Monday, November 3, 2014
'The Burglar Across the Hall'
I've been meaning for some time to write a little post about "The Burglar Across the Hall" (a strange dream I had several weeks ago). Malcolm the Cynic has a post that prompted me to write a little post on *his* blog about it. So, rather than re-posting it here, I'll just link to the post there
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Here is the original linked comment (misspellings and all) --
“The Burglar Across the Hall”
The characters are basically the cast of ‘Castle‘ … with the minor twist that they live in an America even more awash in bureaucracy than ours: most “working” people are unionized government bureaucrats, and “work” like it. The major twist is that in this America, *everything* has been decriminalized, except one thing only: it is a crime to not have the “proper” paperwork
Anyway, as it starts (*), ‘Castle’ and ‘Beckett’ are examining a corpse in an apartment (**). They’ve decided to call it a suicide — even tough to you and me it looks like a murder — ’cause then they don’t have to track down the murderer to make sure he had the
“proper” permits (they don’t themselves state this so bluntly). They express amazement that someone would go to the trouble of killing himself in his apartment, when there are suicide centers of “every corner” (the quote are because that’s an exaggeration: they’re only on every other corner).
The ‘Ryan’ character walk into the room and says, “The burglar across the hall thinks it’s a murder …”
“Beckett’, clearly annoyed (as per the reason for their “decision” that it’s a suicide), interrupts to ask ‘Ryan’ if he checked the burglar’s paperwork. She also expresses annoyance that a mere burglar (who *isn’t* a member of the governmental union of bureaucrats; he’s “private sector”) thinks he knows more about solving a crime than she does. ‘Ryan’ explained that the burglar heard loud noises, and so on.
Anyway, in the end, it turns out that it *was* a suicide … and that the guy didn’t have the “proper” paperwork! He’d carefully set it up to look like an “illegal” (that is, no “properly” filed permits) murder, partly to cover his “crime” of not buying the “proper” permit, and partly to thumb his nose at the whole social set-up.
(*) this was a strange dream I had as I was waking a few months ago
(**) it was called in on Monday, but they’re only just now on Wednesday getting around to visiting the apartment — an example of the out-working of the bureaucratic mindset in this America where nearly everyone is a unionized bureaucrat.
For instance, a bit later, while still at the apartment, they decide not to send the evidence to the lab (until Monday), because Friday is the day the lab “workers” will be striking … and so there is no point in sending the evidence on Thursday.
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