By Danny Lewis
People are asking questions about the death of Sandra Bland, the woman who was found dead in a Texas jail on July 13th, especially whether she should have been arrested in the first place.
CNN reports the original dashcam video appears questionable:
Anger over Sandra Bland's death in a Texas jail has boiled over after newly released video showed what happened at the traffic stop that led to her arrest:
Now, many question whether she should have been arrested at all.
The dashcam video shows Texas state Trooper Brian Encinia pulling Bland over July 10 for allegedly failing to use her turn signal. What started as normal conversation gets testy after Encinia asks her to put out her cigarette.
"I am in my car. I don't have to put out my cigarette," Bland says.
"You can step on out now," Encinia replies.
Bland refuses to get out of her car, and the trooper opens her door and starts trying to pull her out of the vehicle.
What happens after that has ignited a debate about what the officer could have done versus what he should have done.
The next part of the article raises questions as to whether or not violence was used against Bland:
Much of what happens next is not seen on camera, but the officer can be heard saying Bland is not compliant.
"When you pull away from me, you're resisting arrest," Encinia says.
A clearly upset Bland can be heard saying: "You're a real man now. You just slammed me, knocked my head in the ground. I got epilepsy you mother******."
"Good," he replies.
A female officer tells Bland she should have thought about that before she started resisting.
The original story that the police department gave does not add up. The video suggests that the police officer acted unprofessionally and used violence against Sandra Bland.
The following is the full video of the arrest from the Texas Department of Public Safety please be advised this footage contains STRONG LANGUAGE and VIOLENCE:
Questions are also being raised about the way the jail handled Sandra Bland.
An article from Dallas Morning News cites the jail’s failure to meet state standards:
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has found the Waller County Jail — the 110-bed lockup where 28-year-old Sandra Bland was found hanging from a plastic bag July 13 — out of compliance with state jail regulations at least five times since 2009, a figure that doesn’t include the 2008 escape, which was the subject of news reports.
Although the state autopsy ruled Sandra Bland’s death a suicide, her family is still raising questions about the legitimacy of the investigation. There are questions raised as to why the jail still has not released video from before she was allegedly found dead.
While we may know what really happened, it is important that a full investigation is conducted to ensure something like this never happens again.
Print 
PDFTags: Texas, Police, Sandra Bland, law enforcement