Diplomatic Impunity: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]''

** In one episode a hacker tries to defend himself from Section 9 by saying that he's the son of the Canadian ambassador. {{spoiler|In fact, Section 9 had already sought and received consent from the Canadians to proceed.}}

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', Sakutaro has this as a superpower.

* ''[[Level E]]''. Prince Baka Ki El Dogra is an enormous jerk [[It Amused Me|and knows it]], but no one can do anything about him because he ''is'' [[Royal Brat|a prince]], and by the way of a recently concluded diplomatic treaty (which [[The Chessmaster|he orchestrated]] in a first part) he is in effect a protector of the Earth. He still [[Amusing Injuries|gets beaten a lot]] though.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Checkmate]]'', in one of their earliest appearances, in a [[Superman]] comic, couldn't arrest a prime minister (from some [[Qurac]] or other) visiting the U.S., even though he'd been about to take a whip to Lois Lane ([[Deliberate Values Dissonance|Women should be '''respectful''' to men!]]) just before terrorists burst in to kidnap them both. Checkmate even had to help '''rescue''' the prime minister. But they put a bomb aboard his private jet, and detonated it, in the last panel of the comic, once he was outside U.S. airspace.

 

* In ''[[Lethal Weapon 2]]'', one character claims diplomatic immunity to make the heroes back off. (Although in fact, he was only a consular officer, and they get a lower grade of immunity - unless he had some other official status as well, he ''could'' have been searched provided proper procedures were followed.) Besides, when you're trying to kill a police officer in front of another police officer while surrounded with evidence that you're a drug dealer and smuggler, one thinks diplomatic immunity no longer applies. And as the page quote testifies, Murtaugh agreed with that assessment of the situation.

* ''[[Sneakers]]''. When Marty is about to be captured by the FBI, his friend Gregor (a KGB agent) offers him asylum inside his car, which he says is technically part of the Russian consulate (and thus under diplomatic immunity).

* ''[[Outrage]]'' by [[Takeshi Kitano]]. The [[Yakuza]] use an embassy to run a illegal casino. They actually force the ambassador to move to a new building because the old one wasn't large enough.

 

* One of [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga]] books is actually called ''Diplomatic Immunity''. {{spoiler|There's a double meaning in there, too.}}

** In addition, Miles and Mark both have real, and apparently legally effective (though details are unclear), diplomatic immunity, being the sons of the Prime Minister of Barrayar (formerly Regent, later Viceroy of Sergyar), who is also a Count in his own right (and therefore a minor head of state) as well as the arguable successor to the Emperor. Miles uses a combination of his immunity and Barrayar's fealty laws to help someone out in ''The Warrior's Apprentice'', while Mark is protected from potential arrest and extradition in ''A Civil Campaign'' (To a point - foreign governments can legally arrest him for murder, should he commit one). Miles also presumably has immunity in his own right once he's appointed Imperial Auditor, being, effectively, hatchet man for the Emperor with full Imperial authority.

* [[Invoked]] in ''[[The Supernaturalist]]''. Stephen is on the verge of getting arrested by the local authorities and claims to have diplomatic immunity. The officers don't buy it and demand to "see some diplomatic identification", at which point Stephen throws them a blank plastic card. The whole thing was just a diversion to slow the officers down while his team took them out. It also creates a small amount of confusion for them since the near future setting has it that diplomatic immunity is largely obsolete, and the relevence of asserting it is vaguely defined.

 

* In the "Exposed" episode of ''[[Smallville]]'', Chloe and Lois investigate a case in which girls working at a Metropolis strip joint are disappearing. When the killer is finally exposed, the Metropolis PD cannot arrest him because of this trope. It's subverted near the end when {{spoiler|Chloe tips off INTERPOL and ''they'' arrest him.}}

* In an episode of ''[[The Commish]]'', "Sleep of the Just", the rapist was a diplomat. At one stage the police decide to harass him by ticketting for obscure and long-obsolete violations of the law, like sneezing in public (it frightens the horses).

* In an episode of ''[[Benson]]'' there was a wealthy and spoiled Arabian prince who used his status to pretty much get away with everything, including purposely wrecking Benson's car after they had an argument. Benson decided to teach him a lesson by making him the ''victim'' of such vandalism, by convincing Clayton to pose as another diplomat and destroy a work of art the guy owned. The prince [[Graceful Loser| was so impressed]] by Benson's cleverness, he offered to buy him ''two'' new cars.

 

* In an episode of ''[[The Goon Show]]'' ("The Case of the Missing CD Plates"), the steamroller which runs down Neddie Seagoon has CD (Corps Diplomatique) plates, preventing him from suing for injury. He is then tricked into screwing CD plates onto a piano that struck him on the head, so that the villains who dropped it on him can claim diplomatic immunity.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

** He abuses it to the point where he uses his diplomatic immunity to boot the president of Elbonia and take his place.

* A single-panel cartoon in one magazine showed a man caught in bed with another man's wife. He told the angry husband, who'd leveled a pistol at him, "Stay your hand, sir; I have diplomatic immunity." His anxious expression hinted that he didn't really expect it'd work.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'''s [[Show Within a Show]], ''Blasto 6: Partners in Crime''. [[Big Bad|The vorcha ambassador]] repeatedly claims that Blasto can't touch him because of diplomatic immunity. However, [[Cowboy Cop|Blasto]] doesn't believe that diplomatic immunity applies if he ignites a flammable surface that ambassador is standing on.

 

* Sam Starfall from ''[[Freefall]]'' once did this to excuse his crimes but gave it up after they hired other diplomats to beat him up.

* Arikos from ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' used this in his [[Backstory]] to get out of masterminding a cult he'd been keeping up for years, including trying to cover up said cult with a ''mass suicide''. He eventually ended up on the show regardless, but that he's not dead already is a testament to the power wielded here.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Politics Tropes]]