Diplomatic Impunity/Playing With

Basic Trope: The bad guy is protected from the law because he's a diplomat.
 * Straight: Bob commits murder but can't be arrested for it because of diplomatic immunity.
 * Exaggerated:
 * Bob walks through a crowded shopping mall firing a machine gun at random people as the cops stand helplessly by.
 * Bob can defy the laws of physics.
 * Downplayed: Petty crimes are usually ignored. Either that or the Embassy has an In-house budget to pay for traffic fines, etc. If a Diplomat is caught spying is he is kicked out with a No Hard Feelings because everyone is a Worthy Opponent. Felonies are a different matter and nations enforce decent law on each other with a system of shame and reciprocity.
 * Justified: The country in question really does take diplomatic immunity seriously, believing that the potential problems emerging from it are less important than maintaining peaceful relations with its neighbours.
 * The two powers in question are from alien cultures that live in mutual contempt and don't recognize the validity of each other's laws. Of course diplomats have impunity. They can summon gunboats.
 * Inverted: The hero is the one being protected by diplomatic immunity.
 * Subverted: It looks like Bob is going to escape due to his diplomatic immunity, but then it gets revoked.
 * Double Subverted: ...but it turns out under the relevant local laws, everything he did before his immunity was revoked is still covered, so he's in the clear.
 * Parodied: Diplomats are responsible for most of the crime in town, and have all the mannerisms of stereotypical Mafia bosses.
 * Deconstructed: The work shows the reasons why diplomatic immunity was created in the first place, pointing out that diplomats in hostile countries could be harassed or even killed if diplomatic immunity is not treated as sacrosanct.
 * Reconstructed: The work shows that even if diplomatic immunity does have some justification sometimes, that's no comfort to victims of a villainous diplomat.
 * Zig Zagged: Bob is protected by his diplomatic immunity... but then it turns out that his accreditation is fake... because he's really a diplomat for a different country... so the hero gets appointed a diplomat too... and then someone points out that the country they're in doesn't even recognise the concept of diplomatic immunity at all.
 * Averted: Bob doesn't have diplomatic immunity, or if he does, nobody cares.
 * Enforced: The writers are determined to have an action-packed showdown, and so they need to come up with an excuse like this one to explain why Bob can't just be arrested quietly.
 * Lampshaded: "I knew you'd turn out to be a diplomat. I mean, it'd be too easy if I could just arrest you, wouldn't it?"
 * Invoked: The hero guesses that Bob is the culprit mainly because Bob, as a diplomat, is the most likely to think he can get away with it.
 * Exploited: Someone wants to stoke public anger against the country that Bob represents, so they make sure the news media find out about the situation.
 * Defied:
 * The hero knows that Bob is going to abuse his diplomatic immunity, and takes steps to prevent him from being allowed into the country in the first place.
 * An Anti-Hero circumvents international law by simply killing Bob.
 * It is easier to get someone declared persona non grata and thrown out of the country than it is to arrest him for his suspected/planned misdeeds.
 * Discussed: "Oh, you think your diplomatic immunity will get you out of this, just like the bad guys on TV?"
 * Conversed: "Of course the ambassador will turn out be the murderer. There's no reason they'd make that character a diplomat unless they're planning to have him use diplomatic immunity."

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