History Main / VigilanteInjustice

!!Examples

* ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot''
** The series is a PerspectiveFlip adaptation of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' which portrays a WellIntentionedExtremist version of Professor Moriarty. Moriarty knows the murder he's committing of monstrous nobles in hopes of bringing equality to the British Empire is wrong and openly says it's not justice but still seems to view it as a necessity he's committed to for too long to abandon. [[spoiler: The series actually has him survive ''The Final Problem'' arc in which he dies in the original canon so he is forced to find a proper way to atone for everything he's done and find a new way to commit to justice.]]

** [[spoiler: The disastrous results of the Paranormal Liberation War, along with 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.]]

* In the animated film ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'', Leonardo doesn't like the vigilante Nightwatcher because he thinks he does more harm than good in stopping the criminals and protecting the city at night. Things get more complicated when Leonardo discovers that the vigilante he hates [[spoiler: is his brother Raphael in disguise]] and they have a fight on the rooftop.

* ''Film/GranTorino'': [[spoiler: Walt's attempt to help the Vang Lor family by assaulting a gang member leads to a drive-by shooting, the injury of Thao, and the kidnapping and rape of Sue. While Thao desires revenge, Walt imprisons him so he can't take revenge since Walt knows from experience that killing others isn't as glorious as Thao thinks. Walt instead orchestrates his own death, sacrificing himself so that Spider and the gang can be arrested for [[ShootHimHeHasAWallet mercilessly gunning down an old man reaching for his cigarette lighter.]]]]

--> '''Oswaldo Mobray''' (lecturing Daisy): John Ruth wants to take you back to Red Rock to stand trial for murder. And, if... you're found guilty, the people of Red Rock will hang you in the town square. And as the hangman, I will perform the execution. And if all those things end up taking place, that's what civilized society calls "justice". However, if the relatives and the loved ones of the person you murdered were outside that door right now, and after busting down that door they drug you out in the snow and hung you up by the neck...that would be frontier justice. Now the good part about frontier justice, is it's very thirst-quenching. The bad part is it's apt to be wrong as right!
* ''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.]]

* ''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.]]

* ''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.
** ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'': The true killer of the last case, [[spoiler:Diego Armando/Godot]], sought to put an end to [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne]]'s schemes, and his murder could be said to have been in defense of another. But it is pointed out that the killer, intentionally or not, allowed the situation to escalate to the point where deadly force was needed, and the killer needlessly endangered innocent people in their desire to take the law into their own hands and [[EngineeredHeroics be the hero]], when they could have just told Phoenix what was going on and avoided the whole mess. The killer, for their part, [[HeelRealization actually agrees]] and feels that they deserve to be punished for what they did.
** In ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations 2]]'', [[spoiler:Simon Keyes]] is revealed to have masterminded almost every murder in the game in order to punish all the people who made his life miserable, from childhood to adulthood. Edgeworth sympathizes and calls him a victim of the system, but also says that it does not justify hurting innocent people like Kay Faraday and John Marsh by trying to frame them and that he became just like the people he so despises.
** ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'':
*** 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.

** 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]]. But 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. But 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.

* ''Film/TheHunt2012'': In this 2012 Danish movie, Lucas is framed as a pedophile by a kindergarten student, Klara, after he rejected her crush 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.]]

* ''Film/TheHunt2012'': In this 2012 Danish movie, Lucas is framed as a pedophile by a kindergarten student, Klara after he rejected her crush 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 Clara 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.]]

* ''Series/{{Peacemakers}}'': 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.]]

* In the animated film ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'', Leonardo doesn't like the vigilant Nightwatcher because he thinks he does more harm than good in stopping the criminals and protecting the city at night. Things get more complicated when Leonardo discovers that the vigilant he hates [[spoiler: is his brother Raphael in disguise]] and they have a fight on the rooftop.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': The unspoken rule regarding every vigilante that the BAU tracks is that no matter what they're telling themselves, they are ultimately killing people to try and make themselves feel better, and they ''cannot'' be ignored because they unavoidably devolve and kill someone innocent. A man killing a jerk on the road gets addicted to repeating that sensation, a woman murdering AssholeVictims kills a good man to cover her tracks, and a pair of revenge killers get so wrapped up in their cathartic justice that they overlook just how much damage they're actually doing. And that's not even getting into the more delusional Unsubs who only ''think'' their targets are evil because of their own warped ideologies. Bottom line, a murderer is a murderer regardless of the victim, and the BAU has to help stop them.

** [[spoiler: The disastrous results of the Paranormal Liberation War, along with 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 with 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.]]

** [[spoiler: The disastrous results of the Paranormal Liberation War, along with 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 started 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, including people that have mutant Quirks 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 with 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.]]

** [[spoiler: Vigilante mobs spring up following the disastrous results of the Paranormal Liberation War, which combined with the breakout of multiple villains from several prison facilities immediately after, leads to a severe drop in public opinion of heroes and the entire country falling to anarchy and chaos as villains start running riot. These mobs believe that only they can protect themselves from the rogue villains, but they soon begin attacking anyone who looks even remotely threatening, including people that have mutant Quirks, 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 unequipped to handle the more hardened villains. Not helping is the fact that these vigilante mobs shun any heroes who try to help due to the hate/distrust of heroes that society now has.]]

** Vigilante mobs spring up following [[spoiler:the disastrous results of the heroes' attempts to foil the Paranormal Liberation Front's attempts to uproot all of Japanese society]] that lead to a severe drop in public opinion of heroes. These mobs believe that only they can protect themselves, but soon begin attacking anyone they believe is remotely threatening looking, including innocents who possess mutant Quirks and are fleeing the chaos themselves. These mobs also cause enormous property damage due to their reckless Quirk use while also being wholly unequipped to handle more hardened villains and shunning the heroes who do come to help.

* An episode of ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' had three cops who did this to criminals they feel didn't get the punishment they deserved. Their downfall begins when they kill a kid who was actually innocent; DNA evidence exonerated him, but the cops never checked.

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.

* ''Film/TheBatman2022'': Batman's vigilantism and TerrorHero persona is deconstructed heavily. Not only does it simply cause fear among the populace rather than prevent crime from occurring, but most of the police don't trust him, and even suspect him as a potential murder suspect. [[spoiler:The Riddler compares himself to Batman a lot, as they both want to take down the system destroying Gotham, and scare people in order to do it. Batman manages to turn his reputation around at the end, however, by acting as a hopebringer for people during a crisis, rather than just someone who hurts people.]]

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E9HomerBadman Homer Badman]]", Homer is framed as a pervert after seemingly pinching the butt of a babysitter (when he was actually peeling off a rare gummi candy (one shaped like the Venus de Milo that she had unknowingly sat on). Rather than call the police, she rallies a mob and harasses him for being a pervert. After trying and failing multiple times to clear his name, Groundskeeper Willie saves him by showing Ashley a recording of Homer taking the gummi candy.

* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'': Brought up in "The Zero to Superhero Syndrome." An alien saves an 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/MenInBlackTheSeries'': Brought up in "The Zero to Superhero Syndrome." An alien saves an 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 bike shows up to challenge Cosmosisman to a fight, causing lots of property damage.

* ''{{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.]]

* ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'' is a PerspectiveFlip adaptation of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' which portrays a WellIntentionedExtremist version of Professor Moriarty. Moriarty knows the murder he's committing of monstrous nobles in hopes of bringing equality to the British Empire is wrong and openly says it's not justice but still seems to view it as a necessity he's committed to for too long to abandon. [[spoiler: The series actually has him survive ''The Final Problem'' arc in which he dies in the original canon so he is forced to find a proper way to atone for everything he's done and find a new way to commit to justice.]]

** ''Series/{{CSI}}'': In the episode "Blood Lust", after a teenager who had been fatally stabbed stumbles to a road and drops dead in the middle of it, a taxi driver accidentally runs over the dead body and gets out of the taxi to see what happened, notices the body, and rushes back in to try to call for help. Unfortunately, a bunch of men at a nearby stop misinterpreted the man's reactions for trying to run away and kill him in a rage. After the police puts together the whole chain of events, they arrest all of the members of the mob and make clear that their act of vigilantism was unnecessary and will put them all in jail for the rest of their lives.
** In the episode "Unfriendly Skies", the Las Vegas Police is asked by the FAA to investigate the murder of a flight's passenger which happened mid-flight. It turns out that the man was undergoing an attack of encephalitis that was caused by the pressure change, which initially manifested in him [[PlaneAwfulFlight annoying everybody else in the cabin]] with a massive bout of obnoxiousness and escalated into a full-blown freak out that made him try to open the cabin mid-flight, which made all of the passengers gang up on him and beat him to death (and try to conceal their involvement, including the moment the man dragged himself away from the door, which turned their own attack from self-defense [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown into an outright lynching]]). Once everything is said and done, the FAA [[KarmaHoudini refuse to file charges on the passengers]], claiming that there's no way a jury [[AssholeVictim won't see their actions as legitimate self-defense]] and momentary insanity caused by mob mentality, and Grissom [[SchiffOneLiner decries]] that maybe if any of the passengers had seen past the dead man's obnoxiousness and just plain asked him if he was all right, maybe things would have ended differently. At one point the CSI team even wonders if they would have acted any differently and they are divided by it, with Catherine saying that [[MamaBear if the other option was risking her daughter's death to a plane crash, she would have killed the guy]].

** In the episode "Unfriendly Skies", the Las Vegas Police is asked by the FAA to investigate the murder of a flight's passenger which happened mid-flight. It turns out that the man was undergoing an attack of encephalitis that was caused by the pressure change, which initially manifested in him [[PlaneAwfulFlight annoying everybody else in the cabin]] with a massive bout of obnoxiousness and escalated into a full-blown freak out that made him try to open the cabin mid-flight, which made all of the passengers gang up on him and beat him to death (and try to conceal their involvement, including the moment the man dragged himself away from the door, which turned their own attack from self-defense [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown into an outright lynching]]). Once everything is said and done, the FAA [[KarmaHoudini refuse to file charges on the passengers]], claiming that there's no way a jury [[AssholeVictim won't see their actions as legitimate self-defense]] and momentary insanity caused by mob mentality, and Grissom [[SchiffOneLiner decries]] that maybe if any of the passengers had seen past the dead man's obnoxiousness and just plain asked him if he was all right, maybe things would have ended differently. At one point the CSI team even wonders if they would have acted any differently and they are divided by it, with Catherine saying that [[MamaBear if the other option was risking her daughter's death to a plane crash, she would have killed the guy]].

** ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'': The true killer of the last case, [[spoiler:Diego Armando/Godot]], sought to put an end to [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne]]'s schemes, and his murder could be said to have been in defense of another. But it is pointed out that the killer, intentionally or not, allowed the situation to escalate to the point where deadly force was needed, and the killer needlessly endangered innocent people in their desire to take the law into their own hands and [[HeroismAddict be the hero]], when they could have just told Phoenix what was going on and avoided the whole mess. The killer, for their part, [[HeelRealization actually agrees]] and feels that they deserve to be punished for what they did.

* ''VideoGame/{{Injustice}}'' explores a scenario where Superman loses Metropolis to a nuke planted by the Joker. Superman turns vengeful, and puts the Earth under his thumb, ruling like a dictator. Those few Justice Leaguers that dare to question him get put down hard. He takes the maxim "The wages of sin is death" to its practical extreme, becoming a NighInvulnerable WellIntentionedExtremist with a zero-tolerance policy.

->''"The reason that you often see so many people in these films commenting on Batman's role as a vigilante and how harmful it is, is because of how much potential there is for a vigilante to do far more harm than good. Whether that's directly through their actions or by influencing others. In this case, Batman influences others to engage in this behavior and that results in undisciplined people without any sort of training to take justice into their own hands, which has enormous potential for human error to occur."''
-->-- '''The Vile Eye''', "Analyzing Evil: The Riddler And The People Who Made Him From ''Film/TheBatman2022''"

-->'''The Monarch:''' He threw me in jail. Literally. Threw me right into the yard at the state prison. Then he shouts up to the warden, "Looks like this one won't be causing any more trouble!" And he flies off with a gay little salute.\\
'''Dr. Mrs. The Monarch:''' [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe Oh my god.]]\\
'''The Monarch:''' Apparently nobody ever told him what ''due process'' was.

* ''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 jail]].

* ''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 jail just lets him go for not following due process]].

* ''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 Rogues Gallery is responsible for how their lives turned out.]]

* ''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, the jail just lets him go for not following due process.