The Sandra Bland arrest dash cam
video reveals the creepy side of Officer Brian Encinia. I agree with
DeWayne Wickham of USAToday that Encinia was goading Bland. While watching the dash cam video I noticed he repeatedly provoked her and then seemed to be sadistically gleeful every time she chafed when he exerted his power over her. The tone of his voice made my skin crawl.
Normal people don't want to be stopped by police so there is no purpose for Encinia to ask Bland if she is irritated when the truthful answer of a normal person would be yes. I believe he did it either to coerce her into lying or make her appear verbally combative by telling the truth. Encinia knows people smoke cigarettes to relax and de-escalate, yet he asked her to put out the cigarette. Thus, he deliberately tried to take away a source of comfort to her in order to increase her stress levels, presumably because as a sadist he enjoyed seeing her suffer.
He knew she was waiting for his verdict and did not know what the result of the traffic stop would be. Thus, it was in his power to end Bland's worries by telling her she got a warning and there would be no fee and she could go, but he withheld that information in order to prolong a situation he knew is stressful for a normal person. Encinia had no legal reason to inconvenience Bland by telling her to get out of her car, yet he ordered Bland to get out of the car without telling her why which he knew would stress her more. Then when Bland told Encinia that she was recording the arrest, he gave her an unlawful order to put the phone down. Video-taping the encounter increased Bland's sense of control and having more control normally makes people more calm. Thus, Encinia actually disobeyed the law in order to take away what little power and control Bland had left. It is his job to know she had the legal right to openly record the arrest, and he knew recording the incident gave her power. We all know of citizen videos that reveal police misconduct and the enormous problems they cause for police departments that go bad.
Then Bland complained the handcuffs were too tight and the autopsy shows lacerations on her wrists. Presumably Encinia put the handcuffs on too tight in order to injure Bland, thus, increasing her stress. Presumably he told Bland to leave the dash cam field of vision in order to attack her unrecorded. Yet his planned secret assault on her was interrupted by a concerned citizen who started recording Encinia's brutal attack, so Encinia told the recorder to stop recording which isolated Bland from outside help, thus increasing her stress and also to keep his brutality secret to give him more power over her in a court of law.
The law is on Sandra's side, so it is unclear why the judge didn't dismiss the case considering the video evidence that Encinia disobeyed the law. Last spring the courts ruled in Rodriguez v. United States that seizure for a traffic violation "ends when tasks tied to the traffic infraction are or reasonably should have been completed." Encinia should have just handed Bland the warning. He decided instead to escalate the situation for no apparent reason other than that he enjoys abusing his power, and that abuse of power led to Bland's death.
Today a new video was released showing Sandra Bland crying, still wearing her civilian clothes, as cops surround her to prepare her for incarceration. It is often said, no good deed goes unpunished. Sandra was just trying to get out of Encinia's way when he tailgated her, and instead of being thankful Encinia stopped her, treated her with extreme contempt from the beginning in his tone of voice and actions. Encinia convinced the judge that Sandra Bland is terribly dangerous to society and should be jailed with a high bond she can't pay, but all the evidence shows that it is Encinia who is the real danger to society.