Death of Sandra Bland

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Sandra Bland was a 28-year-old African American woman who was found hanged in a prison cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015, three days after being arrested on the pretext of a traffic stop. Her death was ruled a suicide. It was followed by demonstrations against her incarceration, contesting the cause of her death and accusing racist violence against her. [1]

Sandra Bland’s Death

Ms. Bland had been visiting family in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Ill., over the Fourth of July holiday in 2015. Ms. Bland was one of five sisters. She was planning to begin a job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M, a historically black state university located in a largely rural part of southeast Texas, when she was pulled over near the campus on July 10, 2015, after a state trooper said she failed to signal a lane change.

Sandra Bland (1987-2015)

The 39-second video Bland shot on her cellphone first emerged publicly in an investigation article broadcast by Dallas news station WFAA. The video reveals part of her confrontation with the state trooper who pulled her over. The newly surfaced video begins when the trooper walks back to her car with the ticket. Trooper Encinia asked if Ms. Bland was O.K. and told her she seemed “very irritated.” She said she was, because she was being written up simply for moving out of the trooper’s way.

The trooper ordered Ms. Bland out of the car, but she refused. He shouted that he would “yank you out” and tried to do so, but she resisted. He pulled out a stun gun and yelled, “I will light you up.”

At that point, Mrs. Bland got out of the car. The recently published footage stops there, but the confrontation stayed heated; a long time afterwards, Ms. Bland screamed slurs and profanity, and the trooper had her in handcuffs. [2]

Texas Department of Public Safety officials told reporters that Encinia has ignored multiple traffic stops and courtesy procedures. A DPS spokeswoman did not say precisely what the officer did wrong, although legal scholars contend that his supposed abrasive conduct may be a cause. During the detention, Bland's rights were also violated. People are entitled to stay anonymous until turning over their license and evidence of protection.

Following the publication of video of Encinia and Bland's meeting to the press, questions of editing and Encinia's own version of the event were created. In the police report, the cop claims he ordered Bland to stop the car to begin his investigation. The video reveals that he finally opened the door to Bland's Hyundai after taking out his stun gun. He also disagreed with her over her smoke, another aspect that contributed to their fight. [3]

Racial Bias in Policing

While the grand jury declined to convict Encinia on charges related to Bland's murder, it recommended perjury charges for lying about the circumstances leading up to Bland's arrest. The trooper was shot and, finally, charges were dismissed in exchange for an understanding that he never served in law enforcement again.

In specific, black women cannot let her story to be silenced. It's easy to imagine how afraid she had to be that day. Although she was talking tough, but as a critic of police brutality, she was well aware that such confrontations with law enforcement officers sometimes don't end well for black citizens. And while black men are the perpetrators most frequently, there have been enough incidents in recent years to realise that black women can meet the same fate. [4]

Reference

  1. Death of Sandra Bland. Wikipedia. Retrieved on Feb 1, 2021.
  2. Hassan, Adeel. The Sandra Bland Video: What We Know. May 7, 2019. nytimes.com. Retrieved on Feb 1, 2021.
  3. Thompson, Desire. 6 Things We Know About Brian Encinia, The Texas Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland. Jul 22, 2015. newsone.com. Retrieved on Feb 1, 2021.
  4. Glanton, Dahleen. Four years after her death, Sandra Bland gets to tell her side of the story. May 10, 2019. chicagotribune.com. Retrieved on Feb 1, 2021.