It's not nonsense from TV drama. It's based on my personal experience as well as history. I'm from a black neighborhood and I've seen time and time again, people getting arrested and convicted for no reason. It's fairly common for innocent minorities to be convicted in trials with no direct evidence. I'm simply not a fan and this isn't a CSI Miami thing.
I think you're missing my point. Evidence of every kind is ignored, destroyed, warped, altered and worse. There's zero doubt that communities of color suffer this at extremely disproportionate rates at a horrifying and institutional level.
But that's not the point. The point is that circumstantial evidence is not only extremely important and legally pertinent - it's often the only evidence possible for good and bad.
Paper trails and smoking gun video evidence are not the norm.