Officer Brian Encinia and Sandra Bland
After the
dashcam footage of the arrest of Sandra Bland was released Tuesday evening, social media was set ablaze by people who were either incensed at what they believed to be excessive force and an illegal arrest, or others who felt strongly that what Officer Brian Encinia did was perfectly fine and well within the law.
I know in America we like to see two sides of every situation, but sometimes, in the world of right and wrong, ethical and corrupt, everybody can't be right. This is one of those situations.
Before one single member of the general public viewed the dashcam footage of Bland's arrest, the Texas Department of Public Safety viewed it and issued the following statement:
"[The department] identified violations of the department's procedures regarding traffic stops and the department's courtesy policy."
Because of this determination, Officer Encinia removed from active duty policing and was placed on desk duty. Again, mind you, his supervisors made this determination, but refused to state which specific actions the officer made that violated statewide policies.
Could it have been the 14 times he refused to tell Sandra Bland why she was being arrested?
Could it have been when he pointed a Taser at her and told her "I'll light you up" when she was afraid to get out of the car?
Could it have been when she told him she had epilepsy and he said "good" back to her as she explained how her head hurt from being slammed to the ground?
For anyone of good conscience to see the arrest video of Sandra Bland, who was only confronted in the first place when she failed to use her turn signal to get out of the officer's way, and determine that everything was fine, appropriate, and well within policy completely defies ethical reasoning.
Only racism, or perhaps the worship of police, could make sense of such a determination.