Texas trooper violated policy stopping woman who died in jail: agency

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US | Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:53am EDT

Texas trooper violated policy stopping woman who died in jail: agency

US | Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:53am EDT

A Texas trooper violated protocol during a traffic stop of a woman who was jailed and days later found dead in her cell in what a local sheriff's department said was an apparent suicide, officials said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said on Friday the trooper has been put on desk duty while the FBI and the Texas Rangers, a statewide police and investigation agency, probe the death of Sandra Bland, 28, an African-American.

Relatives and friends of Bland, who was found hanged in her Waller County jail cell on Monday, said they do not believe the official version given by the Waller County Sheriff's Office.

Bland, from the Chicago suburb of Naperville, was arrested on July 10 for allegedly assaulting an officer during a traffic stop in Prairie View, northwest of Houston.

The trooper who made the arrest violated procedures and the agency's courtesy policy, the Department of Public Safety said.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/18/us-usa-texas-death-idUSKCN0PS09C20150718

[peacebird]

1. Question: why would she hang herself?

My suspicion would be the POS who arrested her also sexually assaulted her..... I can think of no other reason that might push her to that extreme. Unless of course the POS actually "helped" her hang herself....

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I'd like to know what kind of trash bags they have in their jail cells first

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/state-jail-commission-cites-waller-county-officials-after-investigating-sandra-blands-death-7599587

This Houston Press article says she hung herself with a plastic trash bag.

I'm not buying it.

Someone will be along any moment now to say - but she's a super human so it's entirely possible that an animal like that . . .


Still not buying it!

I'm also dying to know what this "traffic stop courtesy policy" entails. Like - you only use your fists when it's a black woman? You can't throw her on the ground? Waiting for the usual suspects to show up and 'splain why this was a good thing to have happened.

[tblue37]

14. Maybe--I thought of that possibility, too. But they would probably expect to get

away with that even without getting rid of the victim.

I think they accidentally got too enthusiatic while beating her and ended up killing her, then staged the suicide to cover up the murder. A cooperative medical examiner would help, just as cooperative DAs do when cops kill people, especially PoCs. I explain my theory in detail in a post below.

[Scuba]

2. At least we know that murdering her was a violation of procedure.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Depends on their courtesy policy

Maybe they were supposed to smother her with the plastic bag instead of hanging her?

[Downwinder]

7. Pulled her out of the car because she had a cigarette?

Must have been planning a picnic on the grass.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Imagine if she had a bag of skittles or can of iced tea!

She probably would have been shot on the spot.

[Downwinder]

9. I have seen some pretty rabid anti-smokers!

[JustAnotherGen]

12. I like you!

As angry as I am about this - you just gave me a little laughter today. Many thanks!

[madville]

5. They have the camera footage from outside her cell

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-employee-placed-leave-after-sandy-bland-traffic-stop-n394216

"The death of Ms. Sandra Bland will not be swept under the rug," Mathis said.

He said a surveillance camera inside the jail shows the hallway leading to Bland's cell door.

"We cannot find where anyone goes into her cell from the hallway to do her any harm, from the last time that she was physically viewed alive," he said.

-------------------

If that is the case then suicide does appear more likely. They should still be held accountable for putting her in that position though since policies were broken.

I want to see the dash cam and audio footage from the cop car.

[BillZBubb]

11. Those camera images can be doctored.

Who has access to the on/off switch?

[Downwinder]

16. The last person to see somebody alive

is usually a suspect in their death.

[tblue37]

17. Apparently others have considered that to be a possibility.

From a USA Today article:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/17/texas-jailed-woman-suicide-sandra-bland/30284367/

The state Public Safety Department and Waller County district attorney have requested that the FBI conduct a forensic analysis on video footage from the incident.

[BillZBubb]

19. That is good news.

Depending on the setup, one of the cops could have told someone to or himself turned off the camera so he could "go teach that ----- a lesson". Or, it could be edited depending on how it was stored.

[madville]

20. That would be impressive

Having worked in that field, with CCTV, DVRs, DVDs, VHS, and 6 different brands of in-car systems, I would be very impressed if some podunk officers doctored footage and time stamps in a way undetectable to the forensic people that should be checking it out.

You can't just go in and alter time stamps and footage without leaving evidence of it or really screwing it up, anyone there I would seriously doubt it.

Yeah sure, if it was turned off or there was a time gap that would be highly suspect, but reading the above it appears everything looks normal. I would bet it will be scrutinized by several different entities with this much visibility and FBI involvement.

[Iggo]

6. You mean fucking with black people ain't policy?

Oh!

Official written policy!

That's different.

[tblue37]

10. Let's see. Young, happy woman, excited to start her new job (she'd already been hired), gets pulled

over for not signaling a lane change--something innumerable (white) people do all the time without being pulled over. I follow traffic laws much more meticulously than most and never have been pulled over in my 50 years of driving, but even I have occasionally forgotten to signal--rarely, but not never.

Then the cops make her get out of the car. Why? That is not normal. They don't make you exit the car for a minor traffic violation, and they *certainly* don't rough you up, slam you to the ground, and handcuff you and arrest you for failing to signal a lane change--if you are white. If you are black, you might get shot for not wearing a seatbelt and then trying to get your wallet to show the ID the cop with the gun demands. (Of course, in *that* case you don't need to wonder why the cop had his gun drawn and was shouting demands at a young man who had failed to wear a seatbelt. That's SOP when these cowardly cops approach a black man for any reason.)

In the video she asks them why they are being so rough with her. The answer is obvious. And arresting her for assaulting a cop? Well, they charged that guy in Ferguson for assault and damage to PD property just because he bled on their uniforms when they beat him bloody.

Now, considering the bizarre behavior of the cops toward her, cops whose boss had been fired before for running a brutally racist PD, plus the fact that she was happy and excited about her new job, do we really believe she would commit suicide over a traffic violation?

Also, she was apparently known as a civil rights activist who protested against police brutality.

My guess is that while beating her up, they let their pumped up adrenaline cloud their minds enough to accidentally kill her, then staged a suicide to cover it up. Then their medical examiner, who works closely with the PD, just as the DAs who never charge murdering cops do, provided a cause of death finding that hid the real cause of death. They are so used to doing these things and never suffering any penalty for their brutality that it never occurred to them that they might get exposed--and they still have good reason to believe that a paid vacation will be the "worst" consequence for abusing and killing a young black woman. Also, this sort of beating, killing, and covering up is so common, especially when the victim is black, that the unlikely suicide story is ridiculously unbelievable.

The beating + homicide version is far more plausible than the out-of-the-blue suicide over a traffic stop, especially since she never was given her one phone call, which would have prevented her from spending 3 days in jail. I bet she died that first day, but they needed a couple of more days to cover their tracks and cook up their story.

[BillZBubb]

13. I believe she did call someone from the jail.

She told that person what had happened to her. Apparently, she was smoking and the cop demanded she put out the cigarette. The cop went all authoritarian on her and she didn't like it and told him so. That's when he assaulted her. How dare she "talk back" to him?

[tblue37]

15. I hadn't seen that. But I still think they beat her so badly they ended up killing her and then

staged the suicide to cover up the murder.

[madville]

21. There is in-car video footage and audio

A Texas State Senator is demanding they release it. They would know is she was alive at that point pretty quickly. Plus she refused treatment from paramedics and there is a mug shot of her at the jail alive.

[Romulox]

18. Speechless. Thank god the FBI is involved. nt