Watched Castle.
Mar. 17th, 2015 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyThey showed some guy was near the murder scene by looking at his Metrocard. Or maybe they alibied him by looking at his Metrocard, same difference. (Well, not for the suspect, but for me.) This does work in real life. One of the few false rape reports I know of unraveled when they checked her student Metrocard and found she was way uptown when the alleged rape happened, not on campus on the Island. (Notably, she didn't name a specific individual at that time, and my guess is she was thinking if she just said "that's not him" if they found a reasonable suspect, then nobody would get hurt by her accusation and it would be a victimless crime.)
But, I don't know, it seems so lazy to me, first because at this point any competent murderer has to know that you buy a 2-ride card and ditch it at the end of your crime, just like you wear gloves and change out of the bloody shirt and whatever. Second, because people swap Metrocards all the time, mostly to avoid buying any more unlimiteds than they strictly need. I mostly use a pay-per-ride, because I don't commute, and then if I go somewhere on the weekend or if I'm making more than two trips on a weekday I swap with my mom or with Jenn. Or maybe your best friend's card got bent, so he borrows yours for the day because you're not going anywhere. Or maybe you plan to kill so-and-so and pin it on your slob of a roomie, so you steal their card when they're not looking and put it back later.
It just seems like Castle (and other crime shows set in NYC) pull out Metrocard data a lot more frequently than is warranted, and they don't really consider other, perfectly reasonable possibilities. They're Metrocards. They're not IDs. They're cheap, flimsy, and disposable. You can't build a case on them.
But, I don't know, it seems so lazy to me, first because at this point any competent murderer has to know that you buy a 2-ride card and ditch it at the end of your crime, just like you wear gloves and change out of the bloody shirt and whatever. Second, because people swap Metrocards all the time, mostly to avoid buying any more unlimiteds than they strictly need. I mostly use a pay-per-ride, because I don't commute, and then if I go somewhere on the weekend or if I'm making more than two trips on a weekday I swap with my mom or with Jenn. Or maybe your best friend's card got bent, so he borrows yours for the day because you're not going anywhere. Or maybe you plan to kill so-and-so and pin it on your slob of a roomie, so you steal their card when they're not looking and put it back later.
It just seems like Castle (and other crime shows set in NYC) pull out Metrocard data a lot more frequently than is warranted, and they don't really consider other, perfectly reasonable possibilities. They're Metrocards. They're not IDs. They're cheap, flimsy, and disposable. You can't build a case on them.
