Sandra Bland recorded her own video of the stop, and it’s only just now coming to light.
He'd stopped another one just prior to bird-dogging Sandra Bland.
Take few minutes and watch LivePD. The stuff that people do when they encounter a LEO is amazingly stupid.
I’m curious, but avoid the NYT.
Video newly released by whom?
Does the video cover 100% of their interaction?
For your own safety, just be polite even if the officer is an ass.
The prosecuting team concluded that Mr. Encinia’s permanent ban from law enforcement was the best option because there was no certainty of obtaining a conviction on the perjury charge, one of the prosecutors said at the time.
If they have no certainty of getting a conviction on the perjury charge then what good is a voluntary ban? What do they do if he violates the promise and gets a job as a cop somewhere? File charges they themselves don't believe would result in conviction?
Doesn’t matter. The cop was not even going to ticket her. He was just going to warn her to drive more cautiously. Bland became confrontational due to her cop-phobia.
Perhaps black people have a good reason to be cop-phobic. Perhaps cops need to be more sensitive to this.
Regardless, the cop did not break the law. He may have let his emotions escalate things unnecessarily, but Bland refused to obey his lawful orders (to step out of the vehicle). She assaulted him.
She threw away a fresh start and new job because she was determined to let this cop know how angry she was at being pulled over when she didn’t feel she deserved it.
Her phone will NOT reveal anything about her decision to kill herself. And the cop who pulled her over didn’t do that.
The family wants to see the cop prosecuted for supposed perjury (claiming he feared for his safety, as drawing a service weapon—even a taser—is on the level of lethal force) because they want someone to pay for Bland’s death.
But she hung herself. That is on her.
The cop may have reasonably feared for his safety when he first drew his weapon. Bland was reaching for her phone but sometimes people detained at traffic stops decide to reach for a weapon. Just because she is a woman also does not mean the cop was not a danger. She refused to exit her vehicle when he told her to. At that point he was in a predicament because he could not reasonably just say, “Oh well, never mind, drive safe, have a nice day.”
If Bland had not gotten angry and berated the cop, she would have received a warning and been on her way after a mere two-minute delay. Even after she failed to do this, she probably could have apologized to the officer and explained she was having a bad day and he might have let her go with a warning. Even when it escalated to him ordering her to get out of the vehicle, if she had cooperated she would not have gone to jail. And if she had simply waited for the outcome of the hearing she could have lived to see better days. She did EVERYTHING wrong, starting with a minor traffic violation.
The cop made some mistakes, for sure, but he is in no way responsible for Bland’s death.
Sometimes there are people on FR who amaze me, and not in a good way.
So, here we have a woman who gets pulled over due to failing to signal a lane change, the officer said so himself on doctored dash cam video. Naturally, an argument then ensues because people wanting to defend the fired cop who threatened her with a taser and arrested her. This, despite perjury charges and a doctored police dash cam.
It’s really dismaying to see how many just want to rationalize a police officer, now fired and permanently barred from ever being a police officer again, for threatening, detaining and arresting a motorist for being mouthy and uncooperative, which led to her death.
Last I checked, that is not a capital offense, being mouthy and uncooperative. And, even if it were, summary execution is not an accepted method of implementing that penalty in this country.
There is no way that woman hanged herself in that jail cell. She had help, and based upon dishonest actions regarding video of the arrest, I’d say it’s not unreasonable to suspect police.
But, the die-hard defenders of police will never see that. What in the hell is being defended here, law and order? No, I don’t think so.
We had seen this video before. It changes nothing. She was a nasty witch.