Sandra Bland Died For Nothing

By Trevor Durham on January 8, 2016

I repeat: Sandra Bland died for nothing. No reason, no rhyme (for there is no poetic irony or cruel wonder in this murder), and there is no ending to this story. On July 10th, Brian Encinia pulled Sandra Bland over and assaulted her. Three days later she was ‘found dead’ in her jail cell. For what must be the hundredth time in the last six months, let’s take a closer look at the facts of this mysterious death.

Sandra Bland, prior to the traffic stop, was a social media activist for the Black Lives Matter movement. She called her video series Sandy Speaks, using it as a pedestal to take controversial stabs at popular white opinion. But she also made heavy statements, such as: “Black folks, you will not be successful in this world until you learn to work with white people,” “You can stand there, surrender to the cop, and still be killed,” and most vitally, “There are uneducated people who are hell-bent on self-extermination… I am not one of them, I am into building up my Kings and Queens.”

Brian Encinia’s past does not matter. His actions do not need motivation to be discussed, in my opinion. More on this later.

On July 10th, Sandra Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. Sandra Bland failed to signal a lane change. The dashcam footage and various cell phone recordings show Encinia physically threatening Sandra Bland, pulling her out of the call, and assaulting her. He refuses to give a reason to her despite her many requests for his explanation. He points his Taser at her after she does not comply to pull her phone away and yells, “I will light you up.” The dashcam footage does not show what follows, but her screams and cries for help match up with eyewitness testimony and cellphone footage of the officer standing above her as she states that she cannot hear, due to her head being slammed into the sidewalk. One eyewitness statement claims that he say Encinia “knee to neck” push Sandra Bland into the sidewalk. She is then removed from the scene.

The Texas Department of Public Safety cites the reason for Sandra Bland’s arrest as assaulting an officer, citing that she kicked him. Simple logic reasons that Sandra Bland could not have kicked the officer while she was still seated in her car.

She spent the following three days isolated in a single cell, where few phone calls were made. She denied food the morning before her death. The social media advocate for building up her Queens was found dead, hanging in her cell, around 9:00am.

There are small sources to suggest it may have been suicide. A cell-mate near Sandra Bland spoke out, saying that she sounded “sort of distraught”, and her denial of food the morning of the death seems to point to a problem.

The Department of Public Safety released footage of the jail to show her arrival, booking, and various parts of each day to disperse the theory that she was dead on arrival. They even released the footage of the discovery of her body, and the night before. But the DPS has withheld footage from 7:34am to 9:07am on the morning of Bland’s apparent suicide.

In December of 2015, the grand jury on the case failed to indict officer Encinia on any charges of murder, manslaughter, assault, misuse of force, or even criminal negligence. They did not press charges. The only charge that went through on Encinia in January of 2016 was one charge of perjury. A wrongful death suit is pending.

The issue of this case may be racially motivated. There may have been racial profiling in Encinia pulling over Sandra Bland for such a small instance. There may have been sexism, straight misogyny in how he handled her in the arrest. There may be a million other motivators for this deliberate mistreatment of justice. What matters is that we see how the justice system works when we allow a corrupt system to hold itself responsible. Thomas Paine introduced a system of checks and balances to America in our need for a structural government without too much power in any vestige, yet now we find ourselves ruled by a tyrannical force that can do no wrong- regardless of whether she committed suicide or not (which I find highly unlikely), officer Encinia did not follow any protocol in his arrest, bullying and beating an innocent woman until she died. When his coworkers investigated, they found no crime.

Sandra Bland cannot even be called a martyr, because her death accomplished nothing in our justice system. Unless the Department of Justice reopens this case and finds the police department guilty of perjury, I cannot see this case as anything but tragedy. There is no gain. There is only loss. Another murderer in blue goes free. From sea to shining sea.

 

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