Sandra Bland's Death Is Part of White America's Killing Spree

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 Office says 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:

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 Waller 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?" and 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.

9:09-10:38 -

Encinia: "Are you done?"

Sandra Bland: "You asked me what was wrong and I told you."

Encinia: "OK."

Sandra Bland: "So now I'm done, yeah."

Encinia: "OK."

(Silence about 3 seconds, then Encinia adds a new provocation.)

Encinia: "Do you mind putting out your cigarette, please? [inaudible phrase]" (brief pause)

Sandra Bland [still matter-of-fact]: "I'm in my car. Why do I have to put out my cigarette?"

(This is her first direct challenge to him, and it's a chance to de-escalate. But He does not try to calm her down, he doesn't even say, "Calm down." He ratchets up the threat.)

Encinia [edgy, quick]: "Well, you can step out now."

(This sudden escalation is startling. Encinia doesn't answer her question but jumps in instantly with his order to get out of the car. He doesn't say why. Does he know why? Reasoned or not, he orders it. She reasonably objects.)

Sandra Bland [calm]: "I don't have to step out of my car."

Encinia [voice rising]: "Step out of the car."

(After a couple of seconds of no response, Encinia opens the driver side door. He stands there, with his right hand reaching into the car as he continues to talk.)

"Step out of the car"

Sandra Bland: "No, you don't have the right."

Encinia [raising his voice]: "Step out of the car!"

Sandra Bland: "You do not have the right to do that."

(Their voices overlap as the exchange quickens.)

Encinia: "I do have the right. Now step out or I will remove you."

Sandra Bland: "I refuse to talk to you other than inside -"

[inaudible, overlapping]

Encinia: "Step out or I will remove you."

Sandra Bland: "I am getting removed for a failure to signal?"

Encinia: "Step out or I will remove you. I'm giving you a lawful order.

Get out of the car now, or I'm going to remove you."

Sandra Bland: "And I'm calling my lawyer."

Encinia: "I'm going to yank you out of here."

(As he says this, he lunges into the car, most of his upper torso leaning into the car as he apparently grabs at her.)

Sandra Bland: "OK, you're going to yank me out of my car? OK. All right.

[inaudible, Encinia on radio] Don't do this."

Encinia: "We're going to -"

Sandra Bland: "Don't touch me!"

Encinia [shouting]: "Get out of the car!"

Sandra Bland: "Don't touch me. I am not under arrest. You don't have the right to touch me."

Encinia: "You are under arrest."

Sandra Bland: "I'm under arrest for what? For what?"

(Encinia does not answer her question. Instead he calls for backup.)

Encinia: [inaudible] "... send me another unit... "

[loud and stressed]: "Get out of the car! Get out of the car! Now!"

Sandra Bland: "Why am I being apprehended? Did you try to give me a ticket for failure -"

Encinia: "I said get out of the car!"

Sandra Bland: "Why am I being apprehended? You done opened my car door." [overlapping}

Encinia: "I'm giving you a lawful order. I'm going to drag you out of here."

Sandra Bland: "So you're going to drag me out of my own car?"

(As she says this, Encenia draws his taser and points it at her, reaching inside the car to do so.)

Encinia [screaming]: "Get out of the car! I will light you up! Get out!

Sandra Bland [getting out of the car, holding her phone]: "Wow"

Encinia [screaming]: "Now!"

Sandra Bland: "Wow."

Encinia [screaming]: "Get out of the car!"

Encinia doesn't use his taser, Sandra Bland does nothing threatening

At 10:36, Sandra Bland emerges from the car gracefully. She is taller than Trooper Encinia. She walks toward the rear of the car and then to the sidewalk, as he directs. There is space between them, an arm's length or more.

10:38-11:35 -

Sandra Bland: [inaudible] "... for a failure to signal? You're doing

all this for a failure to signal?"

Encinia [shouting as he directs her to the sidewalk]: "Get over there!" Sandra Bland: "Right. Yeah. Yeah, let's take this to court, let's -"

(Sandra Bland exits the dashcam frame, going to the sidewalk.)

Encinia [shouting]: "Go ahead!"

(Encinia exits the dashcam frame behind her.)

Sandra Bland: "- failure to signal, yup, for a failure to signal!"

Encinia [shouting]: "Get off the phone! [overlapping] Get off the phone!"

Sandra Bland: "I'm not on the phone, I have a right to -"

Encinia: "Put your phone down! [overlapping] Put your phone down!"

Sandra Bland: "Sorry?"

Encinia: "Put your phone down! Right now! Put your phone down!"

(At 10:59, Sandra Bland comes back into the dashcam frame and places her phone on the trunk of her car. Encinia is briefly visible again, then both exit the frame.)

Encinia: "[inaudible] Come over here! [overlapping] Come over here now!"

Sandra Bland [off camera]: "- you feeling good about yourself?"

Encinia [still shouting]: "Stand right here!"

Sandra Bland: "You feeling good about yourself?"

Encinia: "Stand right there!" [overlapping]

Sandra Bland: "You feel real good about yourself, don't you?

Encinia: "Turn around!" [overlapping]

Sandra Bland: "You feel real good about yourself, don't you?"

Encinia [still shouting]: "Turn around now!" [overlapping]

"Put your hands behind your back and turn around now! Turn around!"

Sandra Bland: "Why am I being arrested? Why can't you tell me -

[overlapping] Why am I being arrested?"

Encinia: "I am giving you a lawful order. Turn around."

Sandra Bland: "Why am I being arrested?"

Encinia: "Turn around! [overlapping] I'm giving you a lawful order. Turn around!"

Sandra Bland: "Why will you not tell me that part?" [overlapping]

Encinia: "You're not complying."

Sandra Bland: "I'm not complying because you just pulled me out of my car."

Encinia [screaming]: "Turn around!"

Sandra Bland: "Are you fucking kidding me? This is some bullshit -"

Encinia: "Put your hands behind your back."

Ever professional, Encinia says he's glad Sandra Bland is epileptic

At this point, roughly eight minutes after being stopped for changing lanes without signaling, Sandra Bland is in handcuffs. There is no evidence in the dashcam video that she physically resisted at all at any point. The video shows Trooper Encinia to be the physical aggressor as well as the verbal aggressor. For the next minute or so, Sandra Bland rants and curses at Encinia, accuses him of being "scared of a female," calls him "a pussy," and rails at him for his behavior, adding "I can't wait to go to court" and repeating it several times.

At 11:47, Encinia tries to tell her he was just giving her a warning, saying, "If you had just listened -" She interrupts to say, "I was trying to sign the fucking papers. Whatever." But even if she had listened, she never would have heard Encinia say he was giving her a warning, because he didn't say it till it was way too late. Already he's creating a lie about the event. "You were getting a warning ticket, now you're going to jail," he says at 12:19, putting the blame on her. She says he's breaking her wrist, he tells her to stop moving. Then he leaves her unattended and goes to her car. At 13:00 he slaps the ticket on the trunk of the car and says, "This right here says a warning. You started causing a problem." She answers, nailing the critical moment: "You asked me what was wrong." He didn't say anything about getting a warning at the time.

Now Sandra Bland screams in pain that he's about to break her wrists and asks him to stop, then screams again. At 13:20, there are sounds of a tussle, screaming and shouting. This is likely the sound of Encinia taking the handcuffed Sandra Bland to the ground and holding her down with a knee in her back, her hands behind her back. Encinia screams, "Stop now! Stop!" During this, Encinia's backups from Prairie View PD arrive off camera, a white male and a black woman (apparently Penne Goode, on the force a few months), who says, "Stop resisting, Ma'am." Encinia screams, "If you would stop, then I would tell you.... When you pull away from me, then you are resisting arrest." When she says, "You're a real man now, you slam me, knock my head in the ground, I got epilepsy you motherfucker," Encinia replies, "Good! Good!" And the black female cop says, "You should have thought about that before you start resisting."

At 15:29, Encinia says, falsely, of the black female cop, "This officer saw everything," Sandra Bland says she didn't, she wasn't even there for most of it. "I'm not talking to you," says the black female cop. Later she reassures Encinia about his version of events. He says he's glad it's all on video. But it's not.

The second video, shot by a bystander who arrived well into the event, corresponds with the dashcam video roughly 13:50-15:29. It shows the black female cop and Encinia holding Sandra Bland down on the ground while she rails at them. After about thirty seconds, Encinia gets up and comes toward the camera, shouting "You need to leave" three times at the bystander, who says he's on public property. Encinia does not confront the bystander, who continues to tape as Encinia returns to Sandra Bland where she is still being held down. The officers bring her to the backup cruiser and the tape ends.

By 15:45, Encinia and the backup officers have put Sandra Bland in the backup cruiser and she can no longer be heard clearly. Later the backup cops search Sandra Bland's car, apparently without permission, a warrant, or reasonable probable cause.

The official story went right into "Character Assassination Mode"

Encinia, who has already told Sandra Bland it's all her fault, now (16:08) tells the black female cop his version of what Sandra Bland did to him: "She started yanking away and kicked me, so I took her straight to the ground." Then Encinia says he's not hurt, as he chats with the other officers about the nature of his "injuries."

Moments later (starting at 17:47), apparently alone in his cruiser, Encinia is talking to someone who can't be heard, probably on the phone. From Encinia's conversation, this person seems to be supportive, possibly a union rep or a lawyer, someone to whom Encinia is comfortable floating his first, fictitious version of his attack on Sandra Bland, calling it a traffic stop at which he "had a little bit of an incident," then breaks off.

After about five minutes of police radio chatter and static, Encinia is again talking to the same or another unknown but sympathetic person (23:24). Encinia is saying: "... de-escalate her and it wasn't getting me anywhere at all.... I put the taser away, you know I tried talking to her, calming her down, and that was not working.... Well, I know, that was when she was in custody, and now I'm trying to get her detained, get her to calm down, and, you know, just calm down. Stop throwing her arms. You know what? She never swung at me, just flailing and stomping around. [emphasis added] I said all right that's enough, and that's when I detained her.... we were in the middle of a traffic stop... I was trying to get her out and over to the side and, you know, just explain to her what was going on.... I don't have serious bodily injury, but I was kicked.... [he reviews the legal meaning of "assault"]... She said I threw her down intentionally, for nothing.... Well I kept telling her to calm down, calm down.... I didn't say you're under arrest.... I told her what she was receiving and what to do and so forth, and by that time she was very much irritated and so forth.... She wouldn't even look at me, she looked straight ahead, mad.... And then when I had her down on the ground, and another officer and I told her to stop resisting, and that's when I told her, you're under arrest.... I took the lesser of, I only took enough force as I see necessary, I de-escalated once we were on the pavement.... I allowed time to de-escalate and so forth.... over a simple traffic stop - yeah, I don't get it, I really don't." [Ends at 34:40, when Encinia goes to search Sandra Bland's car.]

No, he really doesn't seem to get it. He never asked her to calm down while it might have mattered, he kept escalating until she blew up. Is Encinia lying here? Does he even know what's true? Does he believe this palpably false version of the event? Will anyone else who sees the video think Encinia is capable of telling the truth?

During the last 30-plus minutes of the dashcam video, it records a number of traffic violations that draw no response from the police, even though they are similar to Sandra Bland's "offense." A car changes lanes without signaling, then passes another car on the right (14:45). A black car turns left without signaling and a red car passes it on the right (15:44). A truck turns left without signaling as a car changes lanes without signaling (16:54). A white car turns left without signaling (19:26). The tow truck to tow Sandra Bland's car, making a U-turn without signaling (22:22). A black car changes lanes with no signal (28:50). A truck turns right without signaling (34:06). A car changes lanes with no signal (46:45). A truck changes lanes with no signal (47:18). A van changes lanes with no signal (47:22). At least the last three violations took place right in front of Encinia's cruiser while there was nothing else to occupy his attention.

Encinia is joined by fellow Character Assassins

The character assassination phase in police crimes like this usually begins immediately, as it does here with Encinia. The character assassination phase is when officials who are perpetrators or perp-protectors do their best to blame the victim (the smearing of Michael Brown in Ferguson last year being a textbook example). Often they are joined by investigators and judicial authorities who are "team players" who protect the team above honesty or justice. Typically they are helped by credulous or like-minded media.

When District Attorney Elton Mathis [see above] said, on July 22, "we are treating this as a murder investigation," he was repeating what he'd said at his July 20 press conference. That perspective seems to have become an anomaly and Mathis seems to have faded into the background, leaving other officials to continue to attack Sandra Bland posthumously. Character assassination does not require falsehood, not does it preclude falsehood. But the most effective character assassination is anything that puts the target in a bad light and is true, or seems to be true, but lacks meaningful context. Some examples of the Texas effort to assassinate the character of Sandra Bland:

July 13. The Waller County Sheriff's Office established the official story from the start: that Sandra Bland committed suicide, hanging herself with a garbage bag. Posts on Facebook supporting the official story are no longer available there, as the Sheriff's Office Facebook page has been taken down. Among other things, it featured the Declaration of Independence and a cleavage-shot of a well-endowed woman in a blue dress. [Missing context from then till now: credible motivation to kill herself.]

July 14. The Waller County Sheriff's Office posted a lengthy press release on Facebook (no longer available) that summarized the official story: "On Monday, July 13th, at approximately 09:00 am, a female inmate [Sandra Bland] was found in her cell not breathing from what appears to be self-inflicted asphyxiation." [Missing context: Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith has a history of racial animus that led to his suspension (2007) and then firing (2008) as police chief in nearby Hempstead, Texas.]

July 17. NBC Chicago-TV ran an "investigative" piece on Sandra Bland's driving record: "Sandra Bland had at least 10 encounters herself with police in both Illinois and Texas in past years" (headline). The report covered the years 2004-2014 and said she still owed $7,579 in fines and court fees. [Missing context: relevance to the Texas stop, which will never be adjudicated.]

July 21. The Waller County Sheriff's Office released a three-hour jail video purporting to show no activity around Sandra Bland's jail cell before she was found dead. Sandra Bland is not visible in any of the video. [Missing context: any reliable timeline of Sandra Bland circumstances from booking to death.]

July 21. The Waller County district attorney's office released Trooper Encinia's incident report despite its falsification of the event, easily determined by viewing the dashcam tape. Encinia omits his escalation when he asked Sandra Bland to put out her cigarette. Encinia omits mention of his drawing his taser and threatening Sandra Bland with it. Noting these omissions, The New York Times nevertheless quotes from the incident report as if it's credible.

July 22. Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith told the Associated Press that Sandra Bland said she had previously tried to kill herself. If she did kill herself, she is the first black woman suicide in a Texas jail since 2009. [Missing context: A similarly "inexplicable suicide" occurred in Waller County jail in 2012: James Harper Howell IV, 29, was a white man in jail for the same charge as Sandra Bland, assaulting a public servant.]

July 22: Former NYPD detective Harry Houck tells CNN panel that "Sandra Bland died because she was 'arrogant from the beginning'" (headline). Houck seems to have seen a different video: "Even if he [Encinia] de-escalated that whole situation, she would have kept coming at that officer the way she did. I don't think he baited her at all. She just wanted to be uncooperative.... She had a problem with the officer, she had a problem with being stopped, she didn't like the fact that she was being stopped. Her whole arrogant attitude." [Missing context: Perception shaped by racial bias is a national problem.]

July 22. Unnamed "Texas officials" provided the basis for a Washington Post story headlined: "Sandra Bland previously attempted suicide, jail documents say." Referring to inconsistencies in jail paperwork, assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam emailed the post that "the contradictions were created by here." [Missing context: Why were the contradictions not noticed, addressed, resolved?]

July 23. The Last Refuge, a rightwing website (theconservativetreehouse.com), sets out to blame Sandra Bland's family for her suicide: "There's a particular irony with the sister of Sandra Bland, Sharon Cooper, going on television to state she blames the Waller County Texas jail for her sister's demise, when Sharon Cooper refused to aid Sandra while she was in jail for 3 days.... Apparently, Ms. Bland was trying to put together $500 for a bond payment and none of her family, including her sister Sharon, were willing to assist.... It would appear a disconnected family, and the sense of isolation, might very well have led to an overpowering sense of desperation - ultimately resulting in her suicide while in jail." This anonymous writer goes on to recite part of the NBC driving record report and other denigrations. [Missing context: What actually went on over the weekend with the $5,000 bond and the family?]

July 23. Assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam undercuts DA Mathis and reaffirms the official story: "At this particular time, I have not seen any evidence that indicates this was a homicide. I can say she tested positive for marijuana." [Missing contexts: (1) What evidence was looked for? (2) How did she get marijuana in jail? and (3) Is the marijuana evidence of homicide?]

July 24. Waller County Jail has apparently helped two women prisoners come forward to say Sandra Bland committed suicide. The women were in a cell with three inmates near the cell where Sandra Bland was alone. ABC Eyewitness News touts its "exclusive" coverage of these two witnesses, one of whom remains anonymous, who support the official story. [Missing context: the degree to which each of these women remains entangled in the Texas justice system.]

July 24. Waller County Judge Trey Duhon, in a Facebook post, blamed Sandra Bland for inconsistencies in jail forms filled out by jail personnel at different times. One form said she was depressed, another didn't. The judge's Facebook post also referred to a "high level" of marijuana in Sandra Bland's system. The judge's Facebook page is no longer available. [Missing context: any explanation of the apparently chaotic booking process at the Waller County Jail.]

July 24. Assistant district attorney Warren Diepraam discussed the preliminary autopsy report (later released), emphasizing the marijuana in her system and some 30 cuts on her left wrist that he guessed were self-inflicted some weeks earlier. These tidbits were picked up and amplified by KHOU-TV in Houston, characterizing it all as "evidence consistent with suicide and evidence of a troubled past." KHOU-TV presented it all from the prosecutors' point of view, even downplaying Sandra Bland's wrist and back injuries from handcuffs and a trooper's knee in her back. Gratuitously, KHOU-TV also threw in a segment on Sandra Bland's "other run-ins with the law," which they list in detail, with a throwaway line at the end that she had had no legal problems in the past five years. The tag line is another cheap shot about more blood tests to see if the were other substances in her system "like that epilepsy drug she claimed she was taking." [Missing context: any independent medical history.]

The flip side of character assassination of the victim is cover-up for the perpetrators. For example, "officials" at the Texas Department of Public Safety say Encinia is assigned to administrative leave, with pay, for violating unspecified police procedures and the Department of Public Safety courtesy policy. Officials refuse to answer questions about Encinia trying to pull Sandra Bland out of her car. Officials refuse to answer questions about Encinia drawing his stun gun. Officials pretty much refuse to answer most useful questions.

Trooper Encinia refused to answer most of Sandra Bland's questions. She asked him fourteen times, why was she being arrested? He never gave her an answer. He was still trying to figure it out, on the phone, after she was in custody. His answer might have saved her life. She was buried July 25. The official story expects us to believe that this feisty, educated, politically conscious black woman that we see on video tape and elsewhere in her online life changed so completely in less than three days that she gave up and killed herself.

Is that credible? What else happened over that weekend?

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William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.