In Arrival, crime can be observed throughout the entirety of the movie in the background as soon as the Heptapods make first contact with the planet. On the news screens as soon as day two you can see reports of raiding and looting in many of the major cities around the planet. In the UK a reporter showed a recording of a masked assailant vandalizing a building with the words “Save our species” spray painted on it. People are typically assuming the worst as these massive structures from space just arrived which nobody knows where it came from or what they do. A picture was leaked of the aliens in the ship which instilled mass panic further sparking looting. In Venezuela the raiding got to a level that the military had to use lethal force to quell the looting, which only created more paranoia when aired on the news. In Sierra Leone the news shows a crowd of people being fired at and running away from the Heptapod ship, which is an excessive use of force and can be seen as a war crime. In North Dakota, fanatics set their own compound ablaze killing themselves and all their followers inside the building.
While Banks is in a meeting discussing the next steps for the aliens, you can observe Captain Marks visibly irritated and disagree with the current methods used by the US of just teaching the aliens language. He has been in most of the previous meetings seeing that progress is slow with deciphering the language and believes there needs to be a change of pace. With the message “use weapon” received by the Chinese Heptapod ship, it provoked the Chinese to withdraw from the international alien mission and prioritize humanity. It is at this moment that inspires Captain Marks to take action on his own accord which he believes he is doing humanity justice. Captain Marks employs some soldiers and goes rogue, planting bombs in the Montana craft. Captain Marks’ actions are on the level of treason against the US with his actions potentially ruining any future contact with the aliens raising tension around the world.
In the film it could be argued that the main antagonist of the film is General Shang, the leader of the Chinese military. Upon receiving the message “Use weapon” General Shang deemed the aliens a threat and changed his priority to protecting his people at all costs and removing the aliens by force if necessary. When General Shang issues an ultimatum to his local alien craft, Russia, Pakistan, and Sudan follow suit going against what the rest of the world has agreed upon. When Russian reporters begin to publicize this, Russia assassinates two of the largest reporters to keep bad publicity from spreading quickly. When news of many nations no longer cooperating with each other with the Heptapod crafts, worldwide panic sets in causing further riots and looting among the general population.