes try to help, the vigilante mobs shun them out of contempt due to the hate/distrust that society now has for heroes.

This trope is designed to question the nobility of vigilantism and questions if a vigilante is actually in the right to dispense justice without due process. As most of these vigilantes are untrained and undisciplined civilians who believe they know better than the justice system, often escalating crimes and doing more harm than good.

Vigilantism always comes with the question "[[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen who will enforce the law onto those who enforce the law?]]" Vigilantes are abetted by the audience because they have the benefit of knowing who's the real villain or who is the lesser of two evils, when in reality, vigilantes who use [[AppealToForce coercive force]] to harass and intimidate suspects are no better than the criminals they arrest or otherwise punish because it hardly negates the evils they commit in the name of justice [[note]] If a vigilante kills 2 people then tries to argue that the criminal they arrested was worse because they killed 4 people, the vigilante is still in the wrong because they've still killed 2 people in their brand of justice[[/note]].

The most common consequence of vigilantism involves the unlawful [[VigilanteExecution execution]] of an [[AcquittedToolate innocent person]], whose execution was either racially motivated, killed as {{collateral damage}}, or the crime was deemed so severe by vigilantes that it warranted the death penalty [[note]] these crimes range from murder, child abduction, pedophilia, and sex crimes[[/note]]. Causing a {{miscarriage of justice}} and an impactful lesson on why police officers require training and are both legally and morally obligated to have an unbiased approach to their investigations. It also creates the darkest setting for a PrejudiceAesop as the target of a vigilante is often a victim of a [[HateCrimesAreASpecialKindOfEvil hate crime]].

A vigilante doesn't always have to be a civilian who fights crimes without legal sanctions, it's people who are fighting any kind of injustice (ranging from actual crimes to minor indiscretions). For example, the acts of a social justice warrior can be classed as vigilante injustice when they dox suspects and enable extrajudicial punishment or retribution.

In the superhero genre, the SuperRegistrationAct is either a compromise or a punishment for when super-powered vigilantes escalate a problem rather than fix it. This trope is often accompanied by the AssholeVictim and WhoMurderedTheAsshole as it makes the audience question whether or not the victim deserves such a harsh punishment.

It can also go with RevengeIsNotJustice and FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse because a character can call out the vigilante for having these excuses for murdering people. See also ImpersonatingAnOfficer when a character tries to pass themselves off as actual law enforcement.

'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' As this trope has a long, long history with lynching, witch hunts, hate crimes, and racial inequality. To avoid a FlameWar, entries must be in-universe only.

** The spinoff, ''Manga/MyHeroAcademiaVigilantes'' takes a softer stance on this trope. The protagonist, Koichi, primarily does public service as like picking up trash and giving people directions [[GoodFeelsGood because he enjoys doing it]]. Using his Quirk to do so is technically breaking the law against public, unsanctioned Quirk use, but his actions are so harmless that he usually gets a slap on the wrist and a scolding at worst. However, he begins increasingly running afoul of law as he gets into much more dangerous situations with Knuckleduster and Pop Step, with others pointing out that he's not trained to handle dangerous situations and risks making himself a casualty with his actions. While Koichi's actions ultimately help more than harm, he becomes the target of several villains and needs to be bailed out repeatedly by trained heroes.
* ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'' has Lunatic, a mysterious NEXT who burns criminals with his powers in case the Sternbild heroes failed to apprehend them. However, his methods are treated with disdain from the heroes, particularly from Kotetsu. In Season 2, his vigilantism is brought up by some kids in a Kids Law Classroom who think Lunatic is doing the right thing until Kotetsu corrects them, telling them Lunatic is a murderer who must be brought to justice. Then, the kid argues why Lunatic hasn't been arrested yet and finds it lame that he hasn't appeared for a while. [[spoiler:The irony of that is Lunatic's civilian identity is the city's judge and curator of Hero TV, Yuri Petrov, who is busy overseeing with heroes. While he's a bit apprehensive of changes in the Hero system such as the Buddy system where the heroes work in tandem, he still wants to see if Kotetsu's belief in justice and partnership with Barnaby is better than his way]].

* ''ComicBook/OneHundredBullets'': The series revolves around ordinary people being given the identity of someone who wronged them, proof of their wrongdoing, and 100 bullets and a gun that can't be used as evidence against them. While at least one case recipient is more than happy once he kills his wrongdoer, most end up sucked into various cycles of violence, are stricken with guilt, or end up having their lives ruined by the revelation. The ultimate moral seems to be that violence isn't an answer.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanWhiteKnight'': This story completely deconstructs Batman's crusade against evil as in this story, Joker takes a drug to cure himself of his insanity and he proceeds to sue Gotham for letting Batman do what he does. Jack Napier points out that Batman damages multiple properties, uses military-grade equipment, usually beats up people with mental illnesses, and then dumps his victims in Arkham Asylum where they are treated more like prisoners than patients. Jack also discovers the "Batman Devastation Fund", where three billion dollars per year, diverted from flood and hurricane prevention, is used to fix the damage created when Batman fights super-criminals. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that the policy is not billed to taxpayers, but to various companies owned by Bruce Wayne, meaning throughout the years of his career, Batman has been paying for reparations of his own rampages. While the story concludes with Gotham needing Batman, Batman reveals his secret identity and starts improving the police by sharing his technology with them.]]

* ''ComicBook/CivilWar'': In this series of comics, all vigilantes are forced to follow a [[SuperRegistrationAct government procedure where they reveal their personal identities and work with the government as registered heroes]] after a tragedy kills 612 civilians.
* ''Creator/MarvelComics'': Part of the reason J. Jonah Jameson has such hatred for masked vigilantes (ComicBook/SpiderMan in particular) is that he strongly believes that if they were ''truly'' good, then they shouldn't have to hide behind masks and secret identities that allow them to duck responsibility for the destructiveness of their actions. That's also why he is often depicted as having much more respect for heroes like the Fantastic Four or Captain America, whose identities are public.
** This is brought up in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' when a police officer who normally agrees with Jameson calls up to tell him how maybe he was wrong since Spidey just helped him out. Jameson points out that, yes, sure, Spider-Man helped... but if Spider-Man was ever ''wrong'', would he ever be held accountable the way a police officer would? Police officers have to undergo training for years to be ready and are backed by the law; the only thing Spider-Man has going for him are his powers with no legal backing or sanction. The officer sees his point and goes back to disliking Spider-Man.
--->'''J. Jonah Jameson''': If you caused the kind of damage he does, what would happen?\\
'''Caller''': I'd be doing paperwork until the day I retire and probably riding a desk too.\\
'''J. Jonah Jameson''': And why, my dear friend, should you have to follow these rules, and not him?

* This topic is discussed in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', and is later called into question by the film itself. The previous film, ''Film/BatmanBegins'', saw Bruce become Batman because Gotham PD was rotten to the core, and all attempts at de-corrupting the city were being sabotaged. Between the end of that film and now, Gotham has gotten cleaner as citizens and police have rallied around Batman as a symbol of justice. This has led to a number of copycat vigilantes trying to enforce justice of their own as well outside of the law. Batman's existence and the city's embrace of him are questioned given the city's history, and many see his existence as problematic because ComicBook/TheJoker is demanding he turn himself in, but Batman proves to be the person Gotham needs to take the Joker down, and because the Joker exists because Batman exists.

* ''Film/MagnumForce'': The BigBadEnsemble of this film is a tiny squad of cops who have decided to murder criminals that escaped the law (and the ones who appear on screen as targets are huge examples of the AssholeVictim). However, the problem becomes that the cops are kill-happy maniacs perfectly willing to annihilate anybody who has the bad luck of standing right beside the criminal as collateral damage regardless of their own innocence or guilt, and anybody who tries to stop them (even fellow cops). It is also highly implied that the killer cops have been picked by the BigBad, [[spoiler:Captain Briggs]], as his personal ([[WeHaveReserves expendable]]) hit team for future nefarious purposes. Harry Callahan even gives them a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech early in the climax in which he sarcastically asks them how long is it going to take them to expand their vigilante act to target people who are only "criminals" in the broadest sense of the term, like those who let their dogs piss on someone else's lawn, and what they plan to do next week (after they killed a dozen people this one). The killer cops answer "we'll kill a dozen more".
* ''Film/TheOxBowIncident'': In the story, a rancher is murdered and the deputy rallies a mob to solve the crime. [[spoiler:They hang the suspects without due process and the story famously harpoons the concept of vigilante justice by revealing that the cattle rancher wasn't actually dead and they had actually hanged 3 innocent men.]]

** ''[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]'': In this story, a woman has lost her memory and is told that the world is brainwashed and she is being actively hunted. [[spoiler:The twist is that the woman is Victoria Skillane, who was arrested for recording the murder and torture of Jemima Sykes at the hands of Victoria's fiance, Iain Rannoch. Victoria is being repeatedly tortured in the White Bear Justice Park as visitors pay to watch her suffer. The episode is designed to question whether or not Victoria truly deserves this punishment and if the workers at the White Bear Justice Park are in the right to punish her so severely for what she did.]]
** ''[[Recap/BlackMirrorShutUpAndDance Shut Up and Dance]]'': In this story, Kenny has his computer hacked and the hackers record him masturbating. The hackers force Kenny to do all sorts of odd jobs under the threat of sending the video to all his contacts. [[spoiler: After robbing a bank, Kenny is forced to fight a man to the death and it's revealed that Kenny was actually masturbating to child pornography and everything he did was to protect himself from being exposed as a pedophile. After killing the man, Kenny's secret is exposed anyway and is arrested for possession of child pornography, robbery, and murder. After Kenny's secret is revealed, the episode asks whether or not the hackers are in the right to punish Kenny as they forced him to kill someone and rob a bank rather than submit the evidence to the police.]]

* ''Series/DCIBanks'': "Friend of the Devil" features a vigilante on the loose [[spoiler: the new forensic pathologist Dr Elizabeth Waring]]. Having been the victim of a SerialRapist in their youth, they killed the rapist and now execute predators by slitting their throats with a scalpel. Whilst sympathetic it soon becomes apparent that despite their claims of helping remove dangers, all of this is just an unhealthy coping mechanism for their own trauma, leading to the kidnapping and execution of [[TragicMonster Lucy Payne]] even though a paralyzed Lucy had already been arrested. Then they become convinced that a teen's murder means there is yet another serial offender on the loose. Their attempts to kill them result in the accidental murder of an innocent detective (who ironically was also there trying to stop the mythical serial offender). On top of that their efforts to avoid capture only interfere with the original murder investigation so that the real culprit almost gets away. They even nearly murder Sergeant Cabbot in a last desperate attempt to escape.

** In ''Crimebusters'', a vigilante group decides to help the protagonists and call their mission "Operation Molly". [[spoiler: In the episode, the vigilantes are shown to be very unhelpful as they harass a suspect, contaminate evidence, and even assault the suspect after robbing him. The vigilantes are arrested for assault and robbery and the cops point out that the suspect's defense attorney will try to convince the court that the group planted evidence to ensure an arrest.]]

** An accidental example occurs in another SVU episode; a teenage girl accuses a man of rape, and the detectives let him go due to a lack of evidence. The girl's father then kidnaps him and tries to beat a confession out of him but winds up killing him by accident. The kicker? He was just an innocent bystander [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished trying to return her purse]], the real rapist was the girl's dentist uncle who drugged her, and the ending implies that the father will probably get off easy since he attempted CPR.
** in ''[[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS11E23Wannabe Wannabe]]'' ([=S11E23=]), Brad Fletcher passed himself as a cop, nearly ruining the investigation.

* ''Series/{{Luther}}'': The second half of Season three sees John Luther go up against [[AttentionWhore Tom Marwood]], a vigilante who [[MurderDotCom broadcasts his murders on the internet]], giving his audience a chance to vote whether they deserves to die. Whilst initially sympathetic considering he was failed by the police over his beloved wife's brutal rape and murder, it soon becomes clear that underneath Tom's protected image of a heroic moral crusader he is truthfully an unstable, [[GloryHound attention obsessed hypocrite]] with a massive NeverMyFault complex. Its not long before he descends into killing innocent civilians simply for being in the way of his crusade. By the end, he's further [[HeWhoFightsMonsters deteriorated into threatening to rape and kill a completely innocent woman himself]]. Sergeant Justin Ripley calls him out in the final confrontation that his actions have accomplished nothing but ruining more innocent lives and that his philosophy can only get people killed.
* In an episode of ''Series/NewYorkUndercover'', a black man takes his sick daughter to a hospital and demands that she be treated by a white doctor, believing that black doctors are less competent. After some time, the white doctor comes out and tells him that his daughter is going to be fine. Sometime later, a black doctor comes out and informs him that she has died due to complications. The father is enraged, believing that it was the black doctor's fault. At the end of the episode, he is found having just murdered the black doctor with an injection and is informed that it was the white doctor's fault, who has a habit of prescribing potentially lethal doses of medication to his patients.
* ''Series/{{Peacemaker}}'': PlayedForLaughs. Adrian Chase, AKA [[VigilanteMan Vigilante]], seems to be under the impression that AllCrimesAreEqual and doesn't [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity seem to understand moral ambiguity.]] Peacemaker, a HeroicComedicSociopath himself, is noticeably disturbed by Vigilante's indifference to human life, as he casually admits to [[DisproportionateRetribution brutally murdering people over graffiti.]]
* ''Series/StrangerThings'' attempts this message in Season 4 with Jason, who scapegoats Eddie for the murders and starts a lynch mob after him. However, this message didn't fully land due to the writers trying to make him a TragicVillain with understandable motives, which resulted in a MisaimedFandom with a number of viewers claiming he was justified in his actions.
* ''Series/TheBoys2019'': Blue Hawk is one of the lesser-known supes under the control of Vought and in season 3 he gained country-wide attention for gruesomely executing a black man who was walking behind a white woman (she thought he was following her and about to attack her). When confronted about this, Blue Hawk is dismissive and gives a blatantly insincere apology to the community, and needlessly fights his way out when confronted over his behavior.
* The ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E4TheBrotherhood The Brotherhood]]" had three {{Dirty Cop}}s who did this to criminals they feel didn't get the punishment they deserved. Their downfall begins when they kill a person who was actually innocent; DNA evidence exonerated him, but the cops never checked. Needless to say, [[TemptingFate Walker warned them this sort of thing would happen]]!
* ''Series/WithoutATrace'':

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2OffTheRecord'': In the alternate continuity of Dead Rising 2, Carl Schliff tries to kill Frank West with a parcel bomb under the belief that he committed mail fraud for accepting a package that didn't belong to him. After blowing up his mail cart, Carl fights Frank under the belief that he's taking advantage of the anarchy to do whatever he wants.
* ''VideoGame/FarCry5'': ZigZagged, the residents of Hope County have only formed a public militia against Joseph Seed because he bribed the local police into turning a blind eye. [[spoiler: The main theme of the game is about escalation and why you shouldn't try to fix problems by yourself. In the intro to the game, a small police squad marches to Joseph Seed's compound to arrest him and he surrenders to them without question. If the player hesitates to arrest him, Joseph will repeat a private conversion between Sheriff Whitehorse and Nancy, the dispatcher of the Hope County Sheriff Office. This interaction clues Whitehorse in as to what will happen if they arrest Joseph in his territory, so the sheriff commands the squad to leave so they get better reinforcements from the national guard. After Joseph is arrested, the helicopter crashes, and both endings of the game are rather bleak; the sheriff and the deputies are either killed by the brainwashed player character, or America is nuked and it results in the deaths of everyone but Joseph and the player character. All the player needed to do to get the good ending is to follow procedure and leave the compound to get better reinforcements, not take justice into their own hands and fix the situation on their own.]]

* ''VideoGame/MidnightTrain'': The antagonists, the Black Gear organization and the titular [[GeniusLoci Train]], are vigilantes who go after and kill criminals who evade police capture, with their leader Justice II considering himself superior to the police. But despite their well-intentioned goals, the story casts them in a villainous light as they treat {{Justified Criminal}}s just as harshly as unrepentant scumbags. In particular, the Train itself has an AllCrimesAreEqual mentality and punishes perjury, thievery, and even [[AccidentalMurder manslaughter]] with the same psychological torment and gruesome execution it targets more serious criminals with.
* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'': While J. Jonah Jameson is usually portrayed in the wrong for his prejudice against vigilantes, he makes a point that Spidey should have joined the Police Academy and got a badge. At least then, his heroics could at least be made legal and sanctioned.

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' will sometimes have these in their WhoMurderedTheAsshole cases. The SympatheticMurderer will turn out to have been wronged in the past, lost faith in the legal system that failed to provide justice, and went on a crusade to personally take revenge. While there are more heroic vigilantes like the Yatagarasu who go out of their way to avoid killing anyone, a frequent moral of the series is that taking the law into your own hands rarely ends well.

*** In ''Adventures'', [[spoiler:Ashely Graydon]] murdered [[spoiler:Magnus [=McGilded=]]], a LoanShark, in revenge for the man murdering his father and managing to secure an acquittal. This makes the killer a sympathetic character, but he then, in the process of covering his tracks, murders an innocent man and frames street urchin Gina Lestrade for it. He himself admits to having become as bad as his victim.
*** In the first case of ''Resolve'', the victim is [[spoiler:Jezaille Brett]], who was murdered by [[spoiler:Raiten Menimemo]] to stop the victim from getting away with murder. [[spoiler:Because Brett was British and not Japanese, she was going to be sent to a British court to be tried- where she would almost certainly be let off scot-free thanks to being a hired gun of the Lord Chief Justice]]. But the killer then goes on to frame Rei Membami, and is called out by Susato Mikotoba for becoming the same sort of person as the victim.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "Trial", Arkham Asylum is overtaken by the inmates, and Batman is brought to trial because they believe Batman does more harm than good, a sentiment that is shared by D.A. Janet Van Dorn. [[spoiler: In the end however, Van Dorn decides that Gotham ''does'' need Batman and the RoguesGallery is responsible for how their lives turned out.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'': Brought up in "The Zero to Superhero Syndrome." An alien saves a human child from a fire, concealing his identity as he's using special powers specific to his species. When the tabloids report on the incident, the alien, disillusioned with his humdrum earth life, decides to become a real superhero named Cosmosisman. His activities naturally attract [=MiB's=] attention, but Jay is quick to point out the alien isn't doing any harm, he's actually trying to help. Kay reminds his partner that such a high profile person will inevitably attract investigations he won't be able to handle, endangering TheMasquerade. More importantly, however, is that word of this will cause alien scoundrels to come to Earth looking to make a name for themselves by beating the planter's supposed champion. Sure enough, a nasty alien biker with superpowers of his own shows up to challenge Cosmosisman to a fight, causing lots of property damage.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':

Compare CopsNeedTheVigilante, where vigilantes are seen as a better alternative to cops. If the vigilante justifies the collateral damage as necessary, it may cross over with RationalizingTheOverkill. Not to be confused with ObstructiveVigilantism where the vigilante misleads the cops in order to take the law into their own hands. See also ConvictedWithoutTrial where even ''the law'' bypasses the justice system.

Compare CopsNeedTheVigilante, where vigilantes are seen as a better alternative to cops. If the vigilante justifies the collateral damage as necessary, it may cross over with RationalizingTheOverkill. Not to be confused with ObstructiveVigilantism where the vigilante misleads the cops in order to take the law into their own hands.