Line #40 Main/LawmanGoneBad


1	%% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=13qdhjkz
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3	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/JudgeDredd https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/when_judges_go_bad.jpg]]]]
4	[[caption-width-right:350:Not always this obvious.]]
5
6	->''"20 years I've been on the streets. You know what Mega City One is, Dredd? It's a fucking meat grinder. People go in one end, and meat comes out the other. All we do is turn the handle.''"
7	-->-- ''Film/{{Dredd}}''
8
9	At first glance, he is the ReasonableAuthorityFigure or maybe even a GentlemanDetective. However, if you push them too far in just the right place (may or may not be their BerserkButton), he will have a good reason to become an outcast from the police force and perform a FaceHeelTurn. What causes them to turn from the law they upheld varies, though [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids disillusionment]], [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal disgruntlement]] or [[EveryManHasHisPrice greed]] will usually be at the root of it.
10
11	Due to [[TheReveal the nature]] of the trope, it's often used [[StartOfDarkness as part of the character's backstory]], or as the surprise twist at the end.
12
13	If the lawman is not the hero of the story, then he might do a full FaceHeelTurn. After helping the hero defeat the villains, he turns on the hero and tries to kill him so he can have the money for himself.
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15	To put it bluntly, this character is what's known as a Lawman Gone Bad. This is a character who takes pride in working for the law before an incident that makes him snap causes him to distance himself from those that he used to work for.
16
17	The character may also be a BigBadFriend.
18
19	Related to DirtyCop and CowboyCop. Compare FallenHero. The companion trope where someone who was once in the military and has turned to crime is FromCamouflageToCriminal.
20
21	----
22	!!Examples:
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24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27	* ''Anime/BlackLagoon'': former police officer Mr. Chang didn't just go bad, he went all in and became a Triad ''boss''.
28	* ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'': Chief of Police Zachary Patterson became a cop in order to serve justice to the people of the British Empire, but quickly found that Scotland Yard was not the place he thought it was. Disillusioned, he joined up with criminal mastermind William's crew before the series even began.
29	* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Shiryu of the Rain was once the head jailer of the most dangerous prison in the world, Impel Down, but prison warden Magellan locked him up for sadistically killing prisoners for fun. During a riot, [[GodzillaThreshold Magellan releases him to help him quell the riot]] and makes it clear that he won't be released from his sentence and is only postponing his execution. This leaves Shiryu no other choice but to join the Blackbeard Pirates as one of their commanders.
30
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Comic Books]]
34	* ''ComicBook/DaisyKutter'': Inverted, as the sheriff of Middleton is the [[RetiredOutlaw former train-robbing outlaw]] Tom [=McKay=]. Tom gave up his life of crime and settled down to become a small-town sheriff. He spends the first half of the comic trying to convince his ex-girlfriend and ex-partner-in-crime Daisy to do the same -- she quit the banditry business the same time he did, but she opened a general store rather than join up with the institution they once rebelled against. By the end of the comic, [[spoiler: Tom's injuries force him to retire and Daisy takes his place as the sheriff of Middleton.]]
35	* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The Green Lantern Medphyll, after losing his ring, joined forces with Throneworld's corrupt leader to stop the legitimate ruler from returning and reclaiming his authority. Unfortunately for him, [[ComicBook/StarmanDCComics Jack Knight]] fought back and succeeded in destroying Medphyll.
36	* ''ComicBook/{{Hitman\|1993}}'': Sheriff Halliday becomes this at the end of ''Hitman Annual'' #1 when he tries to take possession of AMacGuffinFullOfMoney for himself.
37	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'':
38	** The most notable is Dredd's own clone brother, Rico. After graduating top of his class, Rico starts taking bribes and running his own rackets while on the job. Joe ends up arresting him and sentencing him to twenty years on Titan, which he actually survives. Rico comes back for revenge and Joe is forced to kill him.
39	** Judge Fray, who works with criminals and tries to kill Dredd, insists that he hasn't "gone bad", he's gone ''honest''. The Judge system is inherently evil, and he's just the only one who [[AtLeastIAdmitIt is prepared to admit that]] and [[CardCarryingVillain commit to it]]. He's ... not exactly wrong.
40	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': Some versions have Frank be a cop rather than an ex-Vietnam soldier before a Mafia hit sets him on a permanent crusade to avenge his family.
41	* ''ComicBook/SinCity'': According to WordOfGod, this is the backstory of Jackie Boy. The audience only sees Jackie as an abusive drunk with an allusion to being a "hero cop" in the past. Apparently, he once earned the accolades of a hero but unknown circumstances led him down a dark path.
42	* ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'': This may be the fate of Inspector Finch at the end of the series, when the Norsefire system is collapsing.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
46	* A prime example is Captain Culpepper (played by Spencer Tracy) from the 1963 Comedy film ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld''. At first, he intends to confiscate the stolen money and presumably return it to its rightful owners, but after being buried under an ever-increasing mountain of bad news from his home life and regarding his police pension (or lack thereof), he devises ASimplePlan to get the dough for himself and skip on down to Mexico for his "retirement".
47	* In the western ''Film/ThereWasACrookedMan'', a new warden (Henry Fonda) at an Arizona prison tries to institute reforms, but a ManipulativeBastard inmate (Kirk Douglas) uses this to stage a mass escape. The warden pursues the inmate, and the inmate meets a KarmicDeath while retrieving the loot from one of his robberies. The warden returns with the inmate's body and the loot to the prison but realizes that a new warden has been appointed in the meantime. Disgraced and out of a job, he sends the horse with the body toward the prison while he and the money ride off to start a new life.
48	* ''Film/TheHurricaneHeist'': Sheriff Dixon's deputies are initially honest cops working to provide order during the hurricane. But once they get offered a cut of the money, they quickly and remorselessly join Connor's gang.
49	* In ''Film/MinorityReport'', the trope is subverted. For a while, it seems as if John Anderton will become a murderer since he's already abusing illegal drugs to cope with the death of his son. In fact, it's his boss, Lamar Burgess, who has been committing murders to validate the pre-crime system.
50	* Unlike the more ambivalent ending of the ComicBook, the film version of ''Film/VForVendetta'' has Finch clearly joining "V" (actually Evey) when the rebellion against the fascist government begins.
51	* Ed Kilifer in ''Film/LicenceToKill''. He is a DEA agent who accepts a $2 million dollar bribe to spring drug lord Sanchez from federal custody.
52	* Harvey Dent / Two-Face from ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. Originally the [[KnightInShiningArmor White Knight of Gotham]], he goes ballistic and insane after some antics by ComicBook/TheJoker. Considering said 'antics' result in, among other consequences, Harvey getting ''half his face burned off'' and his LoveInterest being killed, this is perhaps a bit understandable.
53	* In ''Film/HardRain'', Randy Quaid's character Sheriff Mike Collig does this. Being forced to stay behind and guard an empty flooded-out town against looters, a town whose citizens just ''voted you out of office'' was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back.
54	* ''Film/{{Speed}}'': Howard Payne was a former member of the Atlanta PD bomb squad, who turned MadBomber after [[spoiler:being forcibly retired, due to an accident which injured his right hand. He couldn't continue on the force, but wasn't disabled enough to qualify for collecting his pension]]. Howard did not take it well.
55	-->'''Jack:''' ''[over phone]'' Why didn't you just come after me?\
56	'''Payne:''' ''[scoffs]'' You?! This isn't about you, [[ItsAllAboutMe this is about ME!!]] [[MoneyDearBoy It's about my money!]] This is about money due to ME! Which I WILL collect!
57	* The Czech cop in ''Film/XXx'' who, after one too many humiliations, turns informant for the bad guys.
58	* ''Film/MadMax'':
59	** Max Rockatansky started out in [[Film/MadMax1 the first film]] as a highway cop in a disintegrating dystopian future; he didn't turn bad so much as [[VigilanteMan become a free agent independent of the law]] in order to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the motorcycle gang that murdered his family. [[FromBadToWorse Then, between the end of the first film and the start of the next one, the apocalypse broke out...]]
60	** Many of Lord Humungus's men in ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'' sport MFP uniforms and drive Pursuit Specials similar to Max's car, suggesting that many of them were cops who went bad AfterTheEnd. In fact, while it was ditched in the final film, Humungus himself was originally supposed to be Goose, Max's partner from the first film, having survived Toecutter's abuse, hence the burns he sports.
61	** [[AllInTheManual One of the tie-in comics]] for ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' state that Roop and Charlie, Two of two Max's coworkers in the first film, ended up joining Immortan Joe's army after civilization fell.
62	* In ''Film/RoughCut'', Burt Reynolds (The GentlemanThief) tries to steal a case of rough cut diamonds, being protected by a Police Chief bent on capturing him. After the gang get the case to the Bahamas, Burt reveals that the diamonds are fakes. Cue the entry of the Police Chief with the actual case, "selling" it to them for a share of the cut.
63	* In ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'', Keaton used to be a cop, but was an extremely DirtyCop even while he was on the job, resulting in multiple indictments ''before'' he was eventually kicked off the force. He then became a career criminal who was probably responsible for multiple murders, both in normal life and behind bars during a stay in prison. His friend Verbal claims that Keaton was attempting to put his criminal past behind him and start a new life shortly before the start of the film, but police harassment ruined his chance at that, driving him back to criminal work. [[UnreliableNarrator Whether that is true is very much up for debate]].
64	-->'''Agent Kujan:''' Keaton was under indictment a total of seven times when he was on the force. In every case, witnesses either reversed their testimony to the grand jury or died before they could testify. When they finally did nail him for fraud, he spent five years in Sing Sing. He killed three prisoners inside - one with a knife in the tailbone while he strangled him to death.
65	* In ''Film/SWAT2003'', when Gamble's CowboyCop antics get him kicked off the team, he resigns from the force and turns to a life of crime.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Literature]]
69	* Garret "Uncle Bud" Stoker, the main antagonist of ''Literature/AfterDarkMySweet'', is a former cop who masterminds a plan to hold a wealthy man's son for ransom.
70	* ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' has Miles Hundredlives, who was once a good if KnightTemplar-ish lawman, but turned to evil when he decided that the political figures he worked for were the real criminals.
71	* Jiggs Scully from ''Literature/CatChaser'' was an NYPD officer before becoming an enforcer for the mob.
72	* Tomas Sergar from ''Literature/TheChildrenOfMan'' is a secret member of the Brethren, the order of black-aligned mages seeking to take over the world. He is also the head of the Daniyelan Order, this world's international police force.
73	* Two of Stuart Gibbs ''Literature/FunJungle'' novels feature this. [[spoiler: The first is Chief of Security Buck, who upon stumbling across a smuggling ring, blackmails his way into it and is willing to kill to cover it up. The second is Athmani, a South African game warden brought in to the park as a consultant, who after years of combatting murderous Rhino poachers for a pittance, cracks when offered an opportunity to steal rhino horns worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars without killing any of them, even though just the act of putting those horns on the market would feed the demand for more poaching]].
74	* Albert Neri in ''Literature/TheGodfather'' was fired from the police force for killing an unarmed suspect due to his overzealous nature, causing him to fall in with organized crime.
75	* Sargent Haig of ''Literature/TheMentalState'' starts out as a {{Jerkass}} who looks down on the prisoners he is guarding and regards them as scum. Then, when the prison starts to adopt more liberal policies and the inmates are granted more freedom, he becomes even more sadistic and retaliates by beating one of the frailer prisoners up for no good reason. He gets worse after he is falsely accused of dealing drugs and incarcerated in the same prison. He even joins up with a criminal gang just so that he can get revenge on the one responsible for framing him.
76	* Commissioner Gauche in ''Literature/MurderOnTheLeviathan'' spends about 9/10ths of the novel dedicated to capturing a genuinely dangerous and nasty killer (albeit without that much competence). Then, when it transpires that the motive for the murder involved a treasure map which would lead to more money than Gauche would make on a policeman's salary in ten lifetimes, he promptly beats the captured murderer to death trying to find out where the map was. Unfortunately for him, the man he killed was only an accomplice, and the actual killer makes Guache the next victim.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
80	* Mike Ehrmantraut from ''Series/BreakingBad'' and its prequel ''Series/BetterCallSaul''. Originally a cop from Philadelphia, Mike becomes a DirtyCop to survive in the corrupt precinct and then tries to bring [[spoiler: his son into the fold as well]]. It fails miserably, as [[spoiler: his son is then killed by Mike's colleagues]]. Then Mike resigns from the force, and enacts vengeance upon the said cops, and then joins both Gus and Saul as the former's hitman.
81	%%* Shane is this in ''Series/TheWalkingDead''.
82	* In an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'', the team investigates a series of killings related to the murder of a mob boss many years before. It's mentioned that a patrol officer called in the car crash/body but mysteriously vanished along with the ill-gotten gains and the possibility of this trope is discussed. [[spoiler:It turns out that the corpse that was thought to be the mob boss's was actually his, killed in order to serve as a decoy.]]
83	* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS07E21 Life Sentence]]," Mac discovers that [[spoiler:his first partner]] had turned bad, having stolen a large amount of money from a crime scene (he was nearing retirement and didn't think he was being paid enough) and [[spoiler:murdered the girlfriend of the guy who has a vendetta against him and Mac (he doesn't know, then doesn't care, that Mac wasn't responsible)]].
84	* Inverted in the canceled TV Series ''Series/{{Shark}}'' where the protagonist, lawyer Sebastian Stark, turns from defending criminals to being a prosecutor.
85	* In its first and second seasons, ''Series/WhiteCollar'' had Agent Fowler, a seemingly corrupt OPR agent who was after Neal, but who turns out to be a case of this: [[spoiler:his wife was killed and then he killed her assassin, leaving himself open to {{blackmail}} by the BigBad]].
86	* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'':
87	** In "One Way to Get Off", we learn that [[spoiler:Gregson's former partner D'Amico planted evidence on Wade Crewes [[FramingTheGuiltyParty because the police couldn't prove his guilt legitimately]]. When ByTheBookCop Gregson calls her out on this, she's more concerned with the potential impact on her career than the miscarriage of justice]].
88	** The villain in "A Giant Gun, Filled With Drugs" is [[spoiler:an undercover DEA agent who tries to make some money on the side by kidnapping the daughter of Holmes' old drug dealer]].
89	** The culprit of "Details" is [[spoiler:an ex-girlfriend of Detective Bell's, who was also a beat cop. She had been trying to get promoted into Vice, but after learning that Bell went to Internal Affairs with evidence that her late superior was a DirtyCop on a major drug case they were all working on, her chances were next to nothing, so she took it out on Bell]].
90	* ''Series/{{Forever\|2014}}'': A former cop who now works as a P. I. illegally bugs Iona Payne's therapy office in "The Ecstasy of Agony," using a bug he stole from the police department in the first place.
91	* The villain in the ''Series/ItTakesAThief1968'' episode "The Artist Is for Framing" is a police inspector with a perfect record who's about to retire. He's obsessed with capturing Al as a final triumph, so he commits robberies using Al's techniques and frames him for the crimes.
92	* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
93	** Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter spends season 3 progressing from an FBIAgent who's overcome some childhood sociopathic tendencies to being Wilson Fisk's most formidable assassin.
94	** Tammy Hattley, SAC in charge of the FBI protection detail. A seemingly tough but fair boss, who turns out to have spent years being blackmailed by Fisk.
95	** Ray Nadeem is a downplayed example in that his "going bad" part is because of long-term manipulations by Fisk, and though he tries to fix things, it ultimately proves too late for him and he ends up being killed by Dex.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Video Games]]
99	* Several examples from the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series:
100	** Garrus starts off in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' as a security officer in the Citadel (as well as a Spectre candidate) but quits due to his CowboyCop tendencies and eventually goes vigilante in a WretchedHive in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.
101	** Shepard him-/herself is seen as this by the Alliance and the Council, due to being an ex-Spectre (elite agent of the galactic government) who now collaborates with the pro-human terrorist group Cerberus to deal with alien abductions that the Alliance refuses to acknowledge. In actuality, however, Shepard never goes over to the bad guys, [[BatmanGambit the Illusive Man just did his best to make it look like s/he did]].
102	** Also from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the asari spectre Tela Vasir is revealed to have cooperated with the crime lord Shadow Broker after growing disillusioned with proper procedure. She still considers herself serving a greater good, which she believes to justify the questionable means, and calls Shepard out on his/her own cooperation with Cerberus.
103	* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne''
104	** Max Payne is an NYPD detective in the first two games but is forced by circumstances (both times involving him being framed for the murder of another officer) to go on a one-man crusade against the local mobs both times.
105	** In a twist for the second game, [[spoiler:he actually does kill another detective, except she's a DirtyCop in bed (literally) with the BigBad]].
106	** Supplementary material for ''Max Payne 3'' reveals that the Cracha Preto used to be lawmen who went on {{Vigilante\| Man}} sprees against criminals the law couldn't or wouldn't touch. Then they experienced MotiveDecay and descended into being plain paramilitary thugs.
107	* According to ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'', this is the Riddler's backstory in the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'': Edward Naston was a member of the GCPD's cybercrimes division before going rogue.
108	* ''VideoGame/ThisIsThePolice'' has Jack Boyt, the protagonist who used to be a competent police chief. Until he's told he has six months until his forced retirement.
109	** The sequel ramps it up to [[spoiler:Lawman Gone Ruthless Badass]].
110	* [=GoldenEye=] in ''VideoGame/GoldeneyeRogueAgent''. He ''apparently'' went bad after Dr. No shot his real eye out. Then again, it's hinted that he had been a problem for a long time, but this time his luck ran out.
111	* Numerous examples in ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', including every single major villain in the first game. The Maverick Hunters are robot police, and one of the most common backstories in the series is 'former Hunter gone rogue.' The reasons vary — the most common one is infection by the [[TheVirus Maverick Virus]], but there are others, especially in the Maverick Hunter X version of the continuity. [[BigBad Sigma]], depending on the version, went rogue either because of the virus, to force 'evolution' and draw out the true potential of the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots reploid]] race through constant conflict, or both; Sting Chameleon was forced into going rogue because of hostages; Chill Penguin did it out of boredom after having spent so long assigned to Antarctica, Bubble Crab to get rich; and so on.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Western Animation]]
115	* [[spoiler:Jingles Morgan]] in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Bravestarr}}'' episode "Fallen Idol". Originally a top-rated lawman, he started taking the idea that he never lost too seriously and murdered someone who beat him in a martial arts tournament as a result, leading to him becoming a career criminal.
116	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / LawmanGoneBad