Im so sick of these stories, frankly I don’t believe she killed herself. Even if she did she should’ve never been in police custody. She is one of many people who have been taken in, and found dead the next day, for minor offenses.
Jessie Williams,of Greys Anatomy, summed this up perfectly, here are some of his tweets
"This country is FULL of Americans who actively exercise their rights when given unlawful, unclear orders by police.
Refusing to roll down windows, present ID, hand over assault rifles, answer ANY questions, etc.THEY are lauded as heroes; patriots. Message boards swell w/ Police being ridiculed & laughed at by this Patriot-Class of Americans.A select segment of Americans are granted the privilege of being able to resist said tyranny, scream at it, punch, shove or elude it.For membership consideration, this club has ONE requirement: the citizen(s) resisting police/the law/status quo must be white. Every time the story involves a black citizen, doing far less, presumed guilt BEGINS as their’s to shed. But one cannot shed blackness.
I am undecided about whether she killed herself or not. Watching the video of the arrest, the thing that made me upset was why he asked her to put out her cigarette. He could have just handed her the warning and gone on, but he wanted to exert his authority, and that’s when the whole thing escalated.
What the heck is a police officer supposed to do if someone doesn’t listen and is combative? Just leave? Say “sorry”?
Remember in the Bland case, there was at least one other officer (reports say female and African-American) present at the time of the arrest.
The only basis for a lawsuit is if they KNEW she had been suicidal, why was she left alone and with a means to kill herself. That’s the only thing that does not fit.
And a lit cigarette is a potential weapon, plus it is disrespectful to smoke in someone’s face. Already they have released reports of THC in her system as of her death - do we know it was a tobacco cigarette?
Perhaps the only other comment I could make is that if she had a miscarriage and was suicidal due to it, why did she not get family or professional support?
For starters, he could not say, “Im going to light you up”. He shouldve given her a ticket and sent her on her way. If you watch the entire video he made a uturn and appeared to follow her for no reason. I know Ive gotten over when cops were zooming up behind me, because I was trying to get out the way. The cop was wrong. Not to mention there is a video circulating that show Sandra being dumped on the ground like garbage, and she was hog tied. I didnt post it, because I wanted to try to verify it was indeed authentic.
This story upsets me so much I’ve found it hard to follow. I have no idea if this is true, but one of my Facebook friends posted a story that said Bland was on a medication (possibly for seizures) that, if not taken on schedule, could cause mood changes – even suicidal thoughts. And the cops were not willing to provide the meds to her while she was in jail. My friend has been on this medication, and confirms this effect. (I don’t have time to search for this story right now, sorry.)
The idea that anyone could end up in jail because (as a first step) they failed to use a turn signal while switching lanes makes me ill. That could have been me – except I’m white, so probably not.
My cousins are white (mostly) and have ended up in jail for stupid things because they talked back to cops.
This case and the whole Rikers Island saga point to the major issue for low income (or low family support) people - if you can’t pay the $500 to get your loved one out of jail, they will sit in jail. And if you can, they can be released.
There needs to be significant bail reform - heck, I’d rather make people get their wages garnished to pay the bail money and get them released ASAP than just let them rot in jail. If she was unemployed, how could she be expected to pay bail?
I don’t know what happened at the jail, but I cannot believe that much of a fuss was made over failure to use turn signal. Seriously?!?!?! That probably happens a thousand times a minute on our streets and highways, and I have to wonder if this trooper was religious in his use of it himself. I’ve sure seen a lot of police cars change lanes without signalling.
I also didn’t watch the whole video because I found it too upsetting. I could hear dh watching it in the other room as the screaming on the video was so loud that I knew I didn’t want to watch the whole thing. I just watched the segment where he wrote her up and eventually got her out of the car and they went off camera. My understanding is that he wasn’t even going to ticket her, that he was going to give her a warning. He should have just done that and moved on.
She did something wrong, and while I’m OK with her being pulled over because of that, I, of course, question whether she would have even been pulled over if she looked otherwise. She had a pissy attitude, but he’s suposed to be trained to de-escalate situations. I really put most of the blame in this situation on the officer, but I do believe that she may have killed herself. Just not sure on that part.
The cop, who is the one person in this incident who is professionally trained, is to blame 100%. She should never have been 1) asked to put her cigarette out, 2) ordered to get out of her car, 3) forced out of her car by the policeman or 4) arrested.
This is not ok after being pulled over for failing to use your turn signal when switching lanes, ever. I don’t care how sassy she may have been to the policeman.
She did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG! The cop had just pulled over a young white woman for something and issued her a warning for not having proof of insurance. Then, he sees Sandra get in her car, and he speeds forward, makes a u-turn and follows her closely. She moved to the right assuming he wanted to pass her. THAT was when she didn’t use her blinker - moving to the right so the cop could pass.
The rest became a complete $hit$how. Unbelievable how he insisted on picking a fight. He arrested her for resisting arrest. What was she being arrested for in the first place? Not putting out her cigarette? They officially charged her with assaulting a police officer but she didn’t know what the charge was for days.
Who knows what else happened at the jail? It must have been like being in a Kafka novel and thinking you’d never get out.
On the tape, you clearly hear her tell the cop she had epilepsy. His reply? “Good!”
Before we talk about her mental state, and what 3 days of Kafka life must be like, let’s talk about HIS mental state. What demon drove his aggression?
This whole story is messed up. I want to the truth and I know I most likely won’t get it. Ridiculous. Disgusting. The kind of cops that are so amped up about the slightest little thing. Atrocious.
@rhandco, I agree with you about bail reform, but that’s not what this case is about. You may know white people who ended up in jail for “stupid things because they talked back to cops.” No one should end up in jail for that. I would hope that there was something more, but abuse of police power unfortunately exists. Sandra Bland should never have ended up in jail. The police officer should have just given her the ticket(or warning) and left her car. He created this whole fiasco by addressing the fact that she appeared irritated(which of course she was). Had he just walked away after giving her the ticket/warning, none of this would have happened. Police officers should know how to de-escalate situations, rather than create a confrontation as was done here. She knew her constitutional rights better than the police officer did and there was no reason for him to further engage her.
IMO, it seems unlikely that she would have killed herself after she was so willing to stand up for her rights. I can’t imagine why she would have chosen not to continue to fight for her rights in court. We may never know the truth of what happened in the prison, and even if it was suicide, I hold the police responsible for her death. What happened to Sandra Bland never should have happened, and this police officer should be held accountable, as should all officers who violate citizens’ constitutional rights.
This is why I dont believe she killed herself, if you research her, she was big in the #blacklivesmatter movement. However, there is a chance she did commit suicide, but it wouldnt have happened if she had never been arrested. This woman had just gotten a new job at her alma mater, it just doesnt add up.
I totally agree…with both the feeling ill part and the being white part.
I so agree.
I have tried to engage police officers on the topic of excessive force on a very friendly basis (just asking open ended questions - no accusations). I am a small, slender, middle aged, upper middle class white female attorney, i.e., about the least threatening “type” a cop could encounter. And even with me, cops become very defensive immediately. It seems like a topic that just can’t be discussed with the police; any questions asked and you’re perceived as “anti-cop.”
This is such a horribly upsetting story. It seems pretty clear that she was pulled over for being Black and from out of town. The officer wanted to push her buttons and he did.
These stories are also upsetting because there are a lot of good cops doing a difficult job, but these stories totally erode public trust. My white son has become vigilantly anti cop because of all of these incidents.
What is interesting to note, however, is that all of us, black and white, have subconscious anti-black bias as demonstrated in studies. This problem will only be fixed if everyone becomes educated, particularly the cops, on these subconscious biases so they can work to overcome them. There was a great This American Life podcast we listened to on this subject on a recent road trip. I think it was part 2 of a series about Cops. I definitely recommend it, although one of the stories it profiles is really hard to hear.
I think I am feeling outrage fatigue or something…I don’t want to watch the news or read these stories anymore. This is hitting me today, I guess, because the LA Times has front-page story about a white woman cop found guilty of using excessive force on a restrained prisoner who later died. (Though her death was attributed also to cocaine use so the cop was not charged with murder.) Still, her abusive treatment of the prisoner was outrageous…sickening. So the officer’s sentence was 36 months, with 20 months suspended. With good behavior, she could be out in five months. Seems light to me.
I know there are plenty of decent cops but the profession does seem to attract its share of bullies. A guy who graduated the same year as my daughter recently became a cop. He is not a nice person.