# Protagonists that would be in a lot of Legal Trouble **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** actor-characters\ **Created:** [January 15, 2023, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280 "2023-01-15T21:01:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/41 "2023-01-16T07:37:05Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > John Wick. = Tough to find any witnesses. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/42 "2023-01-16T07:52:02Z")
Star Trek, each and every one of them. Seems like the Prime Directive was made up on purpose for them to break. Just mention it on an episode, and 9 out of 10 times it was getting broken by whoever the captain was. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/43 "2023-01-16T11:34:30Z")
Yeah, it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t constantly refer to it as their _highest_ law. It would be better if it were written as a policy statement. It is the policy of the United Federation of Planets (UFP) that all members of the UFP should avoid, to the greatest degree possible, interfering in the development of any planet without warp drive. You could still have the character debate whether this is one of the instances where the should or should not violate the prime directive, so the scripts would all still work, but it would not look so strange when they do so without consequence. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/44 "2023-01-16T11:54:18Z")
Kevin McCallister is probably technically below the age of criminal responsibility, but rigging all those booby-traps for Harry and Marv was possibly a criminal offence. The stand-your-ground laws in Illinois and New York (where the first two movies are set) allow you to defend yourself and your home with deadly force, but likely don’t apply to unattended traps. I understand from _[Katko v. Briney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katko_v._Briney)_ that there may be an exceptions when the home is occupied, but counting against this defence are the facts that 1. Kevin wasn’t always at home when the traps were active (IIRC that he left the house in the first movie); 2. Kevin actually _lured_ the burglars to the trapped house (in the second movie); and 3. Kevin probably had a duty to defend himself through less drastic means (say, by calling the police for help) before resulting to injurious and potentially deadly traps. Even if Kevin is criminally in the clear, I bet Harry and Marv would have had ample grounds to sue him and his parents for the injuries they sustained. (There’s ample precedent for burglars successfully suing homeowners for injuries incurred in the course of stealing.) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/45 "2023-01-16T11:56:01Z")
Tony Soprano. I always suspected that when he said he was in waste disposal, that might have been a front for something illegal. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/46 "2023-01-16T11:56:50Z")
I suspect that some of the things Walter White did may not have been entirely kosher either. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/47 "2023-01-16T11:57:57Z")
They would have got him on tax evasion. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/48 "2023-01-16T12:41:09Z")
DIE ANOTHER DAY gets a lot of crap, but the opening sequence (a) brings up an interesting point, which (b) could be summed up as follows: “It says here you have a license to kill?” “From the UK.” “But you’re not, y’know, _in_ the UK.” “Oh, right.” “You broke laws _here,_ not _there._” “Uh, yeah.” “So we’ll lock you up for a year…” “And then?” “…keep you locked up even longer.” ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/49 "2023-01-16T13:05:14Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Wasn’t it also a feature of the A-Team that despite the massive array of heavy weaponry, helicopters crashing into mountainsides, etc., that even the _bad_ guys never seemed to get seriously injured or killed? Yes, and that was a big part of my objection to the series. I have the same problem with shoot-em-up video games where you can easily recover from mortal wounds. I do wonder sometimes if that is what is influencing some of the people who decide to take a gun and shoot random people, or like that six-year-old who shot his teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/50 "2023-01-16T13:25:28Z")
Oliver Queen. I went back and watched the first dozen episodes to see what his body count was like and he was killing somebody every week, if not a half-dozen or more. Plus breaking & entering, general assault & battery, theft, torture, extortion… There were times when they pointed out that he was a wanted criminal, and they did try to arrest him a bunch of times, but they eventually found out who he was and pretty much did nothing, just hand-waved the fact that he’s a serial killer by saying “well, he really only killed the bad guys, so…” ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/51 "2023-01-16T14:10:42Z")
Peter Griffin from Family Guy is NOT any better. [https://old.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/t4z0up/a\_list\_of\_every\_single\_crime\_peter\_griffin\_has/](https://old.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/t4z0up/a_list_of_every_single_crime_peter_griffin_has/) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/52 "2023-01-16T14:27:35Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > > [@Riemann](#): > > > > Wasn’t it also a feature of the A-Team that despite the massive array of heavy weaponry, helicopters crashing into mountainsides, etc., that even the _bad_ guys never seemed to get seriously injured or killed? > > Yes, and that was a big part of my objection to the series. I have the same problem with shoot-em-up video games where you can easily recover from mortal wounds. I do wonder sometimes if that is what is influencing some of the people who decide to take a gun and shoot random people, or like that six-year-old who shot his teacher. Are you suggesting that a constant media barrage of violent imagery and glorification of violence to solve problems ranging from the inconsequential to the profound, often without showing realistic consequences of such violence, in a culture that seems to worship firearms as a symbol of freedom, power, and even manliness MIGHT influence some troubled minds to commit horrific acts of random death and destruction? PREPOSTEROUS! Maybe we should be discussing why you hate America! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/53 "2023-01-16T14:46:43Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > It also amazes me how [the Duke Boys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dukes_of_Hazzard) got away with everything they did. According to Mad Magazine, Boss Hogg owned the dealership where the sheriff’s department bought vehicles. The more squad cars the Dukes demolished, the richer Boss Hogg became! ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/54 "2023-01-16T15:04:25Z")
This was going to be my answer. See Lethal Weapon, Dirty Harry, and a plethora of other movie and tv cops. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/55 "2023-01-16T15:17:04Z")
Okay, so Tony Soprano was a bit too easy, but how about sitcoms? Driving without due care and attention. In the common driving-while-talking scenes, the driver often looks away from the road for an unrealistically long time. It’s even in tv tropes - > **[Driver Faces Passenger - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DriverFacesPassenger)** > > The tendency of characters in TV shows or movies who are driving to spend a dangerously long time looking at the person in the passenger seat, rather than out the windshield (or ever at the rear-view mirror, which is almost always gone). This … And there must be thousands of seatbelt tickets. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/56 "2023-01-16T15:28:24Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > - Kevin probably had a duty to defend himself through less drastic means (say, by calling the police for help) before resulting to injurious and potentially deadly traps. He did that. It didn’t work. The police came by, saw that the house was not at that immediate moment being broken into, and called it done. > [@iamatractorboy](#): > > In Back to the Future III, Marty and Doc hijack (and destroy) a train. I imagine in 1885 that would result in a pretty serious punishment. Sure, but the statute of limitations would surely have run out by 1985. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/57 "2023-01-16T15:28:27Z")
I don’t know the whys and wherefores of how they handle such things in the army, especially how they handled them during the Korean War, but I’m not totally buying into the notion that the higher-up officers are going to let Hawkeye Pierce get away with all the stuff he does because he’s such a great surgeon. I mean, a little bit, maybe. But not eleven television seasons’ worth of it. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/58 "2023-01-16T15:29:11Z")
As counterpoint, _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ showed that not even the King of England is above the law… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WJzM1kaTcsY/hqdefault.jpg ""Alright, that's enough" Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Ending (Gilliam, Jones, 1975)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJzM1kaTcsY) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/59 "2023-01-16T15:30:10Z")
They’d get Batman for speeding. Then they’d plant some drugs in the trunk, leading to civil forfeiture of the Batmobile. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280/60 "2023-01-16T15:31:28Z")
The bigger question would be Burns, not Hawkeye. The worst Hawkeye ever did was constant uniform violations, plus the drinking (except he somehow managed to never be drunk when casualties came in, except in one Very Special Episode). Burns, though, kept on destroying valuable military equipment because he kept on wanting to play with weapons as toys, and was an utterly incompetent surgeon to boot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protagonists-that-would-be-in-a-lot-of-legal-trouble/978280.md?page=4)