Eyewitness Testimony is unreliable...especially from yours truly.

I'm a terrible eye witness. You have to understand this realization wounds me more than it probably should. I always get angry at the television when people on various crime shows can't remember stuff about the crime or the criminal in question. "Duh," I cry at the screen, "his shirt was green! How did you miss that?" And then you've got the requisite cop or lawyer pointing out how unreliable eye witness testimony is.

And so I've discovered, damn, I'm worse than the stupid people on television (at least they're following a script) and I shudder at the idea of someone being convicted or set free based on what someone else "saw."

Here's the story:
I went to the grocery store the other day to pick up a few essentials, and when I came out with my cart, I heard some yelling on the other end of the parking lot. I looked over, sooo very nosy I am, and saw this guy yelling at a woman. He appeared to be waving his fist in the air and saying something threatening ("Do you want me to lay you down, bitch?" I believe is what I heard him saying) and the woman was backing off with her hands up in the air. I watched for another second, not quite believing what I was seeing, and then I saw her approach him again. And...I just wasn't sure what I was seeing. Were they joking around? I hesitated, and then decided maybe I should call it in. Problem? No cell phone. I left in the charger at home.

So, I left and went straight home (two minutes tops) and called the police. The very nice officer on the other end of the line explained that cars were already in route (which meant, yea, I'd done the right thing by calling, albeit belatedly). Then he asked me some very basic questions about what the man looked like and what he was wearing.

And...I was stuck. I remembered hair color and I thought I remembered shirt color but what I said was evidently different from what other callers had said. Oddly enough, I remembered more what the poor woman was wearing than the scary, threatening dude.

Ugh. I couldn't believe it! My chance to be an eyewitness (not that I wanted to be or that I wanted anything harmful to happen but more to prove that people are smarter than what they depict on crime shows), and I was completely pathetic at it! And you'd think I'd be better with details or more observant, except, hell, I think I make stuff up too often to be relied on for an accurate retelling of just about anything! : ) There are very good reasons why I never attempted journalism.