Evidence from an autopsy on Sandra Bland, the black woman found hanging dead in a Texas jail days after a traffic stop, supports the medical examiner's initial ruling of suicide, a county prosecutor told reporters on Thursday.
The preliminary results also found high levels of marijuana in Bland's system, although officials are seeking additional tests to confirm when and how much she might have smoked or swallowed, Waller County Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam said.
"The evidence that we reviewed up to this point supports those findings," he said of the initial suicide ruling.
Bland was pulled over on July 10 near Prairie View, Texas, northwest of Houston, for failing to signal a lane change. After the incident escalated into an altercation between her and the white trooper, Bland was taken into custody and charged with assaulting an officer. She was found hanging in her jail cell on July 13 with a plastic trash bag around her neck.
Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:A nice breakdown (follow up) of the traffic stop and the laws that were broken by the officer.
http://www.texasstandard.org/shows/curr ... ould-know/
Bland was pulled over on July 10 near Prairie View, Texas, northwest of Houston, for failing to signal a lane change.
After the incident escalated into an altercation between her and the white trooper,
Bland was taken into custody and charged with assaulting an officer.
Get the Driver Out
Whether to get the driver out of the car is probably one of the most contested tactics during a traffic stop. It’s a black-or-white issue for some and each side will rattle off a list of reasons for his or her preferred method. I am of the opinion that it's safer to get the driver out of the vehicle and conduct your business off to the side. If you let the driver stay in his vehicle, he’s on his home turf. He is familiar with this environment and has all of his resources available to him. If you get him out of his vehicle, you change the driver’s environment and effectively deny him the use of anything in that vehicle that could hurt you.
Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:A nice breakdown (follow up) of the traffic stop and the laws that were broken by the officer.
http://www.texasstandard.org/shows/curr ... ould-know/
Good to know the laws the officer broke.
there is a part of the story that is left out or even misleading. The stories are reported in such a way as to incite a reaction.
Had Sandra Bland been a murder suspect and arresting officer Brian Encinia serving a warrant for her arrest, no one would have questioned Encinia's conduct in ordering her out of her car. One might even find room to excuse his order to stop smoking, if she were assumed to be someone who had already killed another human being.
But Bland wasn't a murder suspect. As she quite rationally protested, she was ordered out of her car over a "failure to signal." She had complied with the traffic stop. I seriously doubt there is a law or ordinance requiring her to stop smoking while being issued a citation for a traffic violation.
Encinia didn't even phrase his initial request as an order. His exact words were, "You mind putting out your cigarette, please, if you don't mind?" It was Bland's refusal to comply with this non-order that incited Encinia's indignation and subsequent order to exit her car.
Ultimately, we have to look at what we are asking police officers to do and how we are training them to do it. Encinia may have treated Bland differently because she was black. We can't read his mind. But it's much more likely he treated her the way he did because she didn't exhibit blind obedience to his every whim, something he was trained not to tolerate and Americans of all political persuasions seem to have acquiesced to without question.
Which part of which story? And, if the officer broke the law, shouldn't there be a reaction?
My point was that I've failed to signal when getting out of the way of a patrol car or ambulance but didn't get cited.
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