In this, we have a problem that involves human psychology.

People aren’t very good at interpreting evidence in general. Many times, people just see the evidence that supports their individual version of the story of what happened. That is not an accident, it is simply how people tend to understand the world around them. Individual facts don’t mean much. That is why good lawyers are ones that are excellent storytellers.

Our Justice system, then, is more or less a story telling competition, in which the one that makes the most emotional (notice, not “logical”) sense wins out.

And my guess is, that the workers in the Justice system are used to, and respond to, stories where the Officers are in the right, which aligns with how the system is supposed to work. And they are used to stories where the black man is always the bad guy. It is the story they have always known.

What is better about this modern day, however, is that we don’t always have to tell stories anymore, video can do that for us.

So, a logical reform for the Justice system would be to prioritize video evidence, from any source, as primary, before any further evidence. It is the least biased information we have, even if the camera is being manipulated.