First off, there is literally no death of any black person at the hands of the Police which Faux News and Conservatives will not justify and defend.
Nothing will make them deviate from their playbook of, minimizing the LEOs actions, demanding the black person prostrate themselves completely and then slandering the victim after their death.
An arrest is not a conviction. Of course,
Conservatives believe every black person is a born criminal. Thus, begins to
ex post facto justification for Bland's death via the murdering of her character. It's the right-wing way.
Bland's toxicology report showed cannabinoids in her blood. Weed Smoking is only acceptable if you're white. The same with gun ownership.
There's a massive amount of wrong with this whole escapade. Even the release of the dashcam video which Ava DuVernay, the director of
Selma, legitimately called doctored, was so
fraught with "glitches" the Texas Department of Public Safety is turned it over to the FBI for authentication that no editing has been done and any apparent errors are problems with uploading. Texas DPS has also released 3 hours (out of 72) of Bland's incarceration but, there is no camera inside the cell and big gaps in video coverage down the hallway to the cell. So, whatever happened inside Bland's cell is never going to be known.
Now, I know
exactly what Deputy Brian Encinia was doing when he zoomed up on Bland's vehicle, i.e. checking her license plate status to see if the driver is Suspended or has a Warrant. Nothing showed up on his squad car computer screen but, when she makes a minor traffic violation, failure to signal lane change, he's got his Probable Cause, to pull her over and run a name check and also get a better look inside the interior of the vehicle.
Well, he's got nothing. So he writes the moving violation and returns to Bland's window. And that's when he sees his opening.
When an officer or deputy escalates aggression it's either because he's weak and unsure of himself or he's trying to torque the person up in order to get a reaction ," a" rise out if that person. Deputy Brian Encinia starts in on Bland, seemingly asking innocuous questions, Sandra Bland answers the questions in too flippant a tone for Deputy Encinia and he rapidly descends into Eric Cartman level 'Respect My Authoritah'.
Conservatives of course begin the character assassination of Bland at this point.
Calling her arrogant, demanding she obey* the orders of the Deputy, and blaming his verbal aggression on her. With indefensible incidents such as this, Conservatives focus on one aspect, Encinia's right to order her out from the car, instead of the totality of the circumstances.
Now, while Encinia can legally her out of the vehicle, she's not under arrest at that point as the Deputy asserts, but is being temporarily lawfully detained. But, once this "arrogant" black woman talked back to him
Encinia apparently lost his composure, threatened "I will light you up", called for backing units, and the situation was totally out of control. A good Police Officer must be able to ratchet down during encounters. Encinia was apparently too weak or too stupid to do this.
Because prior to getting her out of the vehicle, there's nothing there. No DUI, No warrants known to him at the time, no major moving violations, no contraband in the vehicle. Just a black woman who didn't know her place.
Resisting/Obstructing are the catch-alls Police Departments use to charge a person whom they most likely should not have arrested. Much of what's wrong here stems from the decision to put the Resisting/Battery to a Peace Officer charge on Bland to cover for Encinia's mistakes.
I don't know what Waller County Texas lockup procedures are but, Bland should have been released on an IBond after she couldn't come up with the money. They had her car. They had already positively identified her. No felony had been committed. So, why wasn't she bonded out? Because as a further demonstration to her that if you don't prostrate yourself before the law, you are going to spend a whole weekend in lockup, to teach that uppity
n-slur some manners.
Usually temporary holding cells contain no items like plastic bags no trash can liners and her food** would not be delivered in one. I never let the arrestee have plastic dinnerware, a straw or even the plastic lid on the drink. Also it's Standard Operating Procedure that even arrestee without self-admitted suicidal thoughts are made to give up shoe laces, belts and even drawstrings on hoodies.
Additionally, during processing prior to being placed into a Holding Cell, it is SOP to ask if the arrestee if they have ever harmed them-self or attempted suicide. And if Deputies knew she had a history of suicidal thoughts, as the processing form shows, then they are obligated and responsible for her well-being. If that means taking her to the Hospital for close non-stop observation and an evaluation by a Doctor,
too bad they made the arrest.
The Waller County Sheriff Department didn't do this, most likely, because the Deputies believed she was feigning
Incarceratius, in order to get out of lockup.
So, Sandra Bland is dead. The Texas Authorities are in overdrive to prove she committed suicide, but even if she did (which sadly I'm not ready to concede) her death
nonetheless is still on Waller County Sheriff because they decided to hold a potentially suicidal person for 3 days for the Unforgivable Crime of being Black in America.
* - Conservatives have for years gotten away with this hypocritical dichotomy of fear-monging about distrusting government so much so that they've purchased 100 million guns and deployed themselves to Counter Jade Helm yet they unequivocally accept every Government Official declaration concerning the suspicious deaths of black people by authorities. It could not be any clearer that Conservatives support and desire the murder of black people by Police.
** - much was made of Dylann Roof, the white conservative domestic terrorist getting fed Burger King after he was under arrest. This is non-controversial. My Department provides McDonald's for every meal for someone held in our temporary detention cells.