I have watched the entire fifty minute video on several websites, and will reference this one the "Texas Tribune" (TT version) , from which I take quotes further along this essay.
This N.Y. Times article "Assesing the Legality of Sandra Bland’s Arrest." evaluates a short video of four selected key events, giving legal analyses, but lacking of some important elements
The above linked TT video shows the entire encounter, from Brian T. Encinia, a state trooper, pulling over Sandra Bland, beginning in a friendly manner until she was hauled off in handcuffs. Unlike most criminal cases with second hand testimony of witnesses and participants, the public gets to see what actually occurred, complete with intonation and emotional expression of both parties. I will be going over the interaction of the dashboard camera, which in spite of questions of editing, shows the deputy at his worse, and was unlikely sanitized.
The media is speculating on her hanging, whether it was a murder or suicide. Those who see "police" as an inherently an institution of corruption and bigotry can believe that there was a murder and coverup. I guess those who are convinced of this should read this no further, as i can't buy it, not now with the current evidence. I believe Sandra was a victim of something much more profound, and this is worthy of exploration, and it even gives her short life, her ultimate sacrifice, meaning.
My contention, subject to further evidence to the contrary, is that this death was the result of the deep despair that she felt, and was a manifestation of her sense of hopelessness that affected her more than it would have others who spend a few days in a lock up. She was a woman who was not part of the stereotypical black subculture of violence, but rather an individual who had earned a college degree based on her belief that justice would prevail even in spite of widespread deceit and bias against Blacks by law enforcement agencies. Before this interaction descended into violence by the officer and vilification of him by Bland in response, her assertion, "What till this gets to court" showed her belief that the system worked, that justice would triumph. Others, black men that I know personally, know better. They expect what they get from traffic stops such as this, so it is not taken personally. Recently some friends were discussing this and our "token Negro" as he jokes, made it clear. "When a cop stops me, I keep my hands visible for him to see, illustrating in his tone of voice a friendly respect." He knows the drill.
I suggest that reader be familiar with at least the first fifteen minutes of the original video (corrected for technical problems) It clearly shows that Bland's description of her moving to the right to let the cruiser pass is accurate. The N.Y. Times legal review leaves out one question posed by Encinia at 3:90 in the TT version, "Where are you headed to now" While in another context would be friendly small talk, in this setting where the officer was asserting his right to deprive the citizen of her freedom by force, the question is rightly viewed as a demand for information. Since her destination had no bearing on the offense that she was to be charged for, it was a deprivation of her constitutional right to privacy.
At 8:05 we see Encinia after returning from the usual checking out legitimacy of her license and ownership, asking Bland "Are you O.K., you look irritated" with Bland responding cogently without any hostile affect. " I am, I was just getting out of your way so you could pass me, and you stopped me to give me a ticket, so yeah I am a little irritated."
Encinia quietly: "Are you done? Bland: calmly speaking, "Yes, you asked me if I'm irritated and I told you, so I'm done."
Encinia: with a somewhat subtle hostile tone for the first time: "Would you mind putting out your cigarette please, if you don't mind!" This was at 8:30. It's where everything changed.
Bland: calmly "I'm in my car I don't have to put out my cigarette"
Encinia: "You can step out now"
Bland: "I don't want to step out of my car"
Now at 9:40 the dialogue turns contentious. Encinia now gives orders based on his authority that he refuses to explain. From the time of Blands refusal to put out her cigarette, she was, without Encinia saying the actual official words: "I am placing you under arrest" did give her orders as if she were under arrest." This is a subject of extensive litigation of what a police officer may do when suspect is, or is not, "under arrest,"
This N.Y. Times article "Assesses the Legality of Sandra Bland’s Arrest." explores this issue, and concludes that Blands refusal to put out her cigarette, much less to leave her car when ordered to do so, was within her legal rights.
More important than the legalities of this event, is why it happened, what it means. Sandra Bland was not a thief, a scofflaw, a shop lifter, but a citizen who had learned the rules, and knew that this country was based on freedom of speech, and that although there had been a time when her ancestors were subject to the orders of any free white person, that time she believed was over. And at this moment, being ordered to cease smoking a legal substance, was not something that she needed to obey, and she was not going to accede to it.
The more force that the Encinia used, first verbally than quickly physically, the more irate Bland became. She saw his behavior as an assertion of masculinity and assumed it was because of his own doubts about it. He could overpower her, but she could burst his illusion that he is being a real man in doing this.
At 10:20 before the physical confrontation began, Encinia finally said, "you are under arrest, get out of the car" Bland asked calmly, "Under arrest for what?"
Something becomes clear when these few minutes are watched carefully. From the time she is stopped, and responds clearly without any sense of rage, she is speaking in the idiom of an educated individual of African American origin. Not a single curse word, or ad homonym statement, articulately expressing her rights, such as being able to continue to smoke a cigarette in her own car. It was at that time that Encinia become the master, perhaps in Bland's mind, the Slave Master, choosing to assert a right he didn't possess, as she was peacefully accepting the citation.
As Encinia escalated his demand for the cessation of the legal behavior of Bland, smoking in her own car, in her anger she was transformed, figuratively kicking him in his balls, with her language transformed to what she had spent years transcending, putting aside the educated citizen she had become, to revert to something visceral, fighting hate with hate, injury with attack. Now in the full vernacular of the streets.
He yelled at her, "I will light you up" meaning using a taser to shock her."
Then she says sarcastically, " You're feeling good about yourself, aren't you, really good about yourself." It goes back and forth like this for a bit. Bland: "You're scared of a female" "I can't wait to we go to court, ooh I can't wait" Bland is now focusing on his manhood, what she sees as his weak spot, calling him at 12:35 "....a pussy assed cop"
13:21 "You are about to break my wrist, stop" she wails, now in genuine pain. "I've got epilepsy you mother fucker" to which Ecinia responds calmly, "Good, good."
On the FBI web site there is this section "Crime under color of law"
Preventing abuse of (law enforcement) authority, however, is equally necessary to the health of our nation’s democracy. That’s why it’s a federal crime for anyone acting under “color of law” willfully to deprive or conspire to deprive a person of a right protected by the Constitution or U.S. law. “Color of law” simply means that the person is using authority given to him or her by a local, state, or federal government agency.
We are missing the greater meaning of Ms. Blands death as we focus on seeking evidence that another person put the noose around her neck. Whether or not that is the case, her death was caused not only by the nature of the arrest, but that she was not released on her own recognizance, as the only criteria of pre-trial incarceration is danger of flight, which did not exist for her. It is now universally accepted that imprisonment may be traumatic for some.
The words of the District Attorney Elton Mathis conveys the aberrant attitude of the local law enforcement establishment.
After viewing the video, Mathis said Bland was not "compliant" with Encinia's directions. "Sandra Bland was very combative. It was not a model traffic stop. It was not a model person that was stopped," Mathis said.
Assigning responsibility for this tragedy equally between one unarmed woman and a police officer who threatened to shock her, abused his authority and demanded personal information about her travel plans is egregious. Encinia's actions were nullified just like in the NFL where two fouls cancel each other. This was the prosecutor speaking on the record, so we an only image the verbal abuse by the jailors who were controlling the life of Sandra Bland for those three days.
There is some question whether she was prone to depression --- of course she was!. Anyone who suffers from endogenous hypo mania-depression, knows that despair is intimately connected with enthusiasm. To have the determination to get a college degree, to stand up for her basic rights requires a variation of mania- an optimism which happens to make one vulnerable to being overwhelmed when this is shown to be only a mirage, an illusory world that is dissipated with the clang of the cell door. Perhaps she was devastated with the vision that she is still a slave girl like her forebears, who is being punished for not following instructions. And like them, there isn't a fucking thing she can do about it.
I do not believe that Sandra Bland was deprived of her life, but she was deprived of her hope -- a hope for justice that she had every right to expect. For her, one who had attempted to use this belief in the system for a redress of oppression - this "crime under the color of law" was overwhelming. If you want to get a sense of the discretion that Encinia had, watch the first few minutes of the tape, where he did stop someone and was happy to tell her, "I'm only going to give you a warning, no fine, no ticket." It would be useful to find this young women whom he was so friendly with, and ask why her and not Sandra.
While we morn this wasted life, it is still important to acknowledge that Brian T. Encinia is not "Everycop." He is a weak man imbued with authority that he should never have been given. He could not respond to the reasonableness of Ms Bland, as he would have been personally diminished in his eyes, something not tolerable to him.
Nothing would cause a worse self fulfilling prophecy than believing that all deputies and police are like this, as those who wear a badge who also fight this scourge would become demoralized. The tide is truly shifting, advance by those such as Sandra Bland, who used her reason rather than rage, until she had no choice but to fight back. This tragic loss of life, even if by her own hand, is the essence of the battle of the black lives matter movement, that in some ways Sandra Bland sacrificed her very life.
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There's more on my own website, AlRodbell.com. Much of it, unfortunately not in keeping with the spirit of Dailykos. But this essay/diary on fit on this site.
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