Floridatexan wrote: Where is the evidence that Sandra Bland assaulted the officer? That's right...there is none. The officer has now been indicted for lying about the circumstances of the arrest...that means his story that she assaulted him has no credibility. I believe it is very likely that Sandra Bland was DOA at the jail and a cover story was concocted out of thin air. I think he killed her off-camera...or at least caused life-threatening injuries that led to her demise.
You're slap ass crazy! There was a female cop present when he was fighting w/ her also. It shows her in the video. As for life threatening injuries she was booked at the jail. If medical treatment was warranted they would have been obliged to treat her. Furthermore, she called her family for bail at the jail and they refused. You have no clue as to what you're talking about. Good grief!
She was alive when she arrived at jail and for three days. The family has never taken that position. I think the civil trial will simply show some real problems in their breach of duty, and an expert on jail protocols will nail them after going over the booking sheets which have yet to be released to the family(at least that is what they are saying)_
Tex there is plenty of fault here in this unneccessary death but that is a bit off the wall without any evidence and ample video released showing her alive.
2seaoat wrote:You can't sue someone and win because you killed yourself for being arrested.
Actually, you can, but It simply would be too hard to try to explain. I will give you the short version. A custodial facility and their agents have a duty to protect somebody in their custody. If they breach the standards and the result is death, a wrongful death action will examine the duty owed to the person in custody and the question is did they breach that duty, and was that breach a contributory factor or proximate cause of the samein the ultimate damage which was her death. I really think you need to do some reading on this subject, because your understanding of these issues is dated at best.
That issue was already discussed in the grand jury. I am aware of the custodial duty in cases of mental health prisoners but Bland had denied suicide or mental health issues so there was no duty to protect.
2seaoat wrote:She was alive when she arrived at jail and for three days. The family has never taken that position. I think the civil trial will simply show some real problems in their breach of duty, and an expert on jail protocols will nail them after going over the booking sheets which have yet to be released to the family(at least that is what they are saying)_
Tex there is plenty of fault here in this unneccessary death but that is a bit off the wall without any evidence and ample video released showing her alive.
The County will give 'em a settlement and that'll be the end of it.
The trooper may or may not get convicted of some lesser charge.
The news cycle has moved on .... nobody cares anymore.
2seaoat wrote:The grand jury has ruled there were no criminal violations at the jail and I don't believe a jury will hold the jail responsible either. The trooper will not be held responsible for her death. That will ridiculous.
In a civil suit the ultimate issue will not be the same as in a grand jury finding of probable cause. There are different standards which you clearly do not completely understand. There are a great many concepts which I could broach with you, but needlessly there will be three types of civil suits which will result and they will be presented in a multi count format, and the 1983 action could be brought in the federal courts. They can go with a straight up 1983 civil rights action which has really nothing to do with race, but deprivation of constitutional rights. There will be an assessment of the officers actions and the damages to the Plaintiff. The second is a straight up intentional tort of which could involve false arrest, battery, and assault(the mother claims she was struck in the car), however, the I will light you up comment can be considered an assault under civil tort standards, and there will be a typical necessary elements which must be met by the plaintiff, but the burden of proof will be different in those same intentional acts which may not meet the final criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. The final approach will be a straight up negligence case that in combination the agents breached their duty to the defendant which resulted in damages. The negligent standard in jail suicides was almost impossible until the early eighties under two concepts which favored the police which was first sovereign immunity, and the more important second consideration when talking about negligence is comparative negligence where the actions of a person who may have committed suicide will have the breach allocated between their actions by a judge or jury. Before the early eighties the jail suicides were virtually blocked but in the last thirty years as sovereign immunity has been overturned in the famous Molitor vs Kaneland where I actually met one of the little girls who got burned up in a bus collision. The Supremes said sorry King, you will be held to a limited extent for your acts. At the same time jail standards and procedures were proving by experts that suicides in lock ups can be avoided with proper jail procedures and protocols.
I have explained I lived in a community where there was a rash of jail suicides with young dui males where it had become an epidemic, and in fact the courts awarded damages and legal arguments over turned traditional police protections where protocols and procedures contributed to the death of a person in custody. This case is simple. They will win the 1983 count. They will win probably at least one or two of the intentional tort counts, and I honestly do not know what Texas has on Tort immunity and where there limits are on comparative negligence and could not give an opinion. Contrary to your conclusions, the family will be paid on this case in those civil counts. I only want a trial.......it is necessary.
First of all, the mother wasn't there. She can't claim anything. Secondly, holding the trooper responsible for Bland hanging herself in jail is absurd. Third, there would possibly be a false arrest tort but no battery or assault. I'm not sure the family can even bring a false arrest if she's dead.
2seaoat wrote:She was alive when she arrived at jail and for three days. The family has never taken that position. I think the civil trial will simply show some real problems in their breach of duty, and an expert on jail protocols will nail them after going over the booking sheets which have yet to be released to the family(at least that is what they are saying)_
Tex there is plenty of fault here in this unneccessary death but that is a bit off the wall without any evidence and ample video released showing her alive.
The County will give 'em a settlement and that'll be the end of it.
The trooper may or may not get convicted of some lesser charge.
The news cycle has moved on .... nobody cares anymore.
You're always free not to participate in this discussion but I'm talking to Oatie.
2seaoat, TEOTWAWKI posted that this was a felony murder back in July. So I just fail to see your point.
I fail to understand your context, but T was the only person who found Gant and posted the same setting the standard for what will be a successful 1983 action. I do not know what thread there was a discussion of a felony murder, nor do I understand what point I was making without context. T over the years being piszed about police abuses has been reading.
Seaoat, she could have had a life threatening injury when she was arrested...left untreated and unacknowledged. It's not outside the realm of possibility that she died from that injury. Did she ever have access to a doctor? If she did indeed commit suicide, where did she get the plastic bag?
2seaoat wrote:2seaoat, TEOTWAWKI posted that this was a felony murder back in July. So I just fail to see your point.
I fail to understand your context, but T was the only person who found Gant and posted the same setting the standard for what will be a successful 1983 action. I do not know what thread there was a discussion of a felony murder, nor do I understand what point I was making without context. T over the years being piszed about police abuses has been reading.
The video the county released showed her healthy and walking around for three days, and it also showed about a 25 gallon plastic garbage can with a standard white plastic garbage bag in a group cell. The jail expert will destroy them. There is a reason that shoelaces and belts are removed at booking and before placing somebody in a holding cell before finishing the booking process. The key will be to look at their booking sheets which have standard questions which illicit information to protect the person who has been booked as to medications, medical conditions, and mental state. This is a no brainer, but sure a person could have strangled her......but that just does not line up with the video they released.
Posts : 17531 Join date : 2012-06-16 Age : 79 Location : Tallahassee
Vikingwoman wrote:
2seaoat wrote:2seaoat, TEOTWAWKI posted that this was a felony murder back in July. So I just fail to see your point.
I fail to understand your context, but T was the only person who found Gant and posted the same setting the standard for what will be a successful 1983 action. I do not know what thread there was a discussion of a felony murder, nor do I understand what point I was making without context. T over the years being piszed about police abuses has been reading.
It also could have been a faux suicide attempt to get attention that went wrong. It happens.
None of her friends/family would/could bond her out ... she knew she was going to court that day. So a (failed) suicide attempt would have gotten her a psych eval, maybe a trip to a psych clinic or hospital, and maybe released on recognizance just to get rid of her or maybe (probably) even the charges dropped because the system would not want to deal with a "crazy" on a minor charge.
It happens, people do that sort of thing. They learn to manipulate the system. Especially if they've been around the system a time or two, and this was not her first brush with the law. Jails & courts don't like to deal with crazies unless it's a serious charge ... often they'll just lock 'em up a few days, then drop the charges & let 'em go.
Except that maybe she was more successful at her faux suicide attempt than she intended to be?
2seaoat wrote:2seaoat, TEOTWAWKI posted that this was a felony murder back in July. So I just fail to see your point.
I fail to understand your context, but T was the only person who found Gant and posted the same setting the standard for what will be a successful 1983 action. I do not know what thread there was a discussion of a felony murder, nor do I understand what point I was making without context. T over the years being piszed about police abuses has been reading.
2seaoat wrote:The video the county released showed her healthy and walking around for three days, and it also showed about a 25 gallon plastic garbage can with a standard white plastic garbage bag in a group cell. The jail expert will destroy them. There is a reason that shoelaces and belts are removed at booking and before placing somebody in a holding cell before finishing the booking process. The key will be to look at their booking sheets which have standard questions which illicit information to protect the person who has been booked as to medications, medical conditions, and mental state. This is a no brainer, but sure a person could have strangled her......but that just does not line up with the video they released.
They already investigated all that about the jail and what she told them when she came in. They had no reason to believe she was a suicide risk.
They already investigated all that about the jail and what she told them when she came in. They had no reason to believe she was a suicide risk.
In a civil trial "they" will be the ones who will have experts review their procedures to determine if there was a breach of duty. They will ruthlessly show every flaw in their procedures, forms, and actual conduct in processing Sandra. Of Course the County will have their experts. The jail hanging case in our community in the early eighties changed a great deal of law and the family of the person who committed suicide got a large settlement which went to the young man's six year old daughter.
To help you better understand why the arresting officer will be held liable in this case, let me explain that case a bit. In many small communities surrounding an older city like Pensacola(bob has talked about this on another thread) newer communities or suburbs grow which are separate government units with their own police force. Many do not have jails and have intergovernmental agreements with other municipalities to hold an arrested individual until they can get transferred to county. Well in this case an office in this small town stopped a person who blew .24 bac which is incredibly drunk. He does the field sobriety test. He transports to the jail. He brings him into the booking area and starts processing him.....again very drunk. The folks in the booking room also start dealing with him and processing him. Put him in a temporary holding cell....finish the booking and put him in his cell. Well in that process about four officers interacted with the guy, and nobody removed his shoelaces. He was dead in the morning, having tied his shoelace to the bunk above him and simply laying face down on his bunk strangling himself.
Both towns were sued. The four officers were sued. The courts awarded the largest jail suicide award in the wrongful death case in the history of that state at that time. The jail experts absolutely destroyed the jail procedures and went over six suicides which had happened in that five cell jail in two years where all were young males who had duis. The community like we have seen here had conspiracy theories that people were being wrongfully killed in the jail, but the law had not evolved to get over the comparative negligence standard and the sovereign immunity defense that the king could do no wrong. This case changed it all as the experts absolutely destroyed the booking sheets, the observation protocols, the intake interviews, the facility, and training.
This civil suit in Sandra's case is a lay down. This officer was wrong and I hope he serves jail time and he can think about what he did to this woman as he sits depressed and alone in a jail cell.
2seaoat wrote:2seaoat, TEOTWAWKI posted that this was a felony murder back in July. So I just fail to see your point.
I fail to understand your context, but T was the only person who found Gant and posted the same setting the standard for what will be a successful 1983 action. I do not know what thread there was a discussion of a felony murder, nor do I understand what point I was making without context. T over the years being piszed about police abuses has been reading.
Teo never posted that.
Gee...
department in this city.....so I get what T was getting at, but the video twenty years ago chilled bad behavior like it is now doing with the cell phone.
I never saw that and was really talking about the thread where I was discussing it w/ Seaoat.
I think Sal's comment on that thread summed it up at the time, but I can tell you when jail suicides happen the community always has whispers of jail murders.....and historically this is not some whacky conspiracy theory, but since the advent of the video monitor in jails, those abuses are virtually gone. In the hanging case I have talked about one Lt who was in charge of the booking area was known throughout the community by the bad guys that he would give you a push when he was a young jailer down a twenty step flight of stairs if someone was mouthy while they had handcuffs on, and surprisingly the hard core folks when they went to jail learned to STFU and listen.....but when the city was getting all these medical bills for treating broken bones....these trips at the top of the stairs just magically stopped......and this guy was the commanding officer over the booking department in this city.....so I get what T was getting at, but the video twenty years ago chilled bad behavior like it is now doing with the cell phone.
2seaoat wrote:They already investigated all that about the jail and what she told them when she came in. They had no reason to believe she was a suicide risk.
In a civil trial "they" will be the ones who will have experts review their procedures to determine if there was a breach of duty. They will ruthlessly show every flaw in their procedures, forms, and actual conduct in processing Sandra. Of Course the County will have their experts. The jail hanging case in our community in the early eighties changed a great deal of law and the family of the person who committed suicide got a large settlement which went to the young man's six year old daughter.
To help you better understand why the arresting officer will be held liable in this case, let me explain that case a bit. In many small communities surrounding an older city like Pensacola(bob has talked about this on another thread) newer communities or suburbs grow which are separate government units with their own police force. Many do not have jails and have intergovernmental agreements with other municipalities to hold an arrested individual until they can get transferred to county. Well in this case an office in this small town stopped a person who blew .24 bac which is incredibly drunk. He does the field sobriety test. He transports to the jail. He brings him into the booking area and starts processing him.....again very drunk. The folks in the booking room also start dealing with him and processing him. Put him in a temporary holding cell....finish the booking and put him in his cell. Well in that process about four officers interacted with the guy, and nobody removed his shoelaces. He was dead in the morning, having tied his shoelace to the bunk above him and simply laying face down on his bunk strangling himself.
Both towns were sued. The four officers were sued. The courts awarded the largest jail suicide award in the wrongful death case in the history of that state at that time. The jail experts absolutely destroyed the jail procedures and went over six suicides which had happened in that five cell jail in two years where all were young males who had duis. The community like we have seen here had conspiracy theories that people were being wrongfully killed in the jail, but the law had not evolved to get over the comparative negligence standard and the sovereign immunity defense that the king could do no wrong. This case changed it all as the experts absolutely destroyed the booking sheets, the observation protocols, the intake interviews, the facility, and training.
This civil suit in Sandra's case is a lay down. This officer was wrong and I hope he serves jail time and he can think about what he did to this woman as he sits depressed and alone in a jail cell.
You should know juries give much more tolerance to police especially when a suspect is abusive as Bland was. The trooper had nothing to do w/ her hanging so this is where we disagree. She was there three days because the family wouldn't get her out.I think that's going to be very significant in their defense. If she gave no indications of mental health issues then the jail shouldn't be held responsible. The case you are talking about was out and out negligence. I seriously doubt the trooper will be convicted. How he acted and the suicide are two different issues.
Posts : 17531 Join date : 2012-06-16 Age : 79 Location : Tallahassee
Vikingwoman wrote:
Markle wrote:
Vikingwoman wrote:
2seaoat wrote:2seaoat, TEOTWAWKI posted that this was a felony murder back in July. So I just fail to see your point.
I fail to understand your context, but T was the only person who found Gant and posted the same setting the standard for what will be a successful 1983 action. I do not know what thread there was a discussion of a felony murder, nor do I understand what point I was making without context. T over the years being piszed about police abuses has been reading.
I seriously doubt the trooper will be convicted. How he acted and the suicide are two different issues.
He will be convicted. This is what will happen. The state already has the grand jury to pursue other more serious criminal charges. The perjury charge could have been brought as a felony under TX, law but they charged it as a misd. which will allow during plea to simple take some jail time get released after sixty days and we will end the investigation. However, they can threaten felony assault or battery which may have mandatory sentences which involve years. All of this has already been discussed between the officer's lawyer and the state....bet on it, and I am guessing that a short jail sentence at the County in a very favorable environment shooting the chit with the boyz is going to fly. The prosecutors can pound their chest that an officer went to jail, and the family is going to sound strident bitching after he lost his job and had to go to jail. We will see. We can revisit this thread in a few months if I am still around.
In regard to the officer and the suicide it most certainly is the same issue under the concept of contributory negligence, the 1983 action I outlined earlier, and the intentional torts I alluded to earlier......the jail time, the death will all factor into the damage determination and will be allocated, in settlement or under jury instructions, and verdict.
I think you're way out in left field on this. There was no battery. So no battery charges will ensue. There not going to start pursuing battery charges on officers who defer from policy and arrest people. Bland was combative. For the jury to convict the officer of perjury they would have to prove he intentionally lied to cover up a bad act. If he reasonably believed he was correct in enforcing his commands they won't convict him of perjury. This is all fluff based on treatment of African Americans which is a valid claim but not to the extent that every encounter is an abuse of rights. Again, the officer had nothing to do w/ Bland's suicide. Trying to prove "she would be alive today" if the officer hadn't arrested her is a tough sell to any jury, I think. People are responsible for their behavior. Bland choose to cuss and fight the officer. I am against police abuse in any case but if you are uncooperative during these encounters you're never going to win.
There will be both a battery and assault intentional tort count. It is just the way they do it. None of them will matter because it will be the 1983 action which is a given, but the strategy of multi count complaints is varied, but it often gives a jury an opportunity to reject something and feel that they have been balanced, and certainly the County will make a motion to dismiss after discovery if you are correct that the evidence does not comply with the allegations after depositions and review of the evidence prior to trial, when the Plaintiffs and Defendant's will clean up the pleadings and prepare their respective Jury instructions for each count.
The conviction on the perjury is a done deal, but certainly I could be wrong, and I expect it to be pled.
2seaoat wrote:There will be both a battery and assault intentional tort count. It is just the way they do it. None of them will matter because it will be the 1983 action which is a given, but the strategy of multi count complaints is varied, but it often gives a jury an opportunity to reject something and feel that they have been balanced, and certainly the County will make a motion to dismiss after discovery if you are correct that the evidence does not comply with the allegations after depositions and review of the evidence prior to trial, when the Plaintiffs and Defendant's will clean up the pleadings and prepare their respective Jury instructions for each count.
The conviction on the perjury is a done deal, but certainly I could be wrong, and I expect it to be pled.
by Terri Langford and Sophia Bollag July 21, 2015 51Comments
Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.
PRAIRIE VIEW — Two Texas lawmakers said Sandra Bland should have never been arrested after watching the video of the traffic stop taken from the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper’s car that was shown in a closed door meeting with Waller County officials before being released to the public late Tuesday.
“I think that once you see what occurred, you will probably agree with me she did not deserve to be placed in custody,” said state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas.
State. Rep. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, concurred: “This young woman should be alive today.”
West and Giddings were among about a dozen state leaders, including Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who met with Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, District Attorney Elton Mathis and other members of the local community to review the long-awaited dash cam video that recorded trooper Brian Encinia arresting Bland on July 10. Bland was initially stopped for a minor traffic infraction: a failure to use a turn signal while changing lanes on University Drive in Prairie View, less than a mile from the campus of her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University.
Three days after the arrest, Bland, who is black, was found hanged to death inside the Waller County Jail. The death has sparked outrage in Texas, the nation and worldwide for what many see as the latest case of white police harassment of a black citizen. Encinia has been put on administrative duty in Houston, reassigned after his superiors, including McCraw, viewed the patrol car video.
The high-profile group met at Prairie View A&M University at the College of Juvenile Justice and Psychology for more than two hours. Participants who spoke on background with The Texas Tribune said both Waller County officials and McCraw walked the group through video captured outside the jail cell where Bland was confined and the arrest video that many lawmakers had asked to be released. The tone inside the meeting, participants said, was not defensive, but collaborative, as if everyone were trying to determine how exactly a 28-year-old from the Chicago area ended up dead in a jail cell after a minor traffic infraction.
The group emerged somber but hesitant to point fingers at DPS.
“A young woman, Sandra Bland, is dead from a routine traffic stop,” said state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston. “People are still asking whether or not black lives matter. And I think it’s important for us to respond: ‘They do.’”
West emphasized that the case is going to a grand jury to decide whether Bland was murdered or died, as the Harris County medical examiner has already ruled, of a suicide.
Patrick urged the public to give investigators — the FBI and the Texas Rangers — time to thoroughly investigate the case.
“The message we are sending here in Texas is the way any case like this should be handled anywhere in the country and that is to be sure that every question is asked and every question is answered,” Patrick said. “So at the end the facts lead us to the truth.”
But the lieutenant governor was quick to chide members of the media he believes are urging a rush to judgment.
“We’re going to find the truth wherever it leads,” Patrick said.
The video released after the news conference shows Encinia losing his temper with Bland when she refuses to put out her cigarette when he tells her to and refuses to come out of her Hyundai when told to do so.
"Get out of the car, now!" he shouts at Bland before opening the car door, grabbing her and trying to force her out. He is seen threatening to use his Taser on her to get her to come out. "I will light you up!" he shouts.
The video shocked civil rights attorney Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“That was really outrageous. I was really stunned,” he said. “Man, he did everything wrong.”
Harrington said motorists do have to get out of a vehicle when asked by an officer, but the way Encinia went about it — and the fact he was only doing so after she refused to put a cigarette out — was problematic.
“The problem here is, he’s the one who escalated everything,” Harrington said. “Dragging her out of the car is crazy.”
*********
I still have to review the jail footage...didn't know it existed. Whatever happened inside the jail is secondary. The contrast between the first stop on the tape, in which the woman apparently didn't have proof of insurance, is startling. His whole demeanor changed. He was baiting her.
2seaoat wrote:2seaoat, TEOTWAWKI posted that this was a felony murder back in July. So I just fail to see your point.
I fail to understand your context, but T was the only person who found Gant and posted the same setting the standard for what will be a successful 1983 action. I do not know what thread there was a discussion of a felony murder, nor do I understand what point I was making without context. T over the years being piszed about police abuses has been reading.
2seaoat wrote:There will be both a battery and assault intentional tort count. It is just the way they do it. None of them will matter because it will be the 1983 action which is a given, but the strategy of multi count complaints is varied, but it often gives a jury an opportunity to reject something and feel that they have been balanced, and certainly the County will make a motion to dismiss after discovery if you are correct that the evidence does not comply with the allegations after depositions and review of the evidence prior to trial, when the Plaintiffs and Defendant's will clean up the pleadings and prepare their respective Jury instructions for each count.
The conviction on the perjury is a done deal, but certainly I could be wrong, and I expect it to be pled.
by Terri Langford and Sophia Bollag July 21, 2015 51Comments
Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.
PRAIRIE VIEW — Two Texas lawmakers said Sandra Bland should have never been arrested after watching the video of the traffic stop taken from the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper’s car that was shown in a closed door meeting with Waller County officials before being released to the public late Tuesday.
“I think that once you see what occurred, you will probably agree with me she did not deserve to be placed in custody,” said state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas.
State. Rep. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, concurred: “This young woman should be alive today.”
West and Giddings were among about a dozen state leaders, including Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who met with Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, District Attorney Elton Mathis and other members of the local community to review the long-awaited dash cam video that recorded trooper Brian Encinia arresting Bland on July 10. Bland was initially stopped for a minor traffic infraction: a failure to use a turn signal while changing lanes on University Drive in Prairie View, less than a mile from the campus of her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University.
Three days after the arrest, Bland, who is black, was found hanged to death inside the Waller County Jail. The death has sparked outrage in Texas, the nation and worldwide for what many see as the latest case of white police harassment of a black citizen. Encinia has been put on administrative duty in Houston, reassigned after his superiors, including McCraw, viewed the patrol car video.
The high-profile group met at Prairie View A&M University at the College of Juvenile Justice and Psychology for more than two hours. Participants who spoke on background with The Texas Tribune said both Waller County officials and McCraw walked the group through video captured outside the jail cell where Bland was confined and the arrest video that many lawmakers had asked to be released. The tone inside the meeting, participants said, was not defensive, but collaborative, as if everyone were trying to determine how exactly a 28-year-old from the Chicago area ended up dead in a jail cell after a minor traffic infraction.
The group emerged somber but hesitant to point fingers at DPS.
“A young woman, Sandra Bland, is dead from a routine traffic stop,” said state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston. “People are still asking whether or not black lives matter. And I think it’s important for us to respond: ‘They do.’”
West emphasized that the case is going to a grand jury to decide whether Bland was murdered or died, as the Harris County medical examiner has already ruled, of a suicide.
Patrick urged the public to give investigators — the FBI and the Texas Rangers — time to thoroughly investigate the case.
“The message we are sending here in Texas is the way any case like this should be handled anywhere in the country and that is to be sure that every question is asked and every question is answered,” Patrick said. “So at the end the facts lead us to the truth.”
But the lieutenant governor was quick to chide members of the media he believes are urging a rush to judgment.
“We’re going to find the truth wherever it leads,” Patrick said.
The video released after the news conference shows Encinia losing his temper with Bland when she refuses to put out her cigarette when he tells her to and refuses to come out of her Hyundai when told to do so.
"Get out of the car, now!" he shouts at Bland before opening the car door, grabbing her and trying to force her out. He is seen threatening to use his Taser on her to get her to come out. "I will light you up!" he shouts.
The video shocked civil rights attorney Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“That was really outrageous. I was really stunned,” he said. “Man, he did everything wrong.”
Harrington said motorists do have to get out of a vehicle when asked by an officer, but the way Encinia went about it — and the fact he was only doing so after she refused to put a cigarette out — was problematic.
“The problem here is, he’s the one who escalated everything,” Harrington said. “Dragging her out of the car is crazy.”
*********
I still have to review the jail footage...didn't know it existed. Whatever happened inside the jail is secondary. The contrast between the first stop on the tape, in which the woman apparently didn't have proof of insurance, is startling. His whole demeanor changed. He was baiting her.
Actually, he was very nice to her up until she started smarting off and refused to put out the cigarette. This was not a racial stop. He minutes before her pulled over a white woman who did not act like Bland did.
Home
