A Few Pet Peeves

There are more than a few things that drive me crazy about how forensic science and the CSI groups are depicted on TV crime dramas. But I also have some pet peeves that don’t necessarily warrant writing a column about such as: when Delko got shot in the head just recently, died and came back, was his recovery a miracle or what? Out for so long, no brain damage and he was back at work very soon, just a little slower on the uptake. Puleese, this makes victims of TV viewers to allow people to think that this is even possible. I was kind of hoping that he was dead after I saw how they treated his “coming back.”

Okay, one time on an episode quite a long time ago (and since I don’t have the DVD set from years past,) I’ll just say that the CSI—Las Vegas team was out in the dessert and Gil Grissom was talking about “tasting a bone.” Listen, if you find remains, no way are you going to go putting it up to your lips. Can we say dangerous practice? I mean, why doesn’t that man have hepatitis C by now?

And, too, in the same vein, you will never see law enforcement stick their finger into a bag of powder, taste it and say, “that’s cocaine all right.” Wow, how irresponsible it that! It could be PCP, a dangerous hallucinogenic, or any number of harmful substances (in fact some drugs are cut with harmful chemicals themselves, like arsenic). Cops often use crip kits. These are testing kits that will determine the characteristics of a drug or chemical substance using reagents and small squirt bottles and testing vials. For more information on what a kit looks like, what you can test for, and other specifics, check out this link: http://www.cripkit.com/products/carkit.html

Okay, this is short tonight, but I feel better already for saying it.