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Sandra Bland’s Death Is Part of White America’s Killing Spree [picture]
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
26 July 15
“… every black man born in this country, until this present moment, is born into a country which assures him, in as many ways as it can find, that he is not worth the dirt he walks on… Now, many, indeed, have survived, and at an incalculable cost, and many more have perished and are perishing every day. If you tell a child and do your best to prove to the child that he is not worth life, it is entirely possible that sooner or later the child begins to believe it.”
- James Baldwin, in Oakland, June 1963
hite America is on a killing spree. White cops across the country are killing black men, women, and children at an obscene rate for obscene reasons. White America’s designated executioners-in-uniform wield arbitrary and unpredictable lethal force on behalf of a state that rarely holds them accountable for their killings. That’s because it is white America that is on the killing spree. White America’s white cops pull the triggers or beat the heads or choke the breath out of black people, but they are just the ugly expression of the supremacy of a white America that sanctions their murderous violence while feigning some concern, sometimes, about its bloody application. White America dares its black president to say something, do something, knowing he won’t, knowing he can’t, knowing he doesn’t dare appear even for a moment to be the angry black man he has every reason to be.
As of July 22, 2015, US police had killed 644 people, as shown in a searchable count by the Guardian . The number is probably low, given the reluctance of US authorities to collect reliable data(such as Congress continuing the 19 year ban on gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Of the 644 dead at the hands of police, almost all (95%) are male, and most, 373 (58%), are non-white. Police killings on average are found justifiable in 98.9% of all cases. Police killings are far more frequent in the US than in other developed countries . US police killed 59 people in the first 24 days of 2015, compared to the police of England and Wales who have killed 55 people in the past 24 years. The Icelandic police, in their 71 year history, have killed exactly one person (in 2013). Denmark, Russia, Pakistan, and Chad have all expressed concern about the state of human rights in the US . California police have killed 95 people so far. Texas is second with 64 . Florida, Arizona, and Oklahoma round out the top five. Only South Dakota, Rhode Island, and Vermont police haven’t killed anyone this year. So far in 2015, US police have killed six unarmed black women.
Whether or not Sandra Bland was directly killed by public officials (or their agents) in Texas on or before July 13 is not yet known (the Texas Tribune has covered the story since July 16). The case is currently in the character assassination phase [see below], as well as the speculation and rumor phase. This area of Texas has a reputation for racial profiling by its police. The Waller County Sheriff’s Officesays she hanged herself in her cell with a white plastic garbage bag. In any event, she died in police custody, like more than two dozen others in 2015 so far. Police custody is supposed to be where the arrestee is safe, not killed. According to Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis, the Texas Rangers and the FBI are treating Bland’s death as a homicide. The DA has reason to proceed carefully, as Waller County has a long history of racism, including a racist DA forced from office in 2004, continued monitoring by the U.S. Justice Department for voting rights violations, and being a leading area for lynchings from 1877 to 1950. On July 22 on CNN, Mathis said the case would go to a grand jury. He also said style=”font-family: Georgia”>:
It is very much too early to make any kind of determination that this was a suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete. This is being treated like a murder investigation. There are too many questions that still need to be resolved. Ms. Bland’s family does make valid points that she did have a lot of things going on in her life that were good.
The best publicly available evidence so far of the stop and arrest of Sandra Bland is a pair of videos: the 49-minute dashcam video from the police cruiser and a much shorter video taken by a witness whom police chased away from the scene. [The first dashcam video from the Texas Department of Safety was 52 minutes, but had anomalies that triggered credible accusations of malicious editing ; the second dashcam video is not substantially different from the first; as evidence, any dashcam video remains suspect since the chain of custody puts it in the hands of the accused from the start.]
What happened to Sandra Bland from Friday afternoon until Monday morning is much less clear. All that we know with any certainty is that the justice system in Warren County, Texas, was out of control from the instant it had Sandra Bland in its sights. If the Texas justice system did not literally kill Sandra Bland, it absolutely created the conditions that led to her death, however that may have occurred. No matter what actually happened, there are guilty Texas law enforcement personnel who need to be held accountable for their actions, most obviously, but not only, Trooper Brian Encinia, 30, who has been a trooper just over a year. He initiated the Texas killing of Sandra Bland around 4:30 in the afternoon of July 10 in Prairie View, Texas.
At that point, Sandra Bland was unknown to the wider world. She was just another young person who had been looking for work and found it. She was 28, from the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. She was unarmed. She was about to start working for her college alma mater, Prairie View A&M University. She was engaged with Black Lives Matter and active in social media . She was acutely aware of what it means to be black in America, and how dangerous it is.
For what it’s worth, Bernie Sanders was the first to call the event police abuse and more or less everyone else, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, agrees with some version of Trump’s opinion of Encinia: He just was very aggressive. I didn’t like his demeanor, I thought it was terrible¦.
[There is a third, shorter (17:26) video, a dashcam video from the fourth police vehicle on the scene, but it has little apparent probative value. This cruiser arrived well into the event and shows three people, apparently all police officers, standing around in relaxed positions on the sidewalk (Encinia does not appear to be one of them). At 6:18, the three officers go to the back passenger-side backdoor of the second cruiser. Sandra Bland comes out and stands up. Two of the officers appear to do a patdown search. She is passive, unresisting, calm throughout. By 7:20, Sandra Bland is back inside the cruiser. During the next ten minutes, a fourth officer arrives (not Encinia) and they stand in a group, in relaxed postures, appearing to shoot the breeze. This video has no sound.]
[A fourth short (14:05) dashcam video from the same cruiser appears to be even less probative. It follows some time after the third video and mostly shows officers milling about with no sense of urgency. At 1:57, a medical van arrives, the med technicians seem to talk to Sandra Bland in the back of the second cruiser for two minutes, but she does not appear. At 11:35, the medical van leaves. At 13:01, Encinia appears to have a brief exchange with Sandra Bland inside the cruiser. At 13:26, Encinia's cruiser leaves, followed by the cruiser with Sandra Bland, followed by the dashcam cruiser. The video has no sound.]
[These two videos were posted on the City of Prairie View, Texas, YouTube channel late July 24, without comment. It has six subscribers and no other content.]
Why does Encinia chase her before she commits the “infraction”?
Encina’s dashcam video (49-minute version) begins with the end of a previous stop, with Encinia walking up to the driver’s side of the car (the driver is not visible), where he advises her to get her dad to send something to the insurance company. Then he says he’s just giving her a warning for a speeding violation, no fine no penalty: “Follow the posted speed limit, OK?” But instead of just sending her on her way, he asks another question, still holding her license, so she’s not free to go:
0:31 – Encinia: “What year are you here at school?” She says she’s a sophomore.
Encenia chats her up about her classes for a moment before repeating that there’s no penalty. Then he returns her license. (So what was THAT about?) At 0:46 he steps away from the car, which drives away and slowly starts to turn left while signaling. After another car passes her in the left-hand turning lane, she turns left and drives away.
1:15 – As Encinia starts to move, Sandra Bland’s car approaches the intersection
where the previous car has just turned in. The only vehicles visible are Encinia’s, Sandra Bland’s, and the passing car in the far distance ahead of Encinia. This is a virtually empty roadway at least four lanes wide.
1:15-1:31 – At the intersection, Sandra Bland rolls slowly past a stop sign and
turns right without signaling onto the roadway that is empty except for the police cruiser across the street in front of her. Encinia promptly makes a U-turn through the same intersection and speeds up to follow Sandra Bland.
1:32-2:31 – Encinia speeds up to catch up to Sandra Bland as she passes through an
intersection on a green light. A white pickup truck is turning right onto the roadway in front of her. The roadway approaching the light has a single travel lane and a left-turn-only lane. After the light the roadway has two travel lanes. As Encinia closes in on Sandra Bland, she pulls into the right-hand lane without signaling. Encinia pulls into the right-hand lane behind her and, after a moment, at 2:02, he turns on his flashing lights. She slows and comes to a full stop by 2:15. The white pick-up truck passes them in the left-hand lane at 2:22 and drives out of sight.
Encinia asks, “What’s wrong?” Is it possible he does not know?
2:31-3:11 – Encinia approaches the passenger side of Sandra Bland’s car,
apparently adjusting a weapon with his left hand as he walks. At 2:44, he tells Sandra Bland that he stopped her because “you failed to signal a lane change” and asks for her insurance papers. Sandra Bland is inaudible. At 2:50, Encenia asks, “What’s wrong?” Her answer, if any, is inaudible.
(So much is already wrong. Failure to signal a lane change on an almost empty highway? A violation of the law that should be subject to officer discretion, one might think, especially since it’s also a violation NOT to pull to the right to let a police cruiser pass. She a young black woman from Illinois, traveling alone, confronted with a strange white cop on the passenger side of her car deep in the heart of Texas asking her what’s wrong? The better question is: what’s right?)
Twenty seconds after asking “What’s wrong?” anhttp://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/31491-focus-sandra-blands-death-is-part-of-white-americas-killing-spreed getting no answer, Encinia changes tactic.
3:12-3:26 – Encinia: “How long you been in Texas?” (How is this relevant?)
Sandra Bland: “Got here yesterday.”
Encinia says “OK,” and is quiet for awhile.
3:27-8:39 – Ensenia: “Do you have a driver’s license?” Response inaudible.
At 3:34, Ensenia asks, “You OK?” No response, or inaudible.
At 3:46, Encenia asks, “Where you headed to now?” Response inaudible. By 4:10 Encinia has returned to his cruiser.
At 7:24, a red car passes on the left and pulls into the right lane without signaling. Encinia does not pursue it.
At 8:35, Encinia returns to Sandra Bland’s car, this time approaching the driver’s side.
8:40 -Encinia says, “OK, Ma’am,” and when she says nothing, he asks, “You OK?”
(So what is really going on here? This is the third time Encinia has inquired about Sandra Bland’s well-being, the second time with the same words. What’s the relevance? It’s not credible that he cares. If he believes he’s made a legitimate stop, why doesn’t he complete it quickly and professionally? If he knows he’s made a specious stop, for whatever reason, why would he expect her to be OK? Is he taunting her? Baiting her? He presumably knows he can defuse the situation at any moment, if he wants to, by telling her she’s just getting a warning. Why hasn’t he said that yet? This time, when he says “You OK?” again, Sandra Bland responds, somewhat testily, but still staying disengaged.)
8:47-9:09 – Sandra Bland: “I’m waiting on you. This is your job. I’m waiting on you. What do you want me to do?”
(He interrupts her, but he doesn’t say what he wants her to do. Instead he baits her again.)
Encinia: “Well, you seem very irritated.”
Sandra Bland [matter-of-factly]: “I am. I really am. Because of what I’ve
been stopped and am getting a ticket for. I’ve been getting out of the way. You’ve been speeding up, so I move over and you stop me. So yeah, I am a little irritated. But that didn’t stop you from giving me a ticket.”
Why does Encinia continue to escalate, relentlessly?
According to Encinia, later, he’s NOT giving her a ticket, he’s giving her a warning. Why does he not say this? Why does he make NO attempt to de-escalate, to defuse the tension, to calm her down? Why does he act so differently with Sandra Bland from the way he treated his previous stop just 8 minutes earlier? After Sandra Bland says, “That didn’t stop you from giving me a ticket,” there are three seconds of silence during which Encinia could simply say he’s giving her a warning. He could even say she was right to pull out of his way as he sped up behind her. He does nothing like that. Instead he snarks.SOURCe
GET IT RIGHT, IT’S THE JEWISH KILLING SPREE.
GET OVER YOUR OBSESSION WITH THE JEWS.
Humm, on BIN, there’s always hatred for everything that isn’t Christian or reflecting obsessive (and backward) values.
There’s only: ANTI-JEW SENTIMENT, ANTI-GAY SENTIMENT, ANTI-ABORTION SENTIMENT, ANTI-OBAMA SENTIMENTS, END OF THE WORLD CRAP, DOOM & GLOOM…
So what’s that then? Hatred against the 0.000001% of humanity motivating your war lusts and 60% of your media’s politics?