Also, the audio keeps going continuously while cars vanish from sight.
Does this video constitute evidence? I’d be hard pressed to see how it couldn’t be evidence. And tampering with evidence is illegal.
Guess whoever did that, as Happy Fun Ball says, deserves everything that happens to them.
It’s not impossible to contemplate, but then the ninety minutes of video of the outside of her cell before her suicide would have to be faked as well.
People with PTSD are at elevated risk for suicide. I believe Ms. Bland mentions in the video that she has epilepsy. Women with epilepsy are at increased risk for suicide.
It doesn’t prove that the police were innocent, of course.
Regards,
Shodan
What a reckless and inaccurate thing to say.
jeeezopete, that requires the medical examiner/coroner to be in on it as well, right?
The officer should be fired at the very least. Since when is smoking in your vehicle against the law?
His request wasn’t met with “Yes sir, master” and so he lost his shit.
Everything that happened is on him. He should have remained professional. Of course she was irritated at having been pulled over. She was obviously trying to get out of his way and he asked her “what’s wrong?”. What the hell did he think was wrong? Getting a ticket is expensive.
And by the way, cops around here never use their blinker.
Nope, just lazy.
I’m given to understand that there are whole hours where the camera simply did not record anything. On the one hand it’s a motion-activated camera, so it could be that there simply wasn’t any motion - innocent. On the other hand it could be that there is footage but it’s missing, or that the camera was deliberately shut off - suspicious.
An absence of footage is hardly proof of anything, basically.
Or overworked/understaffed.
[QUOTE=RTFirefly]
Also, the audio keeps going continuously while cars vanish from sight.
[/QUOTE]
That’s not surprising - they are typically two separate tracks. Hence the desync between sound and video after the glitches start.
ETA : assuming this is a digital recording, that is, as opposed to a rolling tape.
Based on the limited amount of evidence I’ve seen, the trooper should be fired. Probably broke several Texas DPS policies in the handling of the traffic stop. Some people shouldn’t become LEO’s. People that let authority go their heads like a power trip don’t have any business interfacing with the public.
Sure, but AFAICT the ninety minutes are immediately before she was found dead. And one of the jailers is reported to have heard Bland say that she was OK at (IIRC) seven o’clock, and she was found dead at nine or thereabouts.
Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence, true.
I still would like to hear the official reason why she was in jail for three days.
Regards,
Shodan
If this cop flies off the handle at a routine traffic stop where the person doesn’t even raise her voice he should be glued to a desk.
This is another example of why you should never, ever talk to the police and you should do what they say, even if they don’t have the right or they’re being unreasonable. You especially shouldn’t antagonize and curse them out. Especially if you’re black. Cops hate it when you challenge their authority and show them up. She even challenged his masculinity! A lot of her insults would be funny if she didn’t end up dead.
I’m not official, but my understanding is that she was charged with the assault of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. I’ve read that her bail was $500, but she had not posted that prior to her suicide.
It would be helpful if you’d explain why you think this, otherwise my answer is:
“Do you mind putting out your cigarette?” … hello … this is after the poor girl said she was done being upset. First of all, what business is it of the officer’s if shes mildly upset, listen to her, does she sound violently angry to you?
Holy shit, it is NOT illegal to “mind” putting out your cigarette … it’s the officer who escalated the situation … he did NOT order her until he said “get out of the car” …
I say he gave an illegal order … now she’d DEAD … that’s murder … if there’s a racist card to be played here, then it’s a hate crime … then life in prison too good for the officer.
Maybe it’s the officer who has PTSD … it’s the whitie thing to claim these days
One of my favorite running tropes of these sort of videos is when the cop can’t say what the suspect is being arrested for, then it turns to being arrested for resisting arrest. That’s one hell of a catch-22 temporal paradox there.
For what it might be worth: an initial arrest for the blinker violation is not constitutionally forbidden. Atwater v. City of Lago Vista.
Thus the order to exit the car was probably lawful.
However, I’m almost certain the department has a policy about arrests for things like blinker violations, and I am almost certain that this arrest would have violated that policy.
The audio and video not syncing could be explained as the result of data recorders using separate audio and video tracks, but I find the video inconsistencies highly suspicious. And if the video was edited, then I think it’s fair to infer that the editors were the police removing material that inculcates them in misconduct.
I heard this once, but I can’t cite any reference … the actual officer who is the pursuit in a high-speed chase is NOT allowed to make the arrest … just to much adrenaline … if possible, some other officer makes the arrest.
This officer called for back-up, but continued anyway for no apparent reason. Looks to me he was itchin’ for a fight.
On the broader scale, I’m shocked … shocked I say … that this officer had nothing better to do than beat little girls to death. Obviously this community has too many police officers. They had an open jail cell for her, that’s too many police officers not doing their job.
Since Texas law permits an arrest even when the punishment for the offense is merely a fine, and since that law has been upheld by the Supreme Court, can you explain specifically why you believe the order was illegal?
Why would a directive to put out a cigarette be legal?
I find it very disturbing that this lady was left in jail to rot for three days. Three days in jail is long enough to make even a mentally well person suicidal, especially if the detainment is over some bullshit trumped-up charges. No doubt she was worried about what was going to happen to her new job if she couldn’t get herself out of jail…and whether she was going to be labled a “criminal” from now on and forever bear the stigma of that. Just imagining her anguish is making me depressed. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this young woman with her whole life of ahead of her fell into dark, deep despair. What happened to her was very dark and despairing. No way she deserved that.
I don’t care if the autopsy comes back with no findings of foul play. I believer the officer’s actions that day were foul play enough to blame him and the entire system for her death.
I was actually talking about the order to exit the car.
But an officer can certainly lawfully order a subject to put out a cigarette prior to his arrest. A cigarette has a burning tip, and if the officer is going to place the suspect in handcuffs, the cigarette needs to be safely extinguished.