Hi list
I have to give my comments,
I don't know why police stop her jus for signal?
why I say that,
because in Fort worth in one parts where is Fiesta, almost no one give
signal when they are change line.
Often time on H 35 people change line with out signal and police don't
react.
It is public secret that police don't do job what there need to do, after
bar every person drink more then 3 bier and police don't stop any of this,
I ask my self after this thinks what for to we have police?
Abdulah Hasic.
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Vieni
Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2015 3:02 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Sandra Bland's Death Is Part of White America's
Killing Spree
You've got to read this account. It's particularly useful for those of us
who can't see what's in videos.
Miriam
Boardman writes: "White America is on a killing spree. White cops across the
country are killing black men, women, and children at an obscene rate for
obscene reasons. White America's designated executioners-in-uniform wield
arbitrary and unpredictable lethal force on behalf of a state that rarely
holds them accountable for their killings."
Lanitra Dean hugs Carlesha Harrison, a friend of Sandra Bland, during a
vigil for Bland at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas.
(photo: Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle/AP)
Sandra Bland's Death Is Part of White America's Killing Spree
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
26 July 15
"... every black man born in this country, until this present moment, is
born into a country which assures him, in as many ways as it can find, that
he is not worth the dirt he walks on... Now, many, indeed, have survived,
and at an incalculable cost, and many more have perished and are perishing
every day. If you tell a child and do your best to prove to the child that
he is not worth life, it is entirely possible that sooner or later the child
begins to believe it."
- James Baldwin, in
Oakland, June 1963
White America is on a killing spree. White cops across the country are
killing black men, women, and children at an obscene rate for obscene
reasons. White America's designated executioners-in-uniform wield arbitrary
and unpredictable lethal force on behalf of a state that rarely holds them
accountable for their killings. That's because it is white America that is
on the killing spree. White America's white cops pull the triggers or beat
the heads or choke the breath out of black people, but they are just the
ugly expression of the supremacy of a white America that sanctions their
murderous violence while feigning some concern, sometimes, about its bloody
application. White America dares its black president to say something, do
something, knowing he won't, knowing he can't, knowing he doesn't dare
appear even for a moment to be the angry black man he has every reason to
be.
As of July 22, 2015, US police had killed 644 people, as shown in a
searchable count by the Guardian. The number is probably low, given the
reluctance of US authorities to collect reliable data (such as Congress
continuing the 19 year ban on gun violence research by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention). Of the 644 dead at the hands of police,
almost all (95%) are male, and most, 373 (58%), are non-white. Police
killings on average are found justifiable in 98.9% of all cases. Police
killings are far more frequent in the US than in other developed countries.
US police killed 59 people in the first 24 days of 2015, compared to the
police of England and Wales who have killed 55 people in the past 24 years.
The Icelandic police, in their 71 year history, have killed exactly one
person (in 2013). Denmark, Russia, Pakistan, and Chad have all expressed
concern about the state of human rights in the US. California police have
killed 95 people so far. Texas is second with 64. Florida, Arizona, and
Oklahoma round out the top five. Only South Dakota, Rhode Island, and
Vermont police haven't killed anyone this year. So far in 2015, US police
have killed six unarmed black women.
Whether or not Sandra Bland was directly killed by public officials (or
their agents) in Texas on or before July 13 is not yet known (the Texas
Tribune has covered the story since July 16). The case is currently in the
character assassination phase [see below], as well as the speculation and
rumor phase. This area of Texas has a reputation for racial profiling by its
police. The Waller County Sheriff's Office says she hanged herself in her
cell with a white plastic garbage bag. In any event, she died in police
custody, like more than two dozen others in 2015 so far. Police custody is
supposed to be where the arrestee is safe, not killed. According to Waller
County District Attorney Elton Mathis, the Texas Rangers and the FBI are
treating Bland's death as a homicide. The DA has reason to proceed
carefully, as Waller County has a long history of racism, including a racist
DA forced from office in 2004, continued monitoring by the U.S. Justice
Department for voting rights violations, and being a leading area for
lynchings from 1877 to 1950. On July 22 on CNN, Mathis said the case would
go to a grand jury. He also said:
It is very much too early to make any kind of determination that this was a
suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete. This is
being treated like a murder investigation. There are too many questions that
still need to be resolved. Ms. Bland's family does make valid points that
she did have a lot of things going on in her life that were good.
The best publicly available evidence so far of the stop and arrest of Sandra
Bland is a pair of videos: the 49-minute dashcam video from the police
cruiser and a much shorter video taken by a witness whom police chased away
from the scene. [The first dashcam video from the Texas Department of Safety
was 52 minutes, but had anomalies that triggered credible accusations of
malicious editing; the second dashcam video is not substantially different
from the first; as evidence, any dashcam video remains suspect since the
chain of custody puts it in the hands of the accused from the start.]
What happened to Sandra Bland from Friday afternoon until Monday morning is
much less clear. All that we know with any certainty is that the justice
system in Warren County, Texas, was out of control from the instant it had
Sandra Bland in its sights. If the Texas justice system did not literally
kill Sandra Bland, it absolutely created the conditions that led to her
death, however that may have occurred. No matter what actually happened,
there are guilty Texas law enforcement personnel who need to be held
accountable for their actions, most obviously, but not only, Trooper Brian
Encinia, 30, who has been a trooper just over a year. He initiated the Texas
killing of Sandra Bland around 4:30 in the afternoon of July 10 in Prairie
View, Texas.
At that point, Sandra Bland was unknown to the wider world. She was just
another young person who had been looking for work and found it. She was 28,
from the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. She was unarmed. She was
about to start working for her college alma mater, Prairie View A&M
University. She was engaged with Black Lives Matter and active in social
media. She was acutely aware of what it means to be black in America, and
how dangerous it is.
For what it's worth, Bernie Sanders was the first to call the event police
abuse and more or less everyone else, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton,
agrees with some version of Trump's opinion of Encinia: He just was very
aggressive. I didn't like his demeanor, I thought it was terrible¦.
[There is a third, shorter (17:26) video, a dashcam video from the fourth
police vehicle on the scene, but it has little apparent probative value.
This cruiser arrived well into the event and shows three people, apparently
all police officers, standing around in relaxed positions on the sidewalk
(Encinia does not appear to be one of them). At 6:18, the three officers go
to the back passenger-side backdoor of the second cruiser. Sandra Bland
comes out and stands up. Two of the officers appear to do a patdown search.
She is passive, unresisting, calm throughout. By 7:20, Sandra Bland is back
inside the cruiser. During the next ten minutes, a fourth officer arrives
(not Encinia) and they stand in a group, in relaxed postures, appearing to
shoot the breeze. This video has no sound.]
[A fourth short (14:05) dashcam video from the same cruiser appears to be
even less probative. It follows some time after the third video and mostly
shows officers milling about with no sense of urgency. At 1:57, a medical
van arrives, the med technicians seem to talk to Sandra Bland in the back of
the second cruiser for two minutes, but she does not appear. At 11:35, the
medical van leaves. At 13:01, Encinia appears to have a brief exchange with
Sandra Bland inside the cruiser. At 13:26, Encinia's cruiser leaves,
followed by the cruiser with Sandra Bland, followed by the dashcam cruiser.
The video has no sound.]
[These two videos were posted on the City of Prairie View, Texas, YouTube
channel late July 24, without comment. It has six subscribers and no other
content.]
Why does Encinia chase her before she commits the "infraction"?
Encina's dashcam video (49-minute version) begins with the end of a previous
stop, with Encinia walking up to the driver's side of the car (the driver is
not visible), where he advises her to get her dad to send something to the
insurance company. Then he says he's just giving her a warning for a
speeding violation, no fine no penalty: "Follow the posted speed limit, OK?"
But instead of just sending her on her way, he asks another question, still
holding her license, so she's not free to go:
0:31 - Encinia: "What year are you here at school?" She says she's a
sophomore. Encenia chats her up about her classes for a moment before
repeating that there's no penalty. Then he returns her license. (So what was
THAT about?) At 0:46 he steps away from the car, which drives away and
slowly starts to turn left while signaling. After another car passes her in
the left-hand turning lane, she turns left and drives away.
1:15 - As Encinia starts to move, Sandra Bland's car approaches the
intersection where the previous car has just turned in. The only vehicles
visible are Encinia's, Sandra Bland's, and the passing car in the far
distance ahead of Encinia. This is a virtually empty roadway at least four
lanes wide.
1:15-1:31 - At the intersection, Sandra Bland rolls slowly past a stop sign
and turns right without signaling onto the roadway that is empty except for
the police cruiser across the street in front of her. Encinia promptly makes
a U-turn through the same intersection and speeds up to follow Sandra Bland.
1:32-2:31 - Encinia speeds up to catch up to Sandra Bland as she passes
through an intersection on a green light. A white pickup truck is turning
right onto the roadway in front of her. The roadway approaching the light
has a single travel lane and a left-turn-only lane. After the light the
roadway has two travel lanes. As Encinia closes in on Sandra Bland, she
pulls into the right-hand lane without signaling. Encinia pulls into the
right-hand lane behind her and, after a moment, at 2:02, he turns on his
flashing lights. She slows and comes to a full stop by 2:15. The white
pick-up truck passes them in the left-hand lane at 2:22 and drives out of
sight.
Encinia asks, "What's wrong?" Is it possible he does not know?
2:31-3:11 - Encinia approaches the passenger side of Sandra Bland's car,
apparently adjusting a weapon with his left hand as he walks. At 2:44, he
tells Sandra Bland that he stopped her because "you failed to signal a lane
change" and asks for her insurance papers. Sandra Bland is inaudible. At
2:50, Encenia asks, "What's wrong?" Her answer, if any, is inaudible.
(So much is already wrong. Failure to signal a lane change on an almost
empty highway? A violation of the law that should be subject to officer
discretion, one might think, especially since it's also a violation NOT to
pull to the right to let a police cruiser pass. She a young black woman from
Illinois, traveling alone, confronted with a strange white cop on the
passenger side of her car deep in the heart of Texas asking her what's
wrong? The better question is: what's right?) Twenty seconds after asking
"What's wrong?" and getting no answer, Encinia changes tactic.
3:12-3:26 - Encinia: "How long you been in Texas?" (How is this relevant?)
Sandra Bland: "Got here yesterday."
Encinia says "OK," and is quiet for awhile.
3:27-8:39 - Ensenia: "Do you have a driver's license?" Response inaudible.
At 3:34, Ensenia asks, "You OK?" No response, or inaudible.
At 3:46, Encenia asks, "Where you headed to now?" Response inaudible. By
4:10 Encinia has returned to his cruiser.
At 7:24, a red car passes on the left and pulls into the right lane without
signaling. Encinia does not pursue it.
At 8:35, Encinia returns to Sandra Bland's car, this time approaching the
driver's side.
8:40 -Encinia says, "OK, Ma'am," and when she says nothing, he asks, "You
OK?"(So what is really going on here? This is the third time Encinia has
inquired about Sandra Bland's well-being, the second time with the same
words. What's the relevance? It's not credible that he cares. If he believes
he's made a legitimate stop, why doesn't he complete it quickly and
professionally? If he knows he's made a specious stop, for whatever reason,
why would he expect her to be OK? Is he taunting her? Baiting her? He
presumably knows he can defuse the situation at any moment, if he wants to,
by telling her she's just getting a warning. Why hasn't he said that yet?
This time, when he says "You OK?" again, Sandra Bland responds, somewhat
testily, but still staying disengaged.)
8:47-9:09 - Sandra Bland: "I'm waiting on you. This is your job. I'm waiting
on you. What do you want me to do?"
(He interrupts her, but he doesn't say what he wants her to do. Instead he
baits her again.)
Encinia: "Well, you seem very irritated."
Sandra Bland [matter-of-factly]: "I am. I really am. Because of what I've
been stopped and am getting a ticket for. I've been getting out of the way.
You've been speeding up, so I move over and you stop me. So yeah, I am a
little irritated. But that didn't stop you from giving me a ticket."
Why does Encinia continue to escalate, relentlessly?
According to Encinia, later, he's NOT giving her a ticket, he's giving her a
warning. Why does he not say this? Why does he make NO attempt to
de-escalate, to defuse the tension, to calm her down? Why does he act so
differently with Sandra Bland from the way he treated his previous stop just
8 minutes earlier? After Sandra Bland says, "That didn't stop you from
giving me a ticket," there are three seconds of silence during which Encinia
could simply say he's giving her a warning. He could even say she was right
to pull out of his way as he sped up behind her. He does nothing like that.
Instead he snarks.
9:09-10:38 -
Encinia: "Are you done?"
Sandra Bland: "You asked me what was wrong and I told you."
Encinia: "OK."
Sandra Bland: "So now I'm done, yeah."
Encinia: "OK."
(Silence about 3 seconds, then Encinia adds a new provocation.)
Encinia: "Do you mind putting out your cigarette, please? [inaudible
phrase]" (brief pause)
Sandra Bland [still matter-of-fact]: "I'm in my car. Why do I have to put
out my cigarette?"
(This is her first direct challenge to him, and it's a chance to
de-escalate. But He does not try to calm her down, he doesn't even say,
"Calm down." He ratchets up the threat.)
Encinia [edgy, quick]: "Well, you can step out now."
(This sudden escalation is startling. Encinia doesn't answer her question
but jumps in instantly with his order to get out of the car. He doesn't say
why. Does he know why? Reasoned or not, he orders it. She reasonably
objects.)
Sandra Bland [calm]: "I don't have to step out of my car."
Encinia [voice rising]: "Step out of the car."
(After a couple of seconds of no response, Encinia opens the driver side
door. He stands there, with his right hand reaching into the car as he
continues to talk.)
"Step out of the car"
Sandra Bland: "No, you don't have the right."
Encinia [raising his voice]: "Step out of the car!"
Sandra Bland: "You do not have the right to do that."
(Their voices overlap as the exchange quickens.)
Encinia: "I do have the right. Now step out or I will remove you."
Sandra Bland: "I refuse to talk to you other than inside -"
[inaudible, overlapping]
Encinia: "Step out or I will remove you."
Sandra Bland: "I am getting removed for a failure to signal?"
Encinia: "Step out or I will remove you. I'm giving you a lawful order.
Get out of the car now, or I'm going to remove you."
Sandra Bland: "And I'm calling my lawyer."
Encinia: "I'm going to yank you out of here."
(As he says this, he lunges into the car, most of his upper torso leaning
into the car as he apparently grabs at her.)
Sandra Bland: "OK, you're going to yank me out of my car? OK. All right.
[inaudible, Encinia on radio] Don't do this."
Encinia: "We're going to -"
Sandra Bland: "Don't touch me!"
Encinia [shouting]: "Get out of the car!"
Sandra Bland: "Don't touch me. I am not under arrest. You don't have the
right to touch me."
Encinia: "You are under arrest."
Sandra Bland: "I'm under arrest for what? For what?"
(Encinia does not answer her question. Instead he calls for backup.)
Encinia: [inaudible] "... send me another unit... "
[loud and stressed]: "Get out of the car! Get out of the car! Now!"
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being apprehended? Did you try to give me a ticket
for failure -"
Encinia: "I said get out of the car!"
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being apprehended? You done opened my car door."
[overlapping}
Encinia: "I'm giving you a lawful order. I'm going to drag you out of here."
Sandra Bland: "So you're going to drag me out of my own car?"
(As she says this, Encenia draws his taser and points it at her, reaching
inside the car to do so.)
Encinia [screaming]: "Get out of the car! I will light you up! Get out!
Sandra Bland [getting out of the car, holding her phone]: "Wow"
Encinia [screaming]: "Now!"
Sandra Bland: "Wow."
Encinia [screaming]: "Get out of the car!"
Encinia doesn't use his taser, Sandra Bland does nothing threatening
At 10:36, Sandra Bland emerges from the car gracefully. She is taller than
Trooper Encinia. She walks toward the rear of the car and then to the
sidewalk, as he directs. There is space between them, an arm's length or
more.
10:38-11:35 -
Sandra Bland: [inaudible] "... for a failure to signal? You're doing
all this for a failure to signal?"
Encinia [shouting as he directs her to the sidewalk]: "Get over there!"
Sandra Bland: "Right. Yeah. Yeah, let's take this to court, let's -"
(Sandra Bland exits the dashcam frame, going to the sidewalk.)
Encinia [shouting]: "Go ahead!"
(Encinia exits the dashcam frame behind her.)
Sandra Bland: "- failure to signal, yup, for a failure to signal!"
Encinia [shouting]: "Get off the phone! [overlapping] Get off the phone!"
Sandra Bland: "I'm not on the phone, I have a right to -"
Encinia: "Put your phone down! [overlapping] Put your phone down!"
Sandra Bland: "Sorry?"
Encinia: "Put your phone down! Right now! Put your phone down!"
(At 10:59, Sandra Bland comes back into the dashcam frame and places her
phone on the trunk of her car. Encinia is briefly visible again, then both
exit the frame.)
Encinia: "[inaudible] Come over here! [overlapping] Come over here now!"
Sandra Bland [off camera]: "- you feeling good about yourself?"
Encinia [still shouting]: "Stand right here!"
Sandra Bland: "You feeling good about yourself?"
Encinia: "Stand right there!" [overlapping]
Sandra Bland: "You feel real good about yourself, don't you?
Encinia: "Turn around!" [overlapping]
Sandra Bland: "You feel real good about yourself, don't you?"
Encinia [still shouting]: "Turn around now!" [overlapping]
"Put your hands behind your back and turn around now! Turn around!"
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being arrested? Why can't you tell me -
[overlapping] Why am I being arrested?"
Encinia: "I am giving you a lawful order. Turn around."
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being arrested?"
Encinia: "Turn around! [overlapping] I'm giving you a lawful order. Turn
around!"
Sandra Bland: "Why will you not tell me that part?" [overlapping]
Encinia: "You're not complying."
Sandra Bland: "I'm not complying because you just pulled me out of my car."
Encinia [screaming]: "Turn around!"
Sandra Bland: "Are you fucking kidding me? This is some bullshit -"
Encinia: "Put your hands behind your back."
Ever professional, Encinia says he's glad Sandra Bland is epileptic
At this point, roughly eight minutes after being stopped for changing lanes
without signaling, Sandra Bland is in handcuffs. There is no evidence in the
dashcam video that she physically resisted at all at any point. The video
shows Trooper Encinia to be the physical aggressor as well as the verbal
aggressor. For the next minute or so, Sandra Bland rants and curses at
Encinia, accuses him of being "scared of a female," calls him "a pussy," and
rails at him for his behavior, adding "I can't wait to go to court" and
repeating it several times.
At 11:47, Encinia tries to tell her he was just giving her a warning,
saying, "If you had just listened -" She interrupts to say, "I was trying to
sign the fucking papers. Whatever." But even if she had listened, she never
would have heard Encinia say he was giving her a warning, because he didn't
say it till it was way too late. Already he's creating a lie about the
event. "You were getting a warning ticket, now you're going to jail," he
says at 12:19, putting the blame on her. She says he's breaking her wrist,
he tells her to stop moving. Then he leaves her unattended and goes to her
car. At 13:00 he slaps the ticket on the trunk of the car and says, "This
right here says a warning. You started causing a problem." She answers,
nailing the critical moment: "You asked me what was wrong." He didn't say
anything about getting a warning at the time.
Now Sandra Bland screams in pain that he's about to break her wrists and
asks him to stop, then screams again. At 13:20, there are sounds of a
tussle, screaming and shouting. This is likely the sound of Encinia taking
the handcuffed Sandra Bland to the ground and holding her down with a knee
in her back, her hands behind her back. Encinia screams, "Stop now! Stop!"
During this, Encinia's backups from Prairie View PD arrive off camera, a
white male and a black woman (apparently Penne Goode, on the force a few
months), who says, "Stop resisting, Ma'am." Encinia screams, "If you would
stop, then I would tell you.... When you pull away from me, then you are
resisting arrest." When she says, "You're a real man now, you slam me, knock
my head in the ground, I got epilepsy you motherfucker," Encinia replies,
"Good! Good!" And the black female cop says, "You should have thought about
that before you start resisting."
At 15:29, Encinia says, falsely, of the black female cop, "This officer saw
everything," Sandra Bland says she didn't, she wasn't even there for most of
it. "I'm not talking to you," says the black female cop. Later she reassures
Encinia about his version of events. He says he's glad it's all on video.
But it's not.
The second video, shot by a bystander who arrived well into the event,
corresponds with the dashcam video roughly 13:50-15:29. It shows the black
female cop and Encinia holding Sandra Bland down on the ground while she
rails at them. After about thirty seconds, Encinia gets up and comes toward
the camera, shouting "You need to leave" three times at the bystander, who
says he's on public property. Encinia does not confront the bystander, who
continues to tape as Encinia returns to Sandra Bland where she is still
being held down. The officers bring her to the backup cruiser and the tape
ends.
By 15:45, Encinia and the backup officers have put Sandra Bland in the
backup cruiser and she can no longer be heard clearly. Later the backup cops
search Sandra Bland's car, apparently without permission, a warrant, or
reasonable probable cause.
The official story went right into "Character Assassination Mode"
Encinia, who has already told Sandra Bland it's all her fault, now (16:08)
tells the black female cop his version of what Sandra Bland did to him: "She
started yanking away and kicked me, so I took her straight to the ground."
Then Encinia says he's not hurt, as he chats with the other officers about
the nature of his "injuries."
Moments later (starting at 17:47), apparently alone in his cruiser, Encinia
is talking to someone who can't be heard, probably on the phone. From
Encinia's conversation, this person seems to be supportive, possibly a union
rep or a lawyer, someone to whom Encinia is comfortable floating his first,
fictitious version of his attack on Sandra Bland, calling it a traffic stop
at which he "had a little bit of an incident," then breaks off.
After about five minutes of police radio chatter and static, Encinia is
again talking to the same or another unknown but sympathetic person (23:24).
Encinia is saying: "... de-escalate her and it wasn't getting me anywhere at
all.... I put the taser away, you know I tried talking to her, calming her
down, and that was not working.... Well, I know, that was when she was in
custody, and now I'm trying to get her detained, get her to calm down, and,
you know, just calm down. Stop throwing her arms. You know what? She never
swung at me, just flailing and stomping around. [emphasis added] I said all
right that's enough, and that's when I detained her.... we were in the
middle of a traffic stop... I was trying to get her out and over to the side
and, you know, just explain to her what was going on.... I don't have
serious bodily injury, but I was kicked.... [he reviews the legal meaning of
"assault"]... She said I threw her down intentionally, for nothing.... Well
I kept telling her to calm down, calm down.... I didn't say you're under
arrest.... I told her what she was receiving and what to do and so forth,
and by that time she was very much irritated and so forth.... She wouldn't
even look at me, she looked straight ahead, mad.... And then when I had her
down on the ground, and another officer and I told her to stop resisting,
and that's when I told her, you're under arrest.... I took the lesser of, I
only took enough force as I see necessary, I de-escalated once we were on
the pavement.... I allowed time to de-escalate and so forth.... over a
simple traffic stop - yeah, I don't get it, I really don't." [Ends at 34:40,
when Encinia goes to search Sandra Bland's car.]
No, he really doesn't seem to get it. He never asked her to calm down while
it might have mattered, he kept escalating until she blew up. Is Encinia
lying here? Does he even know what's true? Does he believe this palpably
false version of the event? Will anyone else who sees the video think
Encinia is capable of telling the truth?
During the last 30-plus minutes of the dashcam video, it records a number of
traffic violations that draw no response from the police, even though they
are similar to Sandra Bland's "offense." A car changes lanes without
signaling, then passes another car on the right (14:45). A black car turns
left without signaling and a red car passes it on the right (15:44). A truck
turns left without signaling as a car changes lanes without signaling
(16:54). A white car turns left without signaling (19:26). The tow truck to
tow Sandra Bland's car, making a U-turn without signaling (22:22). A black
car changes lanes with no signal (28:50). A truck turns right without
signaling (34:06). A car changes lanes with no signal (46:45). A truck
changes lanes with no signal (47:18). A van changes lanes with no signal
(47:22). At least the last three violations took place right in front of
Encinia's cruiser while there was nothing else to occupy his attention.
Encinia is joined by fellow Character Assassins
The character assassination phase in police crimes like this usually begins
immediately, as it does here with Encinia. The character assassination phase
is when officials who are perpetrators or perp-protectors do their best to
blame the victim (the smearing of Michael Brown in Ferguson last year being
a textbook example). Often they are joined by investigators and judicial
authorities who are "team players" who protect the team above honesty or
justice. Typically they are helped by credulous or like-minded media.
When District Attorney Elton Mathis [see above] said, on July 22, "we are
treating this as a murder investigation," he was repeating what he'd said at
his July 20 press conference. That perspective seems to have become an
anomaly and Mathis seems to have faded into the background, leaving other
officials to continue to attack Sandra Bland posthumously. Character
assassination does not require falsehood, not does it preclude falsehood.
But the most effective character assassination is anything that puts the
target in a bad light and is true, or seems to be true, but lacks meaningful
context. Some examples of the Texas effort to assassinate the character of
Sandra Bland:
July 13. The Warren County Sheriff's Office established the official story
from the start: that Sandra Bland committed suicide, hanging herself with a
garbage bag. Posts on Facebook supporting the official story are no longer
available there, as the Sheriff's Office Facebook page has been taken down.
Among other things, it featured the Declaration of Independence and a
cleavage-shot of a well-endowed woman in a blue dress. [Missing context from
then till now: credible motivation to kill herself.]
July 14. The Warren County Sheriff's Office posted a lengthy press release
on Facebook (no longer available) that summarized the official story: "On
Monday, July 13th, at approximately 09:00 am, a female inmate [Sandra Bland]
was found in her cell not breathing from what appears to be self-inflicted
asphyxiation." [Missing context: Warren County Sheriff Glenn Smith has a
history of racial animus that led to his suspension (2007) and then firing
(2008) as police chief in nearby Hempstead, Texas.]
July 17. NBC Chicago-TV ran an "investigative" piece on Sandra Bland's
driving record: "Sandra Bland had at least 10 encounters herself with police
in both Illinois and Texas in past years" (headline). The report covered the
years 2004-2014 and said she still owed $7,579 in fines and court fees.
[Missing context: relevance to the Texas stop, which will never be
adjudicated.]
July 21. The Waller County Sheriff's Office released a three-hour jail video
purporting to show no activity around Sandra Bland's jail cell before she
was found dead. Sandra Bland is not visible in any of the video. [Missing
context: any reliable timeline of Sandra Bland circumstances from booking to
death.]
July 21. The Waller County district attorney's office released Trooper
Encinia's incident report despite its falsification of the event, easily
determined by viewing the dashcam tape. Encinia omits his escalation when he
asked Sandra Bland to put out her cigarette. Encinia omits mention of his
drawing his taser and threatening Sandra Bland with it. Noting these
omissions, The New York Times nevertheless quotes from the incident report
as if it's credible.
July 22. Warren County Sheriff Glenn Smith told the Associated Press that
Sandra Bland said she had previously tried to kill herself. If she did kill
herself, she is the first black woman suicide in a Texas jail since 2009.
[Missing context: A similarly "inexplicable suicide" occurred in Warren
County jail in 2012: James Harper Howell IV, 29, was a white man in jail for
the same charge as Sandra Bland, assaulting a public servant.]
July 22: Former NYPD detective Harry Houck tells CNN panel that "Sandra
Bland died because she was 'arrogant from the beginning'" (headline). Houck
seems to have seen a different video: "Even if he [Encinia] de-escalated
that whole situation, she would have kept coming at that officer the way she
did. I don't think he baited her at all. She just wanted to be
uncooperative.... She had a problem with the officer, she had a problem with
being stopped, she didn't like the fact that she was being stopped. Her
whole arrogant attitude." [Missing context: Perception shaped by racial bias
is a national problem.]
July 22. Unnamed "Texas officials" provided the basis for a Washington Post
story headlined: "Sandra Bland previously attempted suicide, jail documents
say." Referring to inconsistencies in jail paperwork, assistant district
attorney Warren Diepraam emailed the post that "the contradictions were
created by here." [Missing context: Why were the contradictions not noticed,
addressed, resolved?]
July 23. The Last Refuge, a rightwing website
(theconservativetreehouse.com), sets out to blame Sandra Bland's family for
her suicide: "There's a particular irony with the sister of Sandra Bland,
Sharon Cooper, going on television to state she blames the Waller County
Texas jail for her sister's demise, when Sharon Cooper refused to aid Sandra
while she was in jail for 3 days.... Apparently, Ms. Bland was trying to put
together $500 for a bond payment and none of her family, including her
sister Sharon, were willing to assist.... It would appear a disconnected
family, and the sense of isolation, might very well have led to an
overpowering sense of desperation - ultimately resulting in her suicide
while in jail." This anonymous writer goes on to recite part of the NBC
driving record report and other denigrations. [Missing context: What
actually went on over the weekend with the $5,000 bond and the family?]
July 23. Assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam undercuts DA Mathis and
reaffirms the official story: "At this particular time, I have not seen any
evidence that indicates this was a homicide. I can say she tested positive
for marijuana." [Missing contexts: (1) What evidence was looked for? (2) How
did she get marijuana in jail? and (3) Is the marijuana evidence of
homicide?]
July 24. Waller County Jail has apparently helped two women prisoners come
forward to say Sandra Bland committed suicide. The women were in a cell with
three inmates near the cell where Sandra Bland was alone. ABC Eyewitness
News touts its "exclusive" coverage of these two witnesses, one of whom
remains anonymous, who support the official story. [Missing context: the
degree to which each of these women remains entangled in the Texas justice
system.]
July 24. Waller County Judge Trey Duhon, in a Facebook post, blamed Sandra
Bland for inconsistencies in jail forms filled out by jail personnel at
different times. One form said she was depressed, another didn't. The
judge's Facebook post also referred to a "high level" of marijuana in Sandra
Bland's system. The judge's Facebook page is no longer available. [Missing
context: any explanation of the apparently chaotic booking process at the
Waller County Jail.]
July 24. Assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam discussed the
preliminary autopsy report (later released), emphasizing the marijuana in
her system and some 30 cuts on her left wrist that he guessed were
self-inflicted some weeks earlier. These tidbits were picked up and
amplified by KHOU-TV in Houston, characterizing it all as "evidence
consistent with suicide and evidence of a troubled past." KHOU-TV presented
it all from the prosecutors' point of view, even downplaying Sandra Bland's
wrist and back injuries from handcuffs and a trooper's knee in her back.
Gratuitously, KHOU-TV also threw in a segment on Sandra Bland's "other
run-ins with the law," which they list in detail, with a throwaway line at
the end that she had had no legal problems in the past five years. The tag
line is another cheap shot about more blood tests to see if the were other
substances in her system "like that epilepsy drug she claimed she was
taking." [Missing context: any independent medical history.]
The flip side of character assassination of the victim is cover-up for the
perpetrators. For example, "officials" at the Texas Department of Public
Safety say Encinia is assigned to administrative leave, with pay, for
violating unspecified police procedures and the Department of Public Safety
courtesy policy. Officials refuse to answer questions about Encinia trying
to pull Sandra Bland out of her car. Officials refuse to answer questions
about Encinia drawing his stun gun. Officials pretty much refuse to answer
most useful questions.
Trooper Encinia refused to answer most of Sandra Bland's questions. She
asked him fourteen times, why was she being arrested? He never gave her an
answer. He was still trying to figure it out, on the phone, after she was in
custody. His answer might have saved her life. She was buried July 25. The
official story expects us to believe that this feisty, educated, politically
conscious black woman that we see on video tape and elsewhere in her online
life changed so completely in less than three days that she gave up and
killed herself.
Is that credible? What else happened over that weekend?
________________________________________
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV,
print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont
judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation
for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination
from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Lanitra Dean hugs Carlesha Harrison, a friend of Sandra Bland, during a
vigil for Bland at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas.
(photo: Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle/AP)
http://www.readersupportednews.org/http://www.readersupportednews.org/
Sandra Bland's Death Is Part of White America's Killing Spree
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
26 July 15
"... every black man born in this country, until this present moment, is
born into a country which assures him, in as many ways as it can find, that
he is not worth the dirt he walks on... Now, many, indeed, have survived,
and at an incalculable cost, and many more have perished and are perishing
every day. If you tell a child and do your best to prove to the child that
he is not worth life, it is entirely possible that sooner or later the child
begins to believe it."
- James Baldwin, in Oakland, June 1963
hite America is on a killing spree. White cops across the country are
killing black men, women, and children at an obscene rate for obscene
reasons. White America's designated executioners-in-uniform wield arbitrary
and unpredictable lethal force on behalf of a state that rarely holds them
accountable for their killings. That's because it is white America that is
on the killing spree. White America's white cops pull the triggers or beat
the heads or choke the breath out of black people, but they are just the
ugly expression of the supremacy of a white America that sanctions their
murderous violence while feigning some concern, sometimes, about its bloody
application. White America dares its black president to say something, do
something, knowing he won't, knowing he can't, knowing he doesn't dare
appear even for a moment to be the angry black man he has every reason to
be.
As of July 22, 2015, US police had killed 644 people, as shown in a
searchable count by the Guardian. The number is probably low, given the
reluctance of US authorities to collect reliable data (such as Congress
continuing the 19 year ban on gun violence research by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention). Of the 644 dead at the hands of police,
almost all (95%) are male, and most, 373 (58%), are non-white. Police
killings on average are found justifiable in 98.9% of all cases. Police
killings are far more frequent in the US than in other developed countries.
US police killed 59 people in the first 24 days of 2015, compared to the
police of England and Wales who have killed 55 people in the past 24 years.
The Icelandic police, in their 71 year history, have killed exactly one
person (in 2013). Denmark, Russia, Pakistan, and Chad have all expressed
concern about the state of human rights in the US. California police have
killed 95 people so far. Texas is second with 64. Florida, Arizona, and
Oklahoma round out the top five. Only South Dakota, Rhode Island, and
Vermont police haven't killed anyone this year. So far in 2015, US police
have killed six unarmed black women.
Whether or not Sandra Bland was directly killed by public officials (or
their agents) in Texas on or before July 13 is not yet known (the Texas
Tribune has covered the story since July 16). The case is currently in the
character assassination phase [see below], as well as the speculation and
rumor phase. This area of Texas has a reputation for racial profiling by its
police. The Waller County Sheriff's Office says she hanged herself in her
cell with a white plastic garbage bag. In any event, she died in police
custody, like more than two dozen others in 2015 so far. Police custody is
supposed to be where the arrestee is safe, not killed. According to Waller
County District Attorney Elton Mathis, the Texas Rangers and the FBI are
treating Bland's death as a homicide. The DA has reason to proceed
carefully, as Waller County has a long history of racism, including a racist
DA forced from office in 2004, continued monitoring by the U.S. Justice
Department for voting rights violations, and being a leading area for
lynchings from 1877 to 1950. On July 22 on CNN, Mathis said the case would
go to a grand jury. He also said:
It is very much too early to make any kind of determination that this was a
suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete. This is
being treated like a murder investigation. There are too many questions that
still need to be resolved. Ms. Bland's family does make valid points that
she did have a lot of things going on in her life that were good.
The best publicly available evidence so far of the stop and arrest of Sandra
Bland is a pair of videos: the 49-minute dashcam video from the police
cruiser and a much shorter video taken by a witness whom police chased away
from the scene. [The first dashcam video from the Texas Department of Safety
was 52 minutes, but had anomalies that triggered credible accusations of
malicious editing; the second dashcam video is not substantially different
from the first; as evidence, any dashcam video remains suspect since the
chain of custody puts it in the hands of the accused from the start.]
What happened to Sandra Bland from Friday afternoon until Monday morning is
much less clear. All that we know with any certainty is that the justice
system in Warren County, Texas, was out of control from the instant it had
Sandra Bland in its sights. If the Texas justice system did not literally
kill Sandra Bland, it absolutely created the conditions that led to her
death, however that may have occurred. No matter what actually happened,
there are guilty Texas law enforcement personnel who need to be held
accountable for their actions, most obviously, but not only, Trooper Brian
Encinia, 30, who has been a trooper just over a year. He initiated the Texas
killing of Sandra Bland around 4:30 in the afternoon of July 10 in Prairie
View, Texas.
At that point, Sandra Bland was unknown to the wider world. She was just
another young person who had been looking for work and found it. She was 28,
from the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. She was unarmed. She was
about to start working for her college alma mater, Prairie View A&M
University. She was engaged with Black Lives Matter and active in social
media. She was acutely aware of what it means to be black in America, and
how dangerous it is.
For what it's worth, Bernie Sanders was the first to call the event police
abuse and more or less everyone else, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton,
agrees with some version of Trump's opinion of Encinia: He just was very
aggressive. I didn't like his demeanor, I thought it was terrible¦.
[There is a third, shorter (17:26) video, a dashcam video from the fourth
police vehicle on the scene, but it has little apparent probative value.
This cruiser arrived well into the event and shows three people, apparently
all police officers, standing around in relaxed positions on the sidewalk
(Encinia does not appear to be one of them). At 6:18, the three officers go
to the back passenger-side backdoor of the second cruiser. Sandra Bland
comes out and stands up. Two of the officers appear to do a patdown search.
She is passive, unresisting, calm throughout. By 7:20, Sandra Bland is back
inside the cruiser. During the next ten minutes, a fourth officer arrives
(not Encinia) and they stand in a group, in relaxed postures, appearing to
shoot the breeze. This video has no sound.]
[A fourth short (14:05) dashcam video from the same cruiser appears to be
even less probative. It follows some time after the third video and mostly
shows officers milling about with no sense of urgency. At 1:57, a medical
van arrives, the med technicians seem to talk to Sandra Bland in the back of
the second cruiser for two minutes, but she does not appear. At 11:35, the
medical van leaves. At 13:01, Encinia appears to have a brief exchange with
Sandra Bland inside the cruiser. At 13:26, Encinia's cruiser leaves,
followed by the cruiser with Sandra Bland, followed by the dashcam cruiser.
The video has no sound.]
[These two videos were posted on the City of Prairie View, Texas, YouTube
channel late July 24, without comment. It has six subscribers and no other
content.]
Why does Encinia chase her before she commits the "infraction"?
Encina's dashcam video (49-minute version) begins with the end of a previous
stop, with Encinia walking up to the driver's side of the car (the driver is
not visible), where he advises her to get her dad to send something to the
insurance company. Then he says he's just giving her a warning for a
speeding violation, no fine no penalty: "Follow the posted speed limit, OK?"
But instead of just sending her on her way, he asks another question, still
holding her license, so she's not free to go:
0:31 - Encinia: "What year are you here at school?" She says she's a
sophomore. Encenia chats her up about her classes for a moment before
repeating that there's no penalty. Then he returns her license. (So what was
THAT about?) At 0:46 he steps away from the car, which drives away and
slowly starts to turn left while signaling. After another car passes her in
the left-hand turning lane, she turns left and drives away.
1:15 - As Encinia starts to move, Sandra Bland's car approaches the
intersection where the previous car has just turned in. The only vehicles
visible are Encinia's, Sandra Bland's, and the passing car in the far
distance ahead of Encinia. This is a virtually empty roadway at least four
lanes wide.
1:15-1:31 - At the intersection, Sandra Bland rolls slowly past a stop sign
and turns right without signaling onto the roadway that is empty except for
the police cruiser across the street in front of her. Encinia promptly makes
a U-turn through the same intersection and speeds up to follow Sandra Bland.
1:32-2:31 - Encinia speeds up to catch up to Sandra Bland as she passes
through an intersection on a green light. A white pickup truck is turning
right onto the roadway in front of her. The roadway approaching the light
has a single travel lane and a left-turn-only lane. After the light the
roadway has two travel lanes. As Encinia closes in on Sandra Bland, she
pulls into the right-hand lane without signaling. Encinia pulls into the
right-hand lane behind her and, after a moment, at 2:02, he turns on his
flashing lights. She slows and comes to a full stop by 2:15. The white
pick-up truck passes them in the left-hand lane at 2:22 and drives out of
sight.
Encinia asks, "What's wrong?" Is it possible he does not know?
2:31-3:11 - Encinia approaches the passenger side of Sandra Bland's car,
apparently adjusting a weapon with his left hand as he walks. At 2:44, he
tells Sandra Bland that he stopped her because "you failed to signal a lane
change" and asks for her insurance papers. Sandra Bland is inaudible. At
2:50, Encenia asks, "What's wrong?" Her answer, if any, is inaudible.
(So much is already wrong. Failure to signal a lane change on an almost
empty highway? A violation of the law that should be subject to officer
discretion, one might think, especially since it's also a violation NOT to
pull to the right to let a police cruiser pass. She a young black woman from
Illinois, traveling alone, confronted with a strange white cop on the
passenger side of her car deep in the heart of Texas asking her what's
wrong? The better question is: what's right?) Twenty seconds after asking
"What's wrong?" and getting no answer, Encinia changes tactic.
3:12-3:26 - Encinia: "How long you been in Texas?" (How is this relevant?)
Sandra Bland: "Got here yesterday."
Encinia says "OK," and is quiet for awhile.
3:27-8:39 - Ensenia: "Do you have a driver's license?" Response inaudible.
At 3:34, Ensenia asks, "You OK?" No response, or inaudible.
At 3:46, Encenia asks, "Where you headed to now?" Response inaudible. By
4:10 Encinia has returned to his cruiser.
At 7:24, a red car passes on the left and pulls into the right lane without
signaling. Encinia does not pursue it.
At 8:35, Encinia returns to Sandra Bland's car, this time approaching the
driver's side.
8:40 -Encinia says, "OK, Ma'am," and when she says nothing, he asks, "You
OK?"(So what is really going on here? This is the third time Encinia has
inquired about Sandra Bland's well-being, the second time with the same
words. What's the relevance? It's not credible that he cares. If he believes
he's made a legitimate stop, why doesn't he complete it quickly and
professionally? If he knows he's made a specious stop, for whatever reason,
why would he expect her to be OK? Is he taunting her? Baiting her? He
presumably knows he can defuse the situation at any moment, if he wants to,
by telling her she's just getting a warning. Why hasn't he said that yet?
This time, when he says "You OK?" again, Sandra Bland responds, somewhat
testily, but still staying disengaged.)
8:47-9:09 - Sandra Bland: "I'm waiting on you. This is your job. I'm waiting
on you. What do you want me to do?"
(He interrupts her, but he doesn't say what he wants her to do. Instead he
baits her again.)
Encinia: "Well, you seem very irritated."
Sandra Bland [matter-of-factly]: "I am. I really am. Because of what I've
been stopped and am getting a ticket for. I've been getting out of the way.
You've been speeding up, so I move over and you stop me. So yeah, I am a
little irritated. But that didn't stop you from giving me a ticket."
Why does Encinia continue to escalate, relentlessly?
According to Encinia, later, he's NOT giving her a ticket, he's giving her a
warning. Why does he not say this? Why does he make NO attempt to
de-escalate, to defuse the tension, to calm her down? Why does he act so
differently with Sandra Bland from the way he treated his previous stop just
8 minutes earlier? After Sandra Bland says, "That didn't stop you from
giving me a ticket," there are three seconds of silence during which Encinia
could simply say he's giving her a warning. He could even say she was right
to pull out of his way as he sped up behind her. He does nothing like that.
Instead he snarks.
9:09-10:38 -
Encinia: "Are you done?"
Sandra Bland: "You asked me what was wrong and I told you."
Encinia: "OK."
Sandra Bland: "So now I'm done, yeah."
Encinia: "OK."
(Silence about 3 seconds, then Encinia adds a new provocation.)
Encinia: "Do you mind putting out your cigarette, please? [inaudible
phrase]" (brief pause)
Sandra Bland [still matter-of-fact]: "I'm in my car. Why do I have to put
out my cigarette?"
(This is her first direct challenge to him, and it's a chance to
de-escalate. But He does not try to calm her down, he doesn't even say,
"Calm down." He ratchets up the threat.)
Encinia [edgy, quick]: "Well, you can step out now."
(This sudden escalation is startling. Encinia doesn't answer her question
but jumps in instantly with his order to get out of the car. He doesn't say
why. Does he know why? Reasoned or not, he orders it. She reasonably
objects.)
Sandra Bland [calm]: "I don't have to step out of my car."
Encinia [voice rising]: "Step out of the car."
(After a couple of seconds of no response, Encinia opens the driver side
door. He stands there, with his right hand reaching into the car as he
continues to talk.)
"Step out of the car"
Sandra Bland: "No, you don't have the right."
Encinia [raising his voice]: "Step out of the car!"
Sandra Bland: "You do not have the right to do that."
(Their voices overlap as the exchange quickens.)
Encinia: "I do have the right. Now step out or I will remove you."
Sandra Bland: "I refuse to talk to you other than inside -"
[inaudible, overlapping]
Encinia: "Step out or I will remove you."
Sandra Bland: "I am getting removed for a failure to signal?"
Encinia: "Step out or I will remove you. I'm giving you a lawful order.
Get out of the car now, or I'm going to remove you."
Sandra Bland: "And I'm calling my lawyer."
Encinia: "I'm going to yank you out of here."
(As he says this, he lunges into the car, most of his upper torso leaning
into the car as he apparently grabs at her.)
Sandra Bland: "OK, you're going to yank me out of my car? OK. All right.
[inaudible, Encinia on radio] Don't do this."
Encinia: "We're going to -"
Sandra Bland: "Don't touch me!"
Encinia [shouting]: "Get out of the car!"
Sandra Bland: "Don't touch me. I am not under arrest. You don't have the
right to touch me."
Encinia: "You are under arrest."
Sandra Bland: "I'm under arrest for what? For what?"
(Encinia does not answer her question. Instead he calls for backup.)
Encinia: [inaudible] "... send me another unit... "
[loud and stressed]: "Get out of the car! Get out of the car! Now!"
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being apprehended? Did you try to give me a ticket
for failure -"
Encinia: "I said get out of the car!"
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being apprehended? You done opened my car door."
[overlapping}
Encinia: "I'm giving you a lawful order. I'm going to drag you out of here."
Sandra Bland: "So you're going to drag me out of my own car?"
(As she says this, Encenia draws his taser and points it at her, reaching
inside the car to do so.)
Encinia [screaming]: "Get out of the car! I will light you up! Get out!
Sandra Bland [getting out of the car, holding her phone]: "Wow"
Encinia [screaming]: "Now!"
Sandra Bland: "Wow."
Encinia [screaming]: "Get out of the car!"
Encinia doesn't use his taser, Sandra Bland does nothing threatening
At 10:36, Sandra Bland emerges from the car gracefully. She is taller than
Trooper Encinia. She walks toward the rear of the car and then to the
sidewalk, as he directs. There is space between them, an arm's length or
more.
10:38-11:35 -
Sandra Bland: [inaudible] "... for a failure to signal? You're doing
all this for a failure to signal?"
Encinia [shouting as he directs her to the sidewalk]: "Get over there!"
Sandra Bland: "Right. Yeah. Yeah, let's take this to court, let's -"
(Sandra Bland exits the dashcam frame, going to the sidewalk.)
Encinia [shouting]: "Go ahead!"
(Encinia exits the dashcam frame behind her.)
Sandra Bland: "- failure to signal, yup, for a failure to signal!"
Encinia [shouting]: "Get off the phone! [overlapping] Get off the phone!"
Sandra Bland: "I'm not on the phone, I have a right to -"
Encinia: "Put your phone down! [overlapping] Put your phone down!"
Sandra Bland: "Sorry?"
Encinia: "Put your phone down! Right now! Put your phone down!"
(At 10:59, Sandra Bland comes back into the dashcam frame and places her
phone on the trunk of her car. Encinia is briefly visible again, then both
exit the frame.)
Encinia: "[inaudible] Come over here! [overlapping] Come over here now!"
Sandra Bland [off camera]: "- you feeling good about yourself?"
Encinia [still shouting]: "Stand right here!"
Sandra Bland: "You feeling good about yourself?"
Encinia: "Stand right there!" [overlapping]
Sandra Bland: "You feel real good about yourself, don't you?
Encinia: "Turn around!" [overlapping]
Sandra Bland: "You feel real good about yourself, don't you?"
Encinia [still shouting]: "Turn around now!" [overlapping]
"Put your hands behind your back and turn around now! Turn around!"
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being arrested? Why can't you tell me -
[overlapping] Why am I being arrested?"
Encinia: "I am giving you a lawful order. Turn around."
Sandra Bland: "Why am I being arrested?"
Encinia: "Turn around! [overlapping] I'm giving you a lawful order. Turn
around!"
Sandra Bland: "Why will you not tell me that part?" [overlapping]
Encinia: "You're not complying."
Sandra Bland: "I'm not complying because you just pulled me out of my car."
Encinia [screaming]: "Turn around!"
Sandra Bland: "Are you fucking kidding me? This is some bullshit -"
Encinia: "Put your hands behind your back."
Ever professional, Encinia says he's glad Sandra Bland is epileptic
At this point, roughly eight minutes after being stopped for changing lanes
without signaling, Sandra Bland is in handcuffs. There is no evidence in the
dashcam video that she physically resisted at all at any point. The video
shows Trooper Encinia to be the physical aggressor as well as the verbal
aggressor. For the next minute or so, Sandra Bland rants and curses at
Encinia, accuses him of being "scared of a female," calls him "a pussy," and
rails at him for his behavior, adding "I can't wait to go to court" and
repeating it several times.
At 11:47, Encinia tries to tell her he was just giving her a warning,
saying, "If you had just listened -" She interrupts to say, "I was trying to
sign the fucking papers. Whatever." But even if she had listened, she never
would have heard Encinia say he was giving her a warning, because he didn't
say it till it was way too late. Already he's creating a lie about the
event. "You were getting a warning ticket, now you're going to jail," he
says at 12:19, putting the blame on her. She says he's breaking her wrist,
he tells her to stop moving. Then he leaves her unattended and goes to her
car. At 13:00 he slaps the ticket on the trunk of the car and says, "This
right here says a warning. You started causing a problem." She answers,
nailing the critical moment: "You asked me what was wrong." He didn't say
anything about getting a warning at the time.
Now Sandra Bland screams in pain that he's about to break her wrists and
asks him to stop, then screams again. At 13:20, there are sounds of a
tussle, screaming and shouting. This is likely the sound of Encinia taking
the handcuffed Sandra Bland to the ground and holding her down with a knee
in her back, her hands behind her back. Encinia screams, "Stop now! Stop!"
During this, Encinia's backups from Prairie View PD arrive off camera, a
white male and a black woman (apparently Penne Goode, on the force a few
months), who says, "Stop resisting, Ma'am." Encinia screams, "If you would
stop, then I would tell you.... When you pull away from me, then you are
resisting arrest." When she says, "You're a real man now, you slam me, knock
my head in the ground, I got epilepsy you motherfucker," Encinia replies,
"Good! Good!" And the black female cop says, "You should have thought about
that before you start resisting."
At 15:29, Encinia says, falsely, of the black female cop, "This officer saw
everything," Sandra Bland says she didn't, she wasn't even there for most of
it. "I'm not talking to you," says the black female cop. Later she reassures
Encinia about his version of events. He says he's glad it's all on video.
But it's not.
The second video, shot by a bystander who arrived well into the event,
corresponds with the dashcam video roughly 13:50-15:29. It shows the black
female cop and Encinia holding Sandra Bland down on the ground while she
rails at them. After about thirty seconds, Encinia gets up and comes toward
the camera, shouting "You need to leave" three times at the bystander, who
says he's on public property. Encinia does not confront the bystander, who
continues to tape as Encinia returns to Sandra Bland where she is still
being held down. The officers bring her to the backup cruiser and the tape
ends.
By 15:45, Encinia and the backup officers have put Sandra Bland in the
backup cruiser and she can no longer be heard clearly. Later the backup cops
search Sandra Bland's car, apparently without permission, a warrant, or
reasonable probable cause.
The official story went right into "Character Assassination Mode"
Encinia, who has already told Sandra Bland it's all her fault, now (16:08)
tells the black female cop his version of what Sandra Bland did to him: "She
started yanking away and kicked me, so I took her straight to the ground."
Then Encinia says he's not hurt, as he chats with the other officers about
the nature of his "injuries."
Moments later (starting at 17:47), apparently alone in his cruiser, Encinia
is talking to someone who can't be heard, probably on the phone. From
Encinia's conversation, this person seems to be supportive, possibly a union
rep or a lawyer, someone to whom Encinia is comfortable floating his first,
fictitious version of his attack on Sandra Bland, calling it a traffic stop
at which he "had a little bit of an incident," then breaks off.
After about five minutes of police radio chatter and static, Encinia is
again talking to the same or another unknown but sympathetic person (23:24).
Encinia is saying: "... de-escalate her and it wasn't getting me anywhere at
all.... I put the taser away, you know I tried talking to her, calming her
down, and that was not working.... Well, I know, that was when she was in
custody, and now I'm trying to get her detained, get her to calm down, and,
you know, just calm down. Stop throwing her arms. You know what? She never
swung at me, just flailing and stomping around. [emphasis added] I said all
right that's enough, and that's when I detained her.... we were in the
middle of a traffic stop... I was trying to get her out and over to the side
and, you know, just explain to her what was going on.... I don't have
serious bodily injury, but I was kicked.... [he reviews the legal meaning of
"assault"]... She said I threw her down intentionally, for nothing.... Well
I kept telling her to calm down, calm down.... I didn't say you're under
arrest.... I told her what she was receiving and what to do and so forth,
and by that time she was very much irritated and so forth.... She wouldn't
even look at me, she looked straight ahead, mad.... And then when I had her
down on the ground, and another officer and I told her to stop resisting,
and that's when I told her, you're under arrest.... I took the lesser of, I
only took enough force as I see necessary, I de-escalated once we were on
the pavement.... I allowed time to de-escalate and so forth.... over a
simple traffic stop - yeah, I don't get it, I really don't." [Ends at 34:40,
when Encinia goes to search Sandra Bland's car.]
No, he really doesn't seem to get it. He never asked her to calm down while
it might have mattered, he kept escalating until she blew up. Is Encinia
lying here? Does he even know what's true? Does he believe this palpably
false version of the event? Will anyone else who sees the video think
Encinia is capable of telling the truth?
During the last 30-plus minutes of the dashcam video, it records a number of
traffic violations that draw no response from the police, even though they
are similar to Sandra Bland's "offense." A car changes lanes without
signaling, then passes another car on the right (14:45). A black car turns
left without signaling and a red car passes it on the right (15:44). A truck
turns left without signaling as a car changes lanes without signaling
(16:54). A white car turns left without signaling (19:26). The tow truck to
tow Sandra Bland's car, making a U-turn without signaling (22:22). A black
car changes lanes with no signal (28:50). A truck turns right without
signaling (34:06). A car changes lanes with no signal (46:45). A truck
changes lanes with no signal (47:18). A van changes lanes with no signal
(47:22). At least the last three violations took place right in front of
Encinia's cruiser while there was nothing else to occupy his attention.
Encinia is joined by fellow Character Assassins
The character assassination phase in police crimes like this usually begins
immediately, as it does here with Encinia. The character assassination phase
is when officials who are perpetrators or perp-protectors do their best to
blame the victim (the smearing of Michael Brown in Ferguson last year being
a textbook example). Often they are joined by investigators and judicial
authorities who are "team players" who protect the team above honesty or
justice. Typically they are helped by credulous or like-minded media.
When District Attorney Elton Mathis [see above] said, on July 22, "we are
treating this as a murder investigation," he was repeating what he'd said at
his July 20 press conference. That perspective seems to have become an
anomaly and Mathis seems to have faded into the background, leaving other
officials to continue to attack Sandra Bland posthumously. Character
assassination does not require falsehood, not does it preclude falsehood.
But the most effective character assassination is anything that puts the
target in a bad light and is true, or seems to be true, but lacks meaningful
context. Some examples of the Texas effort to assassinate the character of
Sandra Bland:
July 13. The Warren County Sheriff's Office established the official story
from the start: that Sandra Bland committed suicide, hanging herself with a
garbage bag. Posts on Facebook supporting the official story are no longer
available there, as the Sheriff's Office Facebook page has been taken down.
Among other things, it featured the Declaration of Independence and a
cleavage-shot of a well-endowed woman in a blue dress. [Missing context from
then till now: credible motivation to kill herself.]
July 14. The Warren County Sheriff's Office posted a lengthy press release
on Facebook (no longer available) that summarized the official story: "On
Monday, July 13th, at approximately 09:00 am, a female inmate [Sandra Bland]
was found in her cell not breathing from what appears to be self-inflicted
asphyxiation." [Missing context: Warren County Sheriff Glenn Smith has a
history of racial animus that led to his suspension (2007) and then firing
(2008) as police chief in nearby Hempstead, Texas.]
July 17. NBC Chicago-TV ran an "investigative" piece on Sandra Bland's
driving record: "Sandra Bland had at least 10 encounters herself with police
in both Illinois and Texas in past years" (headline). The report covered the
years 2004-2014 and said she still owed $7,579 in fines and court fees.
[Missing context: relevance to the Texas stop, which will never be
adjudicated.]
July 21. The Waller County Sheriff's Office released a three-hour jail video
purporting to show no activity around Sandra Bland's jail cell before she
was found dead. Sandra Bland is not visible in any of the video. [Missing
context: any reliable timeline of Sandra Bland circumstances from booking to
death.]
July 21. The Waller County district attorney's office released Trooper
Encinia's incident report despite its falsification of the event, easily
determined by viewing the dashcam tape. Encinia omits his escalation when he
asked Sandra Bland to put out her cigarette. Encinia omits mention of his
drawing his taser and threatening Sandra Bland with it. Noting these
omissions, The New York Times nevertheless quotes from the incident report
as if it's credible.
July 22. Warren County Sheriff Glenn Smith told the Associated Press that
Sandra Bland said she had previously tried to kill herself. If she did kill
herself, she is the first black woman suicide in a Texas jail since 2009.
[Missing context: A similarly "inexplicable suicide" occurred in Warren
County jail in 2012: James Harper Howell IV, 29, was a white man in jail for
the same charge as Sandra Bland, assaulting a public servant.]
July 22: Former NYPD detective Harry Houck tells CNN panel that "Sandra
Bland died because she was 'arrogant from the beginning'" (headline). Houck
seems to have seen a different video: "Even if he [Encinia] de-escalated
that whole situation, she would have kept coming at that officer the way she
did. I don't think he baited her at all. She just wanted to be
uncooperative.... She had a problem with the officer, she had a problem with
being stopped, she didn't like the fact that she was being stopped. Her
whole arrogant attitude." [Missing context: Perception shaped by racial bias
is a national problem.]
July 22. Unnamed "Texas officials" provided the basis for a Washington Post
story headlined: "Sandra Bland previously attempted suicide, jail documents
say." Referring to inconsistencies in jail paperwork, assistant district
attorney Warren Diepraam emailed the post that "the contradictions were
created by here." [Missing context: Why were the contradictions not noticed,
addressed, resolved?]
July 23. The Last Refuge, a rightwing website
(theconservativetreehouse.com), sets out to blame Sandra Bland's family for
her suicide: "There's a particular irony with the sister of Sandra Bland,
Sharon Cooper, going on television to state she blames the Waller County
Texas jail for her sister's demise, when Sharon Cooper refused to aid Sandra
while she was in jail for 3 days.... Apparently, Ms. Bland was trying to put
together $500 for a bond payment and none of her family, including her
sister Sharon, were willing to assist.... It would appear a disconnected
family, and the sense of isolation, might very well have led to an
overpowering sense of desperation - ultimately resulting in her suicide
while in jail." This anonymous writer goes on to recite part of the NBC
driving record report and other denigrations. [Missing context: What
actually went on over the weekend with the $5,000 bond and the family?]
July 23. Assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam undercuts DA Mathis and
reaffirms the official story: "At this particular time, I have not seen any
evidence that indicates this was a homicide. I can say she tested positive
for marijuana." [Missing contexts: (1) What evidence was looked for? (2) How
did she get marijuana in jail? and (3) Is the marijuana evidence of
homicide?]
July 24. Waller County Jail has apparently helped two women prisoners come
forward to say Sandra Bland committed suicide. The women were in a cell with
three inmates near the cell where Sandra Bland was alone. ABC Eyewitness
News touts its "exclusive" coverage of these two witnesses, one of whom
remains anonymous, who support the official story. [Missing context: the
degree to which each of these women remains entangled in the Texas justice
system.]
July 24. Waller County Judge Trey Duhon, in a Facebook post, blamed Sandra
Bland for inconsistencies in jail forms filled out by jail personnel at
different times. One form said she was depressed, another didn't. The
judge's Facebook post also referred to a "high level" of marijuana in Sandra
Bland's system. The judge's Facebook page is no longer available. [Missing
context: any explanation of the apparently chaotic booking process at the
Waller County Jail.]
July 24. Assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam discussed the
preliminary autopsy report (later released), emphasizing the marijuana in
her system and some 30 cuts on her left wrist that he guessed were
self-inflicted some weeks earlier. These tidbits were picked up and
amplified by KHOU-TV in Houston, characterizing it all as "evidence
consistent with suicide and evidence of a troubled past." KHOU-TV presented
it all from the prosecutors' point of view, even downplaying Sandra Bland's
wrist and back injuries from handcuffs and a trooper's knee in her back.
Gratuitously, KHOU-TV also threw in a segment on Sandra Bland's "other
run-ins with the law," which they list in detail, with a throwaway line at
the end that she had had no legal problems in the past five years. The tag
line is another cheap shot about more blood tests to see if the were other
substances in her system "like that epilepsy drug she claimed she was
taking." [Missing context: any independent medical history.]
The flip side of character assassination of the victim is cover-up for the
perpetrators. For example, "officials" at the Texas Department of Public
Safety say Encinia is assigned to administrative leave, with pay, for
violating unspecified police procedures and the Department of Public Safety
courtesy policy. Officials refuse to answer questions about Encinia trying
to pull Sandra Bland out of her car. Officials refuse to answer questions
about Encinia drawing his stun gun. Officials pretty much refuse to answer
most useful questions.
Trooper Encinia refused to answer most of Sandra Bland's questions. She
asked him fourteen times, why was she being arrested? He never gave her an
answer. He was still trying to figure it out, on the phone, after she was in
custody. His answer might have saved her life. She was buried July 25. The
official story expects us to believe that this feisty, educated, politically
conscious black woman that we see on video tape and elsewhere in her online
life changed so completely in less than three days that she gave up and
killed herself.
Is that credible? What else happened over that weekend?
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV,
print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont
judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation
for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination
from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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