Rush to Judgement Is Often Wrong

Today I read a disturbing chapter in Malcolm Gladwell's 2019, "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know." Actually every chapter is disturbing, as the author explains how and why so many bad outcomes result from a simple miscommunication between strangers. For example, back in 2015, 28-year-old African-American Sandra Bland ended up dead in a jail cell three days after being stopped for a missing blinker light by a white traffic cop who made wrong assumptions about her, and she about him. 

But the one I found most upsetting was about 35-year-old Amanda Knox, then a young college student studying abroad when her roommate was found dead in their apartment in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Despite absolutely no evidence whatsoever connecting Knox to the crime, she was tried and convicted and spent four years of her young life in an Italian prison before DNA evidence set her free and the real killer was arrested.

According to Gladwell, Knox was guilty of not behaving in a way that was expected of most people in her situation. That's it. Police found her facial expressions "inappropriate" during questioning. She was seen buying "red underwear" the day after the murder was discovered. She didn't seem "remorseful enough," according to several of the investigators. Of course she had nothing to be remorseful about since she was innocent, and she was buying underwear because her apartment was a crime scene and all her clothes were locked up inside and beyond her reach. But no matter -- people saw what they wanted to see and the truth be damned. 

Sadly this happens quite often, and I know firsthand how a "bad resting face" can be interpreted incorrectly. It's possible that if everyone stopped thinking of themselves for just one minute when they encounter someone they don't know they'll stop coming to the wrong conclusions and the world will be a far better, and safer, place. And Sandra Bland would be alive today.