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| 4 | [[quoteright:332:[[Film/AClockworkOrange https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3d2ac220_97b3_4047_882a_03f1cff73033.png]]]] |
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| 6 | [[caption-width-right:332:Enforcing your right to remain silent.]] |
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| 11 | ->''"I'm on my feet for about ten minutes before the cops kick them out from under me. They don't ask me any questions. They just keep knocking the crap out of me and waving a confession in my face. And I keep spitting blood all over it and laughing at how many fresh copies they come up with. Then along comes this worm assistant district attorney who turns the recorder off and says if I don't sign their confession, they'll kill my mom. I break his arm in three places and I sign it."'' |
| 12 | -->-- '''Marv''', ''Film/SinCity'' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | When police aren't [[PoliceAreUseless useless]], then they're [[TheBully vicious bullies]], or at very least, just [[{{Jerkass}} big jerks]]. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Even though nobody likes being bossed around by the police, it's their job and they have to do it whether we (or they[[labelnote:*]]see ReasonableAuthorityFigure, which ''can'' be TruthInTelevision, but [[WellThisIsNotThatTrope that isn't what this article is describing]][[/labelnote]]) like it or not. Some types of policemen, however, are [[{{Sadist}} thugs]] who take cruel pleasure in beating and tormenting people they don't like, for [[DisproportionateRetribution petty reasons]] or, in particularly bad cases, no reason at all. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Though this is TruthInTelevision, it is often exaggerated in fiction, whether for dramatic effect or perhaps to [[TheWarOnStraw push political agendas]]. Sometimes this may be to make a statement about ethnic/racial relations (e.g., ''Film/DoTheRightThing'') or more generally about political repression (e.g., ''Literature/Dekada70''), as part of a gloomy FilmNoir-type WretchedHive setting (e.g., ''ComicBook/SinCity''), or as part of a futuristic {{Dystopia}}n StateSec setting (e.g., ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''). |
| 19 | |
| 20 | In movies, this was originally a portrayal only American films got away with. For example, the critics responsible for French New Wave Cinema famously complained about censorship that forbade French police being portrayed as anything but professional and competent. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | A quick breakdown of police brutality trends in fiction: the LAPD beats your ass and then decides what crime you committed; the NYPD [[ShootHimHeHasAWallet shoots you a few dozen times then pronounces you innocent]]; 1930s cops are drunk [[OfficerOHara Irishmen]] who beat you up for being [[TheMafia Italian]]; 1960s cops are sober Irishmen who beat you up for [[NewAgeRetroHippie having long hair]], ''or'' are [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant old White evangelicals]] with a [[DeepSouth thick drawl]] who [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement beat you up for being not-White]]; [[TheNewTens 2010s]] cops may [[ButNotTooWhite not themselves be entirely white]], but are so {{trigger happy}} and [[TheParanoiac paranoid]] they will ''shoot'' you if you're black; [[OldFashionedCopper old-fashioned]] [[UsefulNotes/BritishCoppers Bobbies]] beat you up for being a foreigner or minority suspected of [[DisproportionateRetribution loitering]]; big town cops beat you up for being a foreigner or minority [[MistakenForTerrorist suspected of terrorism]]; small town cops pull you over, tell you that [[PreemptiveDeclaration your tail light is busted]], [[FrameUp and then bust your tail light with a nightstick when you ask which one]] ([[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and give you a ticket for it]]). Not to mention cops from developing countries that are often also [[DirtyCop incredibly corrupt]] to boot, and heaven help you if they mistake you for a drug user, or if you're a political activist protesting your country's problems — including ''them''! Of course, [[PoliceBrutalityGambit all might not be as it seems]]. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | '''Note:''' Now and again, American movies filmed in or set in the 1930s and '40s will show a cop [[StopOrIWillShoot shooting at an unarmed, running suspect]]. Though this would not be acceptable in an American context today, it was [[ValuesDissonance not considered brutal or excessive at the time]]. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | If you are fortunate enough to live in a relatively free country and unfortunate enough to witness police brutality, surreptitiously filming it is a good way to back yourself up.[[note]]However, you need to also be mindful of the fact that a number of areas have ''legally banned'' videotaping the police – ostensibly on privacy grounds – and police in those localities will be empowered to arrest you if they see you filming (or at least confiscate and/or smash your camera). Even in areas where it's not actually banned, the police typically do not like being filmed, and may well take steps against you if they think they can, or even worse, pull you IN the brutality.[[/note]] In many jurisdictions nowadays, the police themselves often wear cameras to film arrests and make it easier to avoid misunderstandings and/or abuse. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | A common way to make a RabidCop character. Not to be confused with the PoliceBrutalityGambit, although its users hope you will. See KillerCop for when the police officer goes a bit beyond brutality. A combined subtrope of this and HellholePrison is when correctional officers/law enforcement in a detention setting such as a jail or prison are just as bad, if not worse, than the other inmates for brutality. This is also pretty much certain to occur if TheBadGuysAreCops. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | The InvertedTrope is a CopKiller, though the tables will be probably [[PayEvilUntoEvil turned back around when the cops catch him]], and not least because police camaraderie [[BandOfBrothers really is that strong]]. Compare RageAgainstTheLegalSystem. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | If a type of animal is used for this trope, they will almost always be [[RightHandAttackDog police dogs]]. Sometimes, a pig may also be used, as both a VisualPun to [[PolicePig "pig" being derogatory slang for a cop]] and a reference to real pigs being [[SinisterSwine fairly aggressive]] at times. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' While sadly [[TruthInTelevision this happens everywhere]], mentioning any real case in particular would be a sure way to bring on a serious FlameWar, and we're not here for that. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[noreallife]] |
| 37 | ---- |
| 38 | !!Example Subpages: |
| 39 | [[index]] |
| 40 | * [[PoliceBrutality/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]] |
| 41 | * PoliceBrutality/LiveActionTV |
| 42 | * PoliceBrutality/VideoGames |
| 43 | [[/index]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | !!Other Examples: |
| 46 | |
| 47 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[folder: Anime & Manga]] |
| 50 | * Ginza in ''Anime/SpeedGrapher'' likes to "self-defense" suspects (it's her catchphrase and she actually uses it as a verb). This means that if she arrests you and you aren't cooperative, she's likely to shoot off at least one of your extremities. |
| 51 | * Revy mentions this while monologuing about her past in ''Manga/BlackLagoon''. |
| 52 | -->''When I was a brat, crawling around in that [[WretchedHive shithole city]], it seemed God and Love were always sold out when I went looking. Before I knew better, I clung to God and prayed to Him every single night — yeah, I believed in God right up until that night the cops beat the hell out of me for no reason at all. All they saw when they looked at me was another little ghetto rat. With no power and no God, what's left for a poor little Chinese bitch to rely on? It's money, of course, and guns. Fuckin' A. With these two things, the world's a great place.'' |
| 53 | ** In the OVA of the El Baile de la Muerte arc, it's revealed in a flashback that [[spoiler:Revy was raped by a police officer, and that her alcoholic father's lack of care about the whole thing led her to murder him]]. |
| 54 | * In ''Manga/OnePiece'', there's one division of the Navy that, in an organization of {{Knight Templar}}s and {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s, absolutely relish in this; The G5 branch. The sailors in the unit are basically thugs who love to torture pirates. Yet they're ''not'' the worst of World Government's enforcers, as they reserve their brutality for ''actual'' pirates, which is all you need to know about how corrupt the World Government is. |
| 55 | * In ''Manga/SakuraGari'', Masataka's brother Takafumi dies after being tortured by the police. |
| 56 | * Though the general police in ''Manga/DeathNote'' are perfectly reasonable (and one is even the protagonist's father), they're being shuffled around like chess pieces by the [[ExaltedTorturer less-than-softhearted]] L. And, of course, the chief of police managed to spawn the ''[[VillainProtagonist protagonist]]''. |
| 57 | * Practically enforced in ''Manga/{{Akira}}''. All the police go over the top on people, arrest protestors in droves, and work for the fascist government hand in hand (which is why they aren't stopped). |
| 58 | * A main theme of ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'' where both the Executioner Division and the Police are willing to massacre civilian protestors. |
| 59 | * [[LovableAlphaBitch Hilda]] from ''Anime/CrossAnge'' gets ganged up on by ''numerous'' police officers [[spoiler:after a really awful meeting with her mother]]. Given [[spoiler:[[IHaveNoSon her mother outright told her that she wished she'd never given birth to a]] [[AntiMagic Norma]], who [[FantasticRacism almost the whole world sees as inhuman monsters]]]], Hilda is too deep in a HeroicBSOD to fight back and lets them knock her to the ground. She hardly even reacts as they kick her while she's down. And there's no real reason for the police to be doing this other than she's a Norma. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 63 | * ''ComicBook/SinCity'': The Basin City Police Department are basically uniformed thugs-for-hire. When Cardinal Roark or some other BigBad wants somebody gone and the evidence removed, they send in an out-and-out ''death squad''. And these aren't even the worst in the world... the ones working for Stalin were worse. |
| 64 | * ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'': |
| 65 | ** The first major arc has Spider covering the [[TransNature Transient]] movement and their hare-brained scheme to secede from the City, bringing down an outright savage police response. Spider halts them in their tracks by streaming a column about it onto the Times Square jumbotron. |
| 66 | -->'''Spider:''' I can see a blatantly unarmed Transient man with half his face hanging off, and three cops working him over anyway. One of them is groping his own erection. I'm sorry. Is that too harsh an observation for you? Does that sound too much like the Truth? |
| 67 | ** The cops get back at Spider by beating the shit out of him outside his apartment. Of course, Spider being who he is, he just laughs off the brutal beating and threatens to bite their testicles off if they come near him again. |
| 68 | ** The police carry riot shields with the word "SUBMIT" painted on them. When we see their shift change at one point, it involves cleaning the blood off. |
| 69 | * ''ComicBook/SamAndMax'', in all their incarnations, do this a ''lot''. And if they weren't freelance police, they'd probably compensate with just plain ol' 'brutality' instead. Since they're both prime {{Heroic Comedic Sociopath}}s, all of it is, of course, PlayedForLaughs. |
| 70 | * In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise'' and ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', this is one of the worst flaws of Autobot authority. [[spoiler:One of the reasons Megatron became a BigBad was because he was brutalized when he was an innocent prisoner- up until that point he was an ActualPacifist. ''The entire Autobot-Decepticon War started because of Police Brutality.'' Some flashbacks even show Orion Pax, who in this series was a cop before becoming Optimus Prime, beating information out of suspected Decepticons.]] |
| 71 | ** In Robots in Disguise Sideswipe and Whirl, the guy who caused the spoilered incident, police the now neutral Cybertron and casually mention hating and beating on the neutrals. Prowl is the security director and has a fanatical hatred of them, and later deploys the Decepticons for crowd control (at this point the neutrals had erupted into a violent riot, and had even shot their leader), and two of them, Needlenose and Horri-bull, stay on as police, they tried to beat up a guy who was making graffiti (Prowl does have standards, though, and he stops them). |
| 72 | * ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'' features a cop who goes around beating up criminals; and [[DirtyCop demanding they give him his cut.]] Then he [[ItMakesSenseInContext turns into a giant robot and starts destroying the city.]] LaserGuidedKarma ensues when the team stops him, Tabitha and Machine Man beat him up for being a cop, and then his previous victims drag him into an alley to kill him. |
| 73 | * ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': |
| 74 | ** Obviously a feature in a setting whose hero is a JudgeJuryAndExecutioner, but played with somewhat. While the Judges of the Mega-Cities are violent and aggressive, there ''are'' lines and crossing them can get you forced out of the Justice Department or even sentenced to 20 years on [[PenalColony Titan]]. Or even worse, the [[InternalAffairs Special Judicial Squad]] will be sent out to execute a Judge who gets too trigger-happy on the populace. |
| 75 | ** Played dead straight by Mega Cities where the Judges are even more corrupt than in Mega City One, however, such as Ciudad Baranquilla, which is a PoliceState meets BananaRepublic. |
| 76 | ** [[ExaggeratedTrope Taken to absolutely ridiculous extremes]] by the former Judges of [[AlternateDimension Deadworld]], who already considered life quite cheap before the Dark Judges decided that AllCrimesAreEqual and took over. They eventually massacred their whole population to stop crime. |
| 77 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': DependingOnTheWriter, the Gotham City Police Department is plagued with these. In some stories, such as ''ComicBook/GothamCentral'', it's a case of some very (''extremely'') bad eggs. In others, such as ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' and ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' (both written by Frank Miller, the same man as ''ComicBook/SinCity'') the GCPD is either full of overly-violent idiots or men that are equal levels of horribly corrupt ''and'' violent, respectively (willing to beat the absolute shit (or ''worse'') out of a little kid to make sure he won't testify in ''the murder of his own parents'', for example). |
| 78 | * Tim becomes aware of a pair of crooked cops who occasionally kill perps in ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'' and when they walk away scot-free from the arrest he helped arrange for them there he sets them up to fall hard in ''ComicBook/RedRobin''. |
| 79 | * ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen:'' At one point, Masque of the Morlocks knocks out a bunch of people on a subway, then uses his powers to mess up their faces. A news report afterwards shows one man being bludgeoned by the police while screaming for someone to help him. |
| 80 | * ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'': While Joe Fixit is trying to lay low, he suddenly finds a cop car pulling over to arrest a kid for wearing a Hulk-themed hoodie, slamming him against a wall and beating him up, even as he points out he hasn't done anything wrong. Joe tries to ignore it, not least because he knows if he starts smashing, he'll be in trouble, but he can't help. |
| 81 | * ''ComicBook/GammaFlight'': While Gamma Flight are trying to talk down the panicking gamma mutate Stockpile, some police officers appear, and one of them takes a shot at Absorbing Man. The shot goes straight at his head, and if Carl hadn't been metal at the time... his wife, Titania, takes this about as well as would be expected of a bad-tempered woman with super-strength. |
| 82 | -->'''Titania:''' The ''hell'' was that? What, was that the ''warning shot?!'' |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/StaticSeasonOne'' changes the cause of the [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent Big Bang]] to this. In the original ''ComicBook/{{Static}}'' series, it was caused by a drug deal involving experimental chemicals gone bad. In the reboot, it's instead due to police using experimental new tear gas just to break up a Black Lives Matter protest, then sitting by and watching as the protesters, [[WouldHurtAChild who were for the most part kids and teenagers]], were mutated by it. The lucky ones got superpowers. The unlucky ones died in agony as their ''[[BodyHorror faces melted off]]''. |
| 84 | [[/folder]] |
| 85 | |
| 86 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 87 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/19253605 Bumblebee: Fallen Queen]]'': Karen Beecher is a victim of this, which is what motivates her to become a superhero. |
| 88 | * In the reboot of ''Fanfic/SupperSmashBrosMishonhFromGod'', Sara reports Rathalos to the police for vagrancy, and it's explicitly mentioned that the police officers beat him. She also has this as her Final Smash, summoning a bunch of officers to beat up and arrest her opponents. |
| 89 | * ''Fanfic/TheRedemptionOfHarleyQuinn'': In addition to Lyle Bolton being a sadistic prick, Aaron Cash gives Harley a physical thrashing as payback for his daughter's murder. |
| 90 | * ''Fanfic/ChasingDragons'': When Gerold Arryn is put in charge of law enforcement in Gulltown, his reaction to the growth of the [[TheFundamentalist Old Faith movement]] is to have his guards assault not just any of its preachers, but also anyone who listens to them, even if it's just to heckle them. |
| 91 | * ''Fanfic/RubyPair'': The [[DirtyCop corrupt]] law enforcement agents on [[WretchedHive Cyberflox]] who arrest Zim and Tenn in "Meeting of Ruby Eyes" beat Zim up while transferring him to [[TheDon Gabo Amebo's]] custody, because they were paid extra to inflict pain on him in the process. |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 95 | * In quite a daring move for a G-rated direct to video movie, ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island'' features a police force who savagely beat down protesting factory workers with their clubs, are being paid under the table by corrupt factory owners, and deliberately start a race riot. |
| 96 | * In ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', taffy-coated Ralph accidentally trashes the grandstands in ''Sugar Rush'' and subsequently, King Candy's two cops, Wynchell and Duncan, beat him up with nightsticks before tasering him and taking him captive. |
| 97 | * ''WesternAnimation/OurFriendMartin'': Miles and Randy wind up in Birmingham, AL in 1963, where they witness a legion of police officers attacking Martin's protesters with attack dogs, fire hoses, and unrated violence. |
| 98 | * ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' gives us this gem of a line: "What are you doing firing at civilians? That's for the police to do!" |
| 99 | * ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'': Donkey says the trope name out loud when he, Shrek and Puss get arrested by the Far Far Way guards in the ''Series/{{Cops}}'' parody, "''KNIGHTS''" |
| 100 | [[/folder]] |
| 101 | |
| 102 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 103 | * This [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet-era]] political joke (note that you can be flexible about the law enforcement/intelligence agencies as long as they fit): |
| 104 | -->''The [[FBIAgent FBI]], [[UsefulNotes/TheModernDayRambo GIGN]], and [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] are arguing over who is best at catching criminals. Eventually, the Secretary-General of the UN gives them a challenge: to find a white rabbit in a ten-square-mile enchanted forest. Each team is given their own forest. The FBI go first: [[ComplexityAddiction they set up a network of animal and plant informants, put the forest under 24-hour satellite surveillance, and string microphones all over the area.]] After a month with no leads, the Americans conclude the rabbit does not exist. The GIGN take a different approach: they set up a perimeter, then [[KillItWithFire burn down the forest,]] killing everything inside, including the rabbit, and offering no apologies: [[AssholeVictim the rabbit had it coming.]] Then the KGB go in. Five minutes later, they return with a bruised and bloody bear which is yelling "OK, OK, I'm a rabbit, I swear!"'' |
| 105 | * A rich old white lady in the DeepSouth can no longer find her jewelry case. She calls the police, telling them she suspects the new gardener, who is black. Two hours after the police arrest him, she finds the case and calls the police back, only to learn that it's no problem, they've already got a confession. |
| 106 | ** Reportedly, UsefulNotes/JosefStalin would tell a variant on this joke, featuring ''[[SelfDeprecation himself]]'' losing his pipe after a speech. The Soviet StateSec, of course, gets to play the police, while the speech's audience collectively play the gardener. |
| 107 | * How many NYPD cops does it take to crack an egg? None. [[CutHimselfShaving The egg tripped.]] |
| 108 | ** How many cops does it take to change a light bulb? None. They just beat the room for being black and arrest the bulb for being broke. |
| 109 | * Many vendors sell t-shirts bearing the slogan "Help the Police, Beat Yourself Up" |
| 110 | [[/folder]] |
| 111 | |
| 112 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 113 | * ''Literature/TwentySixSixtySix'': In one instance they not only beat a perp, but they douse him with water and urine and well. |
| 114 | * In ''Literature/BadDreams'' by Creator/KimNewman, the protagonist is a journalist who has recently been working on an investigation into police brutality allegations surrounding a racist cop named Barry Erskine who is suspected of beating a South Asian suspect to death during an interrogation. Erskine returns in another of Newman's novels, ''Literature/{{Jago}}'', where there's a detailed scene of him brutally interrogating one of the protagonists to make him confess to a crime he didn't commit. |
| 115 | * ''Literature/TheBoneWars'': A Mountie throws Thad in jail and gives him a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown for no other reason than the fact that Thad embarrassed him by telling him that he was standing in puke after he arriving to break up a saloon fight. |
| 116 | %%* The title character of ''Literature/ClinkBegins''; to an absurd extent. |
| 117 | * ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'': Police officers beat on criminals like Alex with impunity throughout the book. After Alex gets released from prison, he discovers that Dim and Billy Boy have abandoned their juvenile acts of random mayhem and destruction to join the ranks of police, allowing them to collect a paycheck for ultraviolence. |
| 118 | * The Literature/{{Discworld}} books feature an entire subseries revolving around a police force. While mostly a humorous and sympathetic depiction, particularly since they're usually the viewpoint characters, this does come up a bit: |
| 119 | ** Played straight in ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'' with the Unmentionables, but Vimes' personal narration takes great care to note that beating people up in small rooms for good reasons [[HeWhoFightsMonsters always leads to beating up people in small rooms for bad reasons]]. This is pretty central to Vimes' psychology -- he's pretty strict on himself and his subordinates because he's a big believer in the slippery slope and he wants to make damn sure no one slides down it. However, he's not above making the indirect threat of 'Falling Down The Stairs' if a suspect isn't being cooperative. They tend to be much more agreeable afterward (but again, would you antagonize a Troll or the Six-Foot-Tall "Dwarf"?). |
| 120 | ** The Ankh-Morpork version of "Miranda" includes such clauses as "You have the right not to throw yourself out the window"... most likely added to give a figleaf to practices under Vetinari's predecessors, Homicidal Lord Winder and Mad Lord Snapcase. |
| 121 | ** A mild version appears with Reg Shoe. After complaining about the lack of zombie representation in the watch, he is recruited by Carrot... and runs up a raft of complaints, all from zombies. He dismisses it by saying they "don't understand the problems of policing in a multi-vital society." |
| 122 | ** In ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' someone being questioned by Detritus the troll starts saying that it's police brutality and he yells "No! ''Dis'' is just police shoutin'!" |
| 123 | * Standard operating procedure in ''Literature/JudgeDee'''s 7th c. China. |
| 124 | * In ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'', [[spoiler:Winston and Julia]] get beaten quite badly by the police during their arrest. It [[ColdBloodedTorture only gets worse]] [[spoiler:when they're taken to the Ministry of Love]]. |
| 125 | * Stephen King's ''Literature/UnderTheDome'': The 'police' hired by the town's tyrannical second selectman beat, shoot, [[spoiler:rape]], and kill whoever they want to without any real fear of retribution. |
| 126 | * In ''Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets'', author David Simon follows a shift of the Baltimore Police Department homicide unit, and among other things, presents a fairly even-handed view of police brutality. To wit, at least in that department, it's considered unethical to hit a suspect in handcuffs or to obtain a statement (not to mention the officer's career isn't worth it), but it's perfectly okay to goad a suspect into striking a cop (and beating him down "in self-defense"; one officer even keeps a photo of the suspect's face afterwards), or for a suspect in a crime involving a cop or their family to "[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident fall down the stairs]]" several times between being photographed at the precinct and being dropped off at central booking. |
| 127 | * In ''Literature/TheDeathOfTheVazirMukhtar'', the main character [[PetTheDog steps in]] to stop one such incident in 1829 St. Petersburg. |
| 128 | * Discussed at length in the Creator/AndrewVachss Burke book ''Terminal''. See the quotes page. |
| 129 | * Occurs in ''Literature/WiseBlood'', in two plot-crucial moments. First, an officer pulls Hazel Motes over for driving without a license, then destroys Hazel's car by pushing it over an embankment. Second, two police officers find Hazel lying in a ditch, barely conscious. When they tell him that his landlady wants him to return, he says he doesn't want to, so they club him the rest of the way into unconsciousness and load him into their car. [[spoiler:Hazel dies on the way back to his apartment.]] |
| 130 | * In ''Literature/{{Beatles}}'', the Oslo police force cracks down on some bums pretty hard, and arrests the main character Kim Karlsen, accusing him of supplying marihuana. In a rather nasty sequence, four policemen hold him down, give him a TraumaticHaircut, and a GroinAttack, before beating the living daylights out of him. When the cops are finished, they just dump him on a country road north of town. The year for this is stated to be 1970. |
| 131 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In ''Literature/FoolMoon'', Murphy handcuffs an unresisting Dresden and proceeds to slam his head into some furniture hard enough to chip a tooth. |
| 132 | * In ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'', many of the Minute Men (M.M.s) are bullies at best and sadists at worse, perpetrating atrocities against dissenters and minorities. |
| 133 | * The Wardens in ''Literature/{{Theatrica}}'' verge on the brutal. Sometimes a harsh accusation from a would-be victim is enough for them to bring the full, violent force of the law down on any given individual. One warden in particular qualifies for this trope... |
| 134 | * In almost every Literature/PhiloVance novel, Sergeant Heath will suggest taking a suspect to the station for "some inside stuff that don't get into the newspapers". [[note]]Quote from ''The Scarab Murder Case''.[[/note]] Justified since those novels predate police brutality laws. |
| 135 | * An accepted practice, within limits, in the ''Literature/BekaCooper'' trilogy by Creator/TamoraPierce thanks to DeliberateValuesDissonance. Beka and her partners frequently hit, thump, kick, and smack their suspects -- but they only do it when they're ''pretty sure'' it will legitimately help them in their inquiries. The [[TortureTechnician Cage Dogs]], though, count even by the setting's standards. They get paid extra because otherwise it's tricky to find enough people ''willing'' to do the things they do (Beka almost quit during training when she thought that she might be forced to become one, which is untrue). Most street dogs consider them little better than thugs and a nuisance that they have to resort to because of how truth spells are legally restricted. |
| 136 | * Officer Roscoe Rules in Joseph Wambaugh's ''Literature/TheChoirboys'' is the LAPD version. He has disdain for ethnic minorities and in one scene is seen to ''tear the moustache off a Latino's face''.[[note]]Admittedly, the maimed Angeleno replies by beating the tar out of Rules in the ensuing riot. But a cop who would countenance doing this and leaving a guy's whole top lip a bleeding skinned ruin is brutal.[[/note]] |
| 137 | * Played for BlackComedy in ''Literature/{{Declare}}''. A British spy has to be briefed by his handler, so he's arrested by the Lebanese police so they can talk in secret. Because the KGB might have an informant inside the police station, a doppelganger is being roughed up in another cell. The tense briefing keeps getting interrupted by a policeman so he can inflict the same injuries; first a black eye. Then a bloody eye. Then coffee spilled on his shirt. Eventually, TheHandler says they'd better wrap up their meeting "before they break the poor man's legs." |
| 138 | * ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'': The Eyes of God simply take people who resist, and nobody can do anything. |
| 139 | * A major part of ''Literature/TheInfected'', where in the beginning the protagonist, one Brian Yi, is brutalized and nearly killed by the police for being a filthy Infected (mutant, essentially). [[UsefulNotes/PostTraumaticStressDistorder This so profoundly affects him]], he becomes convinced all policemen are monsters, and in future misunderstandings, has to be restrained from killing cops by his peers. Which causes the police to try and murder him, which makes everything worse... The initial event is later retconned as mind-control, sympathetic police characters are introduced, and all of the other characters seem to regard Brian's hostility to the police as a nuisance and a serious liability. The message seems to be that police brutality exists and is terrible, and neither tacitly accepting this or making blanket attacks against the police are okay. |
| 140 | * ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': In the first book, ''[[Literature/AMagesPower A Mage's Power]]'', there's a complicated case -- the Royal Guard that comes to arrest Eric [[spoiler:on charges of sedition, treason, and brainwashing a princess]]. On one hand, they are brutal in subduing him, but that's because he's a professional mercenary and so is capable of hurting them if they are not quick. One of them spits on and curses him, but she is immediately punished by her immediate superior. He then apologises to Eric and tells him that she is new to the force and doesn't know the code of conduct yet. He also tells Eric that he believes Eric's crime to be worthy of brutality, [[TheFettered but that would not be lawful]] and so he will restrain himself. |
| 141 | * ''Literature/McAuslan'': |
| 142 | * Analyzed when [=MacNeill=] reflects that the British Army's reputation for gunning down rioters for little reason is pretty well-justified, but what do you do when, as a military unit wholly untrained in crowd control, you get put in front of a rioting mob with no non-lethal options, and the situation deteriorates? |
| 143 | ** The Royal Military Police are depicted as having a fairly direct approach, often returning drunks and deserters to their regimental cells in a somewhat unconscious and battered state. How much is needless brutality and how much is just the effects of alcohol and necessary subduing methods is never elaborated on. Either way, the Gordon Highlanders' regimental provost -- its internal police force -- is a model of fair-minded "tough love". You still wouldn't want to cross Provost-Sergeant [=McGarry=], though. |
| 144 | * Sargent Haig of ''Literature/TheMentalState'' starts out as a general {{Jerkass}} with a HairTriggerTemper who frequently resorts to manhandling inmates to get them to calm down. Then, once the prison starts adopting increasingly more liberal approaches to reforming offenders, his behaviour worsens and he ends up taking it out on one of the weaker inmates, nearly beating him to a pulp. |
| 145 | * The ''Piemberg'' farces of Creator/TomSharpe are set in UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra and revolve around the old-time South African Police Force. Sure enough, a police force composed of [[AmoralAfrikaner white South Africans]] is going to be robust in its dealings with people, generally people with black or brown skins. The local StateSec extends these discourtesies to white people too. |
| 146 | * ''Literature/PrudencePenderhaus'': When the police arrest Cassius for fighting with Morgan in ''17 Marigold Lane'', they beat him up and break his nose. |
| 147 | * The Baron's Guard in ''Literature/SkateTheThief'' are noted as having no compunctions about beating or summarily executing thieves, and are happy to mete out [[WouldHurtAChild punishments to children]] caught stealing. |
| 148 | * ''Literature/TriggerWarning'': Campus police officer Cal Granderson is a highly abusive cop who enjoys using his stun gun on anyone he doesn't like, especially Jake. He excuses his actions by claiming he is on "the right side of history". |
| 149 | * ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1:'' Shooty and Bang-Bang, the two cops who come to Magrathea to arrest Zaphod Beeblebrox. They insist they're not your clichéd mindless cops, but are rather a pair of sophisticated guys who "you might like if you met us socially". Then they tell Zaphod if he doesn't let them beat him up ("though not too much because we are opposed to needless violence") they'll blow up Magrathea and one or two other planets for good measure. |
| 150 | * ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'', being written in the wake of 1960s counterculture, deals at times with police brutality at the time, both by individual officers against members of the counterculture, and collective violence at protests, in scenes set during the Chicago Democratic National Congress riots. |
| 151 | [[/folder]] |
| 152 | |
| 153 | [[folder:Mythology and Religion]] |
| 154 | * In the ''Literature/SongOfSongs'' from Literature/TheBible, the Shulamite endures a bit of this as she goes out into the night to find her Beloved when he paid her a visit, but then soon left. |
| 155 | -->''The watchmen found me'' |
| 156 | -->''as they went about the city;'' |
| 157 | -->''they struck me, they wounded me;'' |
| 158 | -->''they took away my mantle,'' |
| 159 | -->''those watchmen of the walls.'' |
| 160 | [[/folder]] |
| 161 | |
| 162 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 163 | * Common enough to be a TropeMaker for a music trope: the AntiPoliceSong, an entire subgenre of ProtestSong, with this as one of its main driving factors. |
| 164 | * The song "Police Truck" by the Music/DeadKennedys is about a group of cops taking out a van for a night of drinking, beating drunks, and gang-raping a prostitute. |
| 165 | ** Also their cover of "I Fought the Law", about police brutality in general and about Dan White, the assassin of Harvey Milk and George Moscone, in particular. |
| 166 | * Music/SystemOfADown's second album ''Music/{{Toxicity}}'' focuses on this on a couple of songs, such as on "Deer Dance" and "Prison System". |
| 167 | * Subject of many a Gangsta Rap ProtestSong, most notably Music/NWA[='=]s "Fuck Tha Police" from ''Music/StraightOuttaCompton'' and Music/IceT[=/=]Music/BodyCount's "Cop Killer". |
| 168 | ** Body Count also did "Black Hoodie", about someone killed just for wearing one and running from the cops; and the very political "No Lives Matter" and the slightly less political "Point The Finger". |
| 169 | * "Out to Get Me" from Guns N' Roses depict actions from the cruel LAPD. |
| 170 | * The song "Bad Boys" by reggae group Inner Circle is often thought to talk about cops, and when you look at the big picture about this song, its message is "When you're caught by the cops, you're pretty much dead". |
| 171 | * The parody song GO COPS plays with this for all its worth. |
| 172 | * The German punk band called Wizo has a song called ''Kopfschuss'' (Headshot). The song is esp about Wolfgang Grams (was a member of the Red Army Faction, a German far-left terrorist organisation), who got killed by German elite cops at the train station in Bad Kleinen. |
| 173 | * The Music/FrankZappa songs "Concentration Moon" and "Mom & Dad" from ''Music/WereOnlyInItForTheMoney'' are about police shooting hippies and smashing them in the face with rocks. |
| 174 | * Music/DavidBowie's "Life on Mars?" from ''Music/HunkyDory'' has the lyrics "Take a look at the law-man/Beating up the wrong Guy/Oh Man! Wonder if he'll ever know.../He's in the best selling show?" |
| 175 | * The music video for Music/BillyIdol's "Shock to the System" starts out with an amateur cameraman videotaping police brutality in action [[PowderKegCrowd during a riot]], only for himself and his camera to be beaten to a pulp. They fuse together Franchise/{{Terminator}}-style, and the rest is history. |
| 176 | * Music/MichaelJackson's "They Don't Care About Us" has the lyric "I'm a victim of police brutality"; of the two videos made for it, one is set in a prison with menacing guards and Michael as one of the prisoners -- plus footage of the Rodney King beating. He also lists police brutality as one of the things people should worry about more than his personal life in his ListSong "Why You Wanna Trip On Me" from ''Music/{{Dangerous|Album}}'' |
| 177 | * Music/RageAgainstTheMachine's "Live at the Democratic National Convention" video. |
| 178 | * ''Birmingham Six'' by Music/ThePogues is about the wrongful detention and conviction of six men of the right nationality who were within fifty miles of an IRA bombing outrage in Birmingham, England, who were beaten and tortured into confessing by the West Midlands Constabulary. |
| 179 | -->There are six men in Birmingham,\ |
| 180 | In Guildford there's four of 'em,\ |
| 181 | Picked up and tortured and [[{{Frameup}} framed]] by the Law\ |
| 182 | While the filth get promotion, they're still doing time,\ |
| 183 | For being Irish in the wrong place and at the wrong time! |
| 184 | * Music/BobMarley's "Rebel Music" from ''Music/{{Natty Dread}}'' about being pulled over for marihuana possession. |
| 185 | * Music/DJJazzyJeffAndTheFreshPrince's "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" from ''Rock the House'', details a scenario where Prince ends up getting chased by police for assault after a hooker [[FalseRapeAccusation cried rape]] in retaliation for refusing her sexual advances:[[note]] This was slightly justified in the original version of the song, where he [[WouldHitAGirl cold-clocked the woman with a trashcan]] right before running away.[[/note]] |
| 186 | --> ''I was ducking through alleys, right and left\ |
| 187 | But when the cops caught up, they almost beat me to death!'' |
| 188 | * Music/PatricioReyYSusRedonditosDeRicota has "Sheriff", from ''Momo Sampler'', sung from the POV of a woman who keeps requesting the police officer to treat [[AllCrimesAreEqual delinquents of all walks of life]] with harshness. It's implied she doesn't know that her son may be involved in immoral acts that make him a target of the same "mano dura" she requests. |
| 189 | * Music/IndioSolari's "Pabellón Séptimo (Relato de Horacio)", from ''El Tesoro de los Inocentes (Bingo Fuel)'' is based on the history of Luis Canosa, a band's long time friend from before Patricio Rey existed, and one of the Unidad 2 de Devoto jail's prisoners, who died during what was known as the [[https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masacre_en_el_pabell%C3%B3n_s%C3%A9ptimo "Masacre en el Pabellón Séptimo"]] during the Argentinean 1976-1983 Military Dictatorship. |
| 190 | * The music video for "I was a Teenage Anarchist" by Music/AgainstMe features a young punk running form the police and being arrested with excessive force, loosely based on singer Laura Jane Grace's own experience of a similar incident. |
| 191 | * Music/TomRobinsonBand dealt with the subject in some songs ("Blue Murder" being about the death of Liddle Towers in police custody), and open up their SignatureSong "Glad To Be Gay" with: |
| 192 | -->The British Police are the best in the world\ |
| 193 | I don't believe one of these stories I've heard\ |
| 194 | 'Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all\ |
| 195 | Lining the customers up by the wall\ |
| 196 | Picking out people and knocking them down\ |
| 197 | Resisting arrest as they're kicked on the ground\ |
| 198 | Searching their houses and calling them queer\ |
| 199 | I don't believe that sort of thing happens here |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 203 | * In ''[[http://misspentyouthgame.com/ Misspent Youth]]'' by Robert Bohl, The Authority (the group-created villain) is often The State, and is filled with images of riot cops and police brutality. |
| 204 | * Assaults by corrupt Green-level police goons is one of the many many dangers faced by inhabitants of Alpha Complex in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}.'' |
| 205 | * Public Order, the Buro police force in ''TabletopGame/FengShui'''s 2056 juncture, are nearly always some flavor of this, barring the one or two good ones who wind up becoming [=PCs=]. Some of the cops in other junctures aren't much better, especially if you have the Ascended as your enemy. |
| 206 | * The Adeptus Arbites of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', being essentially ComicBook/JudgeDredd InSpace, do their jobs ''very'' enthusiastically. They justify it by stating that if they didn't, the planet would soon be overrun with criminal gangs, Chaos cults, and genestealers... and keep very quiet about [[CreateYourOwnVillain how many Imperial citizens join gangs and cults in search of some extra firepower to keep the Arbitrators off their backs]]. |
| 207 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', the player characters can interact with police from a variety of jurisdictions. The UCAS (i.e. the streets) were patrolled by Lonestar (motto: Blam! Blam! "Freeze!" Blam!) until 4th edition, when Knight Errant won the Seattle law enforcement contract; they can be just as brutal, are a subsidiary of Ares Macrotechnology (i.e. the biggest developer of weaponry in the world), and are eager to prove they're more capable and less corrupt than Lonestar (who still run the prisons, and a lot of laid-off Lonestar cops are now working on the other side of the law as Shadowrunners). Each Megacorporation has its own private security force as well -- and since corporations make their own law, to them Miranda is just the name of a Hispanic guy. A run against Aztechnology may put you up against Leopard guards (whose brutality is just to tenderize you before the ritual blood sacrifice), while Mitsuhama Computer Technologies pioneered the concept of "Zero Zero" security. "Zero penetration, zero survival." |
| 208 | * The Bluecoats in ''TabletopGame/BladesInTheDark''. If you get caught with zero Heat, then they'll ''just'' beat you to the most damage you can survive, and you don't even get a Resistance roll because they don't stop until you're injured. |
| 209 | * ''TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020'' of course follows the Shadowrun model quite well given the nature of the setting. On one hand, corporate cops know the {{MegaCorp}}s will cover any incident, and especially when a 'punk seeps into a private property tend not to be known for their sense of humour. In the other both public and privatized police forces are against people as cybered, often psychotic, gangs who would gladly tear a cop limb from limb or worse so the "shoot first, ask questions later" tends to be quite extended. |
| 210 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' has a couple of downplayed examples in the Go to Jail cards. Chance has Uncle Pennybags being dragged on his feet by a police officer. Community Chest has the same policeman grabbing Uncle Pennybags by his collar. Some video game depictions for the latter have an animation of the policeman hitting Uncle Pennybags with his truncheon. |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 214 | * In ''Theatre/TheTimeOfYourLife'', Blick, a bully with a badge, tends to beat up anybody who gets angry with him for intimidating other people. |
| 215 | * This causes the death of the anarchist in ''Theatre/AccidentalDeathOfAnAnarchist''. |
| 216 | * ''Mamma Togni'', written by Dario Fo, describes the carabineri as charging the kids, beating them down with fury, then bringing the whole of them to the station. When she arrived at the station, one of the policemen feigned being struck, causing the carabinery to dive in and perform more brutality on the town councillor. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 220 | * ''WebAnimation/IsabelleRuinsEverything'': When Punchy yells "You son of a bitch!" and charges at the Mayor, he gets beaten senseless by two police officers after jumping the barrier separating the Mayor from the crowd. When we see him later, he has a bloody nose, black eye and missing teeth. |
| 221 | * ''WebAnimation/GothamGirls'': Caroline Greenway really likes to abuse whatever position of power she's put in. After her little stint as Commisioner after all the men were chucked out of reality she goes back to being a warden, where she eagerly has her underlings beat prisoners to death. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 225 | * In ''Webcomic/CityUnderTheHill'', more often than not, Refugees caught attempting to gain access to the City are killed. In fact, ''it's preferred that they're dead.'' |
| 226 | * The Podunkton police force in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' like to [[http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060925 indulge in this]]. Their chief officer is actually a former mafia enforcer. |
| 227 | * In ''Webcomic/QuantumVibe'', the police on Luna planted drugs on Nicole after discovering she was from L-5 and beat her so badly she spent the next three days in a healing vat. She also didn't get her phone call until she brought it up to the judge, and in prison they arranged for her cellmates to beat her up so they could hold her for assault. |
| 228 | * Thus far in ''Webcomic/{{Visseria}}'', the members of the Highguard law enforcement whose actions have been important to the story have not had any qualms with dealing with suspects in ways that range from questionable to [[KillerCop extreme]]. |
| 229 | * Elliot, from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', [[https://egscomics.com/comic/party-036 had to google it]] to learn that this trope is TruthInTelevision. |
| 230 | * ''Webcomic/EnnuiGo'': Izzy's rule of Key Manati involves giving the police pink-tinted visors so they can't tell what race the person they're beating is. |
| 231 | [[/folder]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | [[folder:Web Originals]] |
| 234 | * Pepper Spray Cop: an incident of PoliceBrutality during an Occupy protest at UC Davis underwent MemeticMutation. |
| 235 | * We don't know how, but apparently WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic has learned that the police are evil. |
| 236 | * The role of server cop on ''WebVideo/SMPLive'' is swapped between members regularly, but almost always results in this. When Schlatt & Co. become server cops, they take it to an extreme, harassing and attacking other players. |
| 237 | [[/folder]] |
| 238 | |
| 239 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 240 | %%% |
| 241 | %%% Please put your choices in alphabetical order. |
| 242 | %%% |
| 243 | |
| 244 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Man in the Moonbounce", Stan eggs an house with Steve and his friends until the cops arrive. In order, he gets [[DisproportionateRetribution handcuffed and shoved to the ground]], [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown kicked in the stomach]], held at gunpoint, and pepper-sprayed ''[[EyeScream with his eyes wide open]]''. |
| 245 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': The Enforcers are not gentle to the people of the {{Undercity}}, to say the least. Spit on their boot and you'll get thrown through a window. |
| 246 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' episode "Citizens Arrest", the titular duo get beaten up by a police officer after refusing to serve him at Burger World. |
| 247 | * In ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'''s "Chickens", this is referenced in a throwaway line: |
| 248 | -->'''Officer Meow-Meow Fuzzyface''': Don't worry ma'am. We'll bring your daughter home, dead or alive.\ |
| 249 | '''Kelsey Jannings''': Alive. Alive!\ |
| 250 | '''Fuzzyface''': We're the LAPD, ma'am. [[TakeThat We'll probably make the right call.]] |
| 251 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheBrothersGrunt'', police officers fire tear gas into a karaoke bar and proceed to beat Frank senseless. |
| 252 | -->'''Cop:''' Tell him what he's won, Sarge! |
| 253 | -->'''Sarge:''' You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, we have the right to kick you in the face, hit you with bags full of oranges, and pummel you with telephone books. You have the right to an attorney, one who couldn't get a real job, so they're forced to handle state charity cases. |
| 254 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'': One episode comes back from a commercial break where three LAPD officers kick, baton, and tase Duckman. It's then revealed that they were beating him ''on their break.'' |
| 255 | * In the Valentine's Day special of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Kevin, acting as hall monitor, gives Edd detention just for standing up for Eddy, and all this over his hatred for the Eds. |
| 256 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has Smitty and his robot companion URL, who are just poster children for police brutality. Awwww yeah. |
| 257 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' mocks this to hell and back. In one episode, Peter finds out that he has black ancestors, and everybody starts treating him differently. When a cop pulls him over for speeding, Peter is perfectly polite, and the cop doesn't act unusually until he remembers that particular little tidbit. |
| 258 | -->'''Officer:''' Are you that white guy who's actually a black guy?\ |
| 259 | '''Peter:''' Yes.\ |
| 260 | '''Officer:''' We need backup, stolen vehicle here.\ |
| 261 | '''Peter:''' But this is my car.\ |
| 262 | '''Officer:''' Suspect getting belligerent.\ |
| 263 | '''Peter:''' But I'm not -\ |
| 264 | '''Officer:''' Officer down! [''falls to the ground''] |
| 265 | ** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS4E9BreakingOutIsHardToDo Breaking Out Is Hard to Do]]", Joe explains even if she's Peter's wife, he couldn't give Lois special treatment while [[WouldHitAGirl beating and arresting her]] for shoplifting. Lois doesn't get upset at him for it, telling him she had it coming. |
| 266 | ** In another episode, Joe gets a new police cruiser which has a robotic system for painlessly subduing perps and placing them in handcuffs. When Cleveland tries it out -- Joe's sudden realization and shouted warning a second too late -- a computerized voice yells out that he's resisting and arms come down and start beating him with batons. It goes further, crying out "Look out! He has a gun" and planting evidence. |
| 267 | ** This is also [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] on one occasion, where some LAPD officers are violently beating Peter. Then it turns out they're just doing it so Lois can get a good picture. [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] when the cop takes one last kick into Peter's side when no one is looking. |
| 268 | ** {{Lampshaded}} in the episode where all the police have been sent out-of-town, and every white person on the street suddenly unzips themselves, revealing themselves to be black people in disguise, who promptly sing "Everybody Rejoice (Brand New Day)" from ''The Wiz''. |
| 269 | ** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E8CoolHandPeter Cool Hand Peter]]", the gang is arrested on a trip to the South by a corrupt super-racist sheriff who frames them for a broken tail light and drug possession because Cleveland and Joe showed more integrity than Peter (who was being an asshole but was ignored by the sheriff for being white and healthy). The prison camp they're in is mainly run by the police, and only gives 19th-century technology to the prison workers. Soon after, they brutalize Cleveland two times after Peter continues to insult them (and whack Peter in the gut for a third). And after they've served their time, the warden extends their sentence indefinitely and responds to their escape with shoot-to-kill orders extending to the police. By the end of the episode, Joe has had enough and brutalizes the Sheriff with the same methods to make it clear that his usual tactics make him a thug hiding behind a badge. |
| 270 | * Played for Laughs in ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019''. When the crew devises a plan to use King Shark as a TrojanPrisoner to [[ItMakesSenseInContext retrieve Clayface's severed arm]], the police over-reacted with tranquilizing, beating up, sending and locking Shark in Blackgate. In a span of a few ''seconds''. The crew's expression practically say "what just happened?" |
| 271 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' episode "Let's Play Cops and Robbers", [[CatsAreMean Mr. Cat]] becomes a police officer and decides to question Quack Quack (who he knows isn't guilty) about a crime. He takes him away for "questioning" and then tortures him while yelling at him to confess to the crime. |
| 272 | * [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies]]: |
| 273 | ** "Big House Bunny," where WesternAnimation/BugsBunny accidentally tunnels himself into a maximum security prison and gets hassled by his old nemesis WesternAnimation/YosemiteSam, an ill-tempered prison guard. At one point, Bugs exposes Sam's all-bluster character when he tricks him into changing into a prisoner's smock. Before Sam can do a full "OhCrap," four fellow guards pounce on him and club him nearly 100 times before whisking him to a holding cell. |
| 274 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Police Brutality appears often, mostly parodied and played for laughs; the lyrics to the Series/{{COPS}} parody (in “Homer’s Triple Bypass”) gleefully point out the officers “don’t mind using excessive force. Occasionally the trope is subverted: |
| 275 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E6DohInTheWind D'oh-in' in the Wind]]": |
| 276 | ---> '''Chief Wiggum:''' Okay, boys, set your nightsticks on "whomp".\ |
| 277 | '''Eddie:''' [twirling his nightstick] Uh, mine's stuck on "twirl." |
| 278 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E2TheParentRap The Parent Rap]]", Wiggum is shown reading Miranda Rights off of a teleprompter, and the text instructs the officer to punch the suspect in the belly after reciting the right to remain silent (with the implication that the rest of the oath is also accompanied by "gestures"). |
| 279 | ** In one episode, Homer spots a bunch of cops beating up on Snake and stops them. [[SubvertedTrope Turns out Snake's shirt had caught fire and the cops were trying to beat it out.]] |
| 280 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E18TheBoysOfBummer The Boys of Bummer]]", after Bart makes a mistake in a baseball game, the crowd turns against him and throws beer at him, to the point where Chief Wiggum hurries him in to his police car, [[KickTheDog only to drive back to the stadium]]. He opens the car roof and the [[WouldHurtAChild crowd continues to throw beer at Bart]]. In the same episode, when Bart gets DrivenToSuicide, [[SuicideDare he encourages him to do so]]. |
| 281 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E8MargeVsSSCCATAG Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays]]", there is a riot in the form of a wave of angry babies at Roofi's concert, who converge on police officers and are beaten off with batons. |
| 282 | ---> '''Lou:''' I don't feel right clubbing women and children, chief.\ |
| 283 | '''Wiggum:''' I hear ya. Some days are tougher than others. Just close your eyes and club. |
| 284 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E21TheMonkeySuit The Monkey Suit]]", Chief Wiggum and his men threaten Lisa, a second-grade student, ''[[WouldHurtAChild at gunpoint]]'' [[DisproportionateRetribution for teaching evolution]]. Lisa herself [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it: |
| 285 | --->'''Lisa:''' There are so many ''worse'' crimes! [[TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw Why are you persecuting]] ''[[TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw me]]''?[[note]]And to prove her right, Snake is going on a killing spree across the street on top of Kwik-E-Mart... [[JustIgnoreIt which Chief Wiggum doesn't care about]].[[/note]] |
| 286 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': |
| 287 | ** In one episode, where Cartman is made a police officer, he immediately starts to abuse it, doing things like stopping Stan's dad for speeding. He was driving the speed limit. |
| 288 | ** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS2E14ChefAid Chef Aid]]", the officers who arrest Chef hit him with their batons. |
| 289 | ** He also does things like that when he's made hall monitor at school. He immediately becomes a parody of ''Series/DogTheBountyHunter'' and starts assaulting and "bear-macing" kids for the slightest transgressions. Then he becomes the Franchise/{{Batman}} ([[Creator/ChristopherNolan Chris Nolan]] version) {{Expy}} the Coon, and decides to take the law into his own hands, such as scratching a guy for making out with his girlfriend. Cartman thought he was stopping an attempted rape, despite the girl very loudly screaming "Yes!" |
| 290 | ** The actual South Park PD is known for being pointlessly violent, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain particularly when it comes to black people]]. |
| 291 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': |
| 292 | ** The episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E11PartyPooperPants Party Pooper Pants]]" had the titular character get arrested by the police because ''[[DisproportionateRetribution he didn't invite them to a party he was throwing]]''. |
| 293 | ** Humorously subverted in the episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E5MermaidManAndBarnacleBoyIVDoingTime Doing Time]]", where two cops appear to be beating a suspect when in reality they were fixing a parking meter. |
| 294 | ** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E8SpongeBobsLastStand [=SpongeBob=]'s Last Stand]]", police officers arrest [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick before abandoning them in the [[MiddleOfNowhereStreet middle of Nowhere]], all because they wanted to stop a highway from being built over Jellyfish Fields. |
| 295 | ** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E4SpyBuddiesBoatSmartsGoodOlWhatshisname Good Ol' Whatshisname]]", [[CosmicPlaything Squidward]] gets beaten up and sentenced to 10 years in jail just because he [[FelonyMisdemeanor stole a man's wallet]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and ran a stop sign on foot]]. |
| 296 | [[/folder]] |
| 297 | ---- |
| 298 | ''[[Film/TheNakedGun Nothing to see here, move along]].'' |
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