Sandra Bland ...alive
As of today, it has been exactly two weeks since Sandra Bland was arrested in Waller County, Texas, after being pulled over for failure to use a turn signal when changing lanes. Arrested on a Friday, she died in the jail the following Monday. Since then, almost daily, we learn how deeply unjust, unprofessional, and incompetent every single person who came in contact with Bland truly was. So much so, that it is sincerely difficult to find one thing related to her assault, arrest, incarceration, death, or investigation that hasn't been completely bungled—which only raises suspicions of foul play.
1. The Texas Department of Public Safety has already admitted that Officer Brian Encinia violated multiple policies in the arrest of Sandra Bland and the near universal public opinion is that his use of force, threat with a Taser, and arrest of Bland were all excessive.
2. When the dashcam video of Bland's arrest was released, experts across the country quickly noticed that it was edited. Cars and people would magically appear and disappear throughout the video, but officials insisted it wasn't edited, until they finally claimed that something wrong must've happened when they uploaded it. They then released a new video that they claimed no longer had the errors.
3. Officials are now claiming that Bland voluntarily told them during her intake that she had attempted suicide previously over a lost pregnancy and that she felt very depressed at the moment. According to state policy, when inmates voluntarily state these things, a magistrate or mental health expert is supposed to be notified immediately. This did not happen with Bland.
4. The Texas Commission on Jails quickly cited the Waller County Jail for multiple violations of policies concerning making visual contact with inmates and the proper treatment of those with mental illness or depression.
5. Having already taken Bland's body from Texas back home to Illinois, Bland's family was notified on late Wednesday evening by the Waller County district attorney that the agency made critical errors in her first autopsy and needed to perform another one. This is patently absurd. The family, which had already paid for their own independent autopsy, plans to move ahead with Bland's burial, but how could this even happen?
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