Sorry, forgot this bit:
At this point, I don’t feel confident we will ever know what really happened.
Watch the beginning of this video.
Its clear to me why the officer turned and followed her.
Well, that explains why she was so pissed.
Really? Because everything I’ve read say the police put her there.
Yes, I saw the video. But as I said, the cop never said anything about it. He was giving her a warning citation for failure to signal. It seems odd to me that passing a stop sign wasn’t mentioned to her at all.
It might have made a difference in how she reacted. People expect to be stopped if caught going through a stop sign. Not signaling is so common where I live that if people were being stopped for it with any regularity, over half the city would be in jail or shot by now. Sandra Bland’s supposed “attitude” was nothing compared to how most people here would react. I’m not sure they even know it’s a requirement and not just an optional courtesy.
I think the earlier video shows he was on her ass and explains why she was so pissed when he pulled her over. I’m not really in line with this idea that you should scream in the cop’s face and don’t have to put out your cigarette because THE CONSTITUTION! I mean, you break a traffic law, you take the ticket. But that is not what happened here. He was on her ass and she was justifiably pissed.
Is suicide by plastic bag a thing? Have there been other cases?
We can’t use the jailhouse video to prove suicide. We don’t see her. For all we know, these possibilities are out there:’
1- She died of a brain injury suffered when she was brutally assaulted by that vicious thug cop. Or perhaps she was assaulted in jail. So when she was discovered, they rigged a plastic bag into a rope and strung her up.
2- She was strangled by jail staff and strung up to pass for suicide.
We can’t prove or disprove either of these without a proper autopsy. The first may have been shoddily done due to incompetence or an attempt to fit the desired narrative. They need to do a second one by someone with impeccable credentials and impartiality.
I think it’s pretty common among suicides of very old or terminally ill people. But commonness is not proof one way or the other about anything.
The amount of conviction by speculation is astounding.
The state of Texas says the reports that they’d ordered another autopsy are fake.
However, they have requested that the body be preserved due to toxicology tests indicating she had marijuana in her system when she died.
OMG Reefer Madness! The significance of this is what, exactly?
As I have already cited, under Texas law, the claim of illegality of an arrest is no defense to the crime of resisting arrest.
In other clear and unambiguous words: no. It is not legal to resist arrest in Texas, EVEN IF THE ARREST IS NOT LEGAL.
The problem with your analysis is that it falls short of harmonizing Texas law with the First Amendment.
You’re correct that that the First Amendment protects the right to be a loudmouth bitch, even during a traffic stop.
However, it does not immunize you from roadside arrest. If you claim your arrest was predicated on First Amendment grounds, you must pursue that legal remedy in a courtroom, not the roadside.
In other words, you cannot defend yourself, in Texas, against a charge of resisting arrest with a claiming that the arrest was an illegal pre-textual retaliatory attack against your protected First Amendment expression.
Do you understand this?
“Would you mind putting out your cigarette, please” is not mouthing off, IMO.
No, smoking isn’t enough reason.
In Texas, however, a minor traffic offense is enough reason to arrest someone, at the officer’s discretion. It is also enough reason to order her out of the car, and refusing to step out of the car and resisting is enough reason to arrest her.
Regards,
Shodan
Show of hands for everyone who thinks the cop was truly concerned with Bland’s or the community’s health or safety when he asked (my paraphrase) “are you all right?” and commented that she “looked irritated.” I’m not sure there is a real world explanation other than that he was either: A - trying to bait her into responding inappropriately, allowing him to escalate the situation; or B - exercising an ego trip. What he clearly DIDN’T want, was her (IMO) pretty literate and measured responses to his question/observation.
Made me remember a story my BIL told me about a speeding ticket he received. After the cop handed him the ticket he observed, “I see that you have your seat belt fastened. Keep doing so.” Thanks, occifer! And should I keep not beating my wife while I’m at it? Misuse of power is a nasty thing. Yet another datapoint of why I tend to oppose so much caselaw holding that consents to many types of searches are given voluntarily.
Of course, that the cop was a dick does not mean that he killed her - unless you extend some dubious probable cause analysis - “but for the cop acting like a dick, she would not have been in the cell…”
Another note - a lot of folk comment on the stop sign, but the cop didn’t say that is why he stopped her. Of course cops are not required to be truthful in stops, but why didn’t he say “You rolled thru that stop sign.” Bland’s mistake was in being truthful - something the cop didn’t seem troubled to do himself.
Another show of hands - who uses their turn signal when moving over to give the right of way to cops/ambulances/fire trucks? I’d be pissed too, if I was trying to show a cop a courtesy, and in response, got pulled over. Hope to remember this lesson, and keep my big mouth shut should I ever find myself in that position. “Yes sir” and “No sir” is pretty much the extent of the vocabulary I would hope to exercise. Any disagreements can be addressed later, after whatever expense, inconvenience, and unpleasantness the cop wishes to inflict.
So, if you want to assert your rights the road to do this is through arrest and incarceration for several years?
I am unaware of any other hanging deaths by plastic bag, but suffocating oneself by placing a plastic bag over one’s head is commonish, which is another reason it’s so bizarre to me to have that garbage can setup in a jail cell.
Do you also have a problem with Encina’s untruthful account of events to his superior in the video? Does either his lying or his false memories make him a “witness” as well?
Who in this case was incarcerated for several years?
So if the cop starts by saying “Good morning”, he doesn’t really want you to have a good morning - he is trying to get you to resist arrest so that you will commit suicide later.
:raises hand:
Nope, it is your Constitutional right to refuse to obey lawful orders, resist arrest, and assault the officer in question.
Fight the power!
Regards,
Shodan
No one because the defendant died after three days.
If she had lived how long do you think it would take her to assert her rights in court?