“Then it became a mis-demeanor, less serious than parking in a handicapped zone.”
In Texas, if you have a certain number and certain types of mis-demeanor, you cannot be a police officer, security officer and several other jobs - so, you do end up with a “criminal” record, so technically, you are a criminal!
Non-criminal mis-demeanors are frequently used to deny a person a job or credit or other privileges of society. True both in the public sector and private sector.
Even arrests/accusations without any finding cause people their job. For example, our IL governor was “fired” by the legislature for being arrested. He has been convicted of nothing. The same thing that happens in that high profile situation happens with even higher frequency among those with lower profiles.
One of the reasons (but not the only reason) for both a high rate of job openings that employers can’t fill and a high rate of unemployment is that the unemployed tend to have those pesky misdemeanor records and reputations.