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Notes -
There’s two movies that always come to mind that I thought left an important remark about the nature of evidence.
There’s a fairly unremarkable scene in Enter the Dragon (the Bruce Lee movie), where he and some British guy are sitting in a room, watching an overhead projector roll tape on Han’s island as he’s getting the briefing on things. By the time he finishes explaining everything to Lee, Lee turns around and says something to the effect of, “If you’re sitting here and showing me all this, why don’t you just bust in on Han’s island and take him away?” And the guy says back, “We know everything. We can prove nothing.” The other movie is Shawshank Redemption, and the first few scenes in the beginning where Andy’s being tried in the courtroom and is being accused of murdering his wife. The prosecuting attorney is questioning him about the gun and he says, “Isn’t it remarkably convenient that you say you threw your gun into the river and yet there’s no evidence that was recovered? Isn’t that just all too convenient?” And Andy replies back by saying, “I actually find it awfully inconvenient that the gun was never found.”
I have been in both those kinds of situations where the same logic at work applies. I’ve sat across from people in discussions where I 100% knew they were lying, because I was standing right next to them when something that became questioned happened. And they knew they were lying. You could read it by the smirk on their face. But, I had no evidence to present. Why would I be so concerned with evidence? It’s not like I’m doing anything wrong. This is the mentality honest people operate with and it’s how they get screwed over by dishonest people. I’ve become so burned and so cynical from certain people I grew up with, I meticulously document what it is I do, such that I always have something that amounts to evidence and proof of no wrongdoing by me. Even when there’s nothing even remotely suggesting something questionable, in the most innocent circumstances. It’s why I never delete text messages and haven’t in over a decade; I archive emails before deleting them; I put text notification alerts on every financial transaction I make, etc.
"It's not what you know. It's what you can prove." - Alonzo Harris in Training Day.
My sibling loved that movie. Probably why I hated it.
It's a great character and a great performance in search of a better movie for both.
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