Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi: Sandra Bland Was Murdered

[laserhaas]

Matt Taibbi, of Rolling Stone Magazine, though being criticized in the past for jumping on a story too quickly, has just titled his most recent item - today - "Sandra Bland Was Murdered".


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Is the Death of Sandra Bland is the Cops Fault?
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Taibbi states the following remarks and concludes, (as does many of U.S.) that no matter how you slice it up and what the left over evidences may show (remember - they had plenty of time before national outcry - to clean things up, such as the edited dashcam recording), the fact of the matter is Sandra Bland was arrested due to officers violation of policies

and she is now DEAD!

[font color=white] ----------------------------------[/font]As Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi puts it;

So news broke yesterday that authorities in Waller County, Texas, have "full faith" that Sandra Bland committed suicide. They said there was "no evidence of a struggle" on the body of the 28-year-old African-American woman who was ludicrously jailed last week after an alleged lane change violation.

Is the only thing required, to prove no foul play, is the fact that the death is ruled as "no struggle"?

Currently, there's suppose to be a Texas Ranger and FBI independent investigation and (hopefully) autopsy of Sandra Bland. Meanwhile, Matt Taibbi continues with these remarks;

In related news, the Texas Department of Safety ruled that Brian Encina, the officer who arrested Bland, pulled her from her car, and threatened her with a Taser, had merely violated the state's "courtesy policy." The state said there was "no evidence" yet of criminal behavior on Encina's part.

So barring something unexpected, we know now how this is going to play out in the media.

Many news outlets are going to engage in an indirect version of the usual blame-the-victim game by emphasizing the autopsy finding of suicide, questioning Bland's mental health history, and by highlighting the reports of marijuana found in her system.

All those reflections and the pic above, can be found in greater detail at...

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/sandra-bland-was-murdered-20150724#ixzz3gqgsP1Pc
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

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Sandra Bland Made a Video Warning that

Surrendering to police - can still get you killed!
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As verbatim, just months before her untimely demise, Sandy Bland put up comments on her page. She stated this, in defense of "Black Lives Matter" - ( at time-stamp 2:34 of the 4 minute video) - that;


"you can stand there - surrender to the cops - and still be killed"


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There are many questions we all have. Such as - if, as the police claim, she made notes of being medicated and previous attempts at suicide - why wasn't she on suicide watch?

Where is the clean - totally untouched - versions of the video dashcam and all her time in the jail?

What is the name of the judge and prosecutor who kept her in jail?

Why was the 1st story we received that she hung herself and now it turns out to be a trashbag?

Does anyone - other than the authorities in Texas - actually believe this is Sandra Bland's fault?

I'm with Taibbi - Sandy's death is the authorities fault; and Black Lives don't seem to matter there.

Just sayin.....

[font color=white]-------------[/font]and sayin..........

[font color=white]=============[/font] And Sayin........

24 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Sandy Bland's death is the fault of Texas authority abuse.
	23 (96%)
	It is the fault of Sandra that she is dead.
	1 (4%)
	-------- Who Cares
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[tazkcmo]

1. What a beautiful smile.

Excuse me, something in my eye....

[Warpy]

2. Without that DWB stop

she would be very much alive. Of that I have little doubt.

[laserhaas]

3. Concur. And, as Taibbi points out - if not for the escalation by the officer

she'd still be alive.

In crimes, you are duplicitous when you are a participant, even at the lowest level.

This cop went WAY out of line and abused his authority.

It is all his fault.

[ghostsinthemachine]

4. Trash bag? In a JAIL Cell? BWAAAAAH!

Not ever going to happen. they are weapons. Suffocation weapons. A prisoner could hide one in their pocket and suffocate other prisoners or the jail guards. Perhaps in a camp, but she was in the city jail and NO FUCKING WAY they had a trash bag in a cell.

[Ken Burch]

9. Been meaning to ask...are we talking full size heavy garbage bag here? or waste paper basket size?

And has anybody done tests yet to see if even a full-size trash bag could support the weight of an average-sized adult female body for the length of time needed to asphyxiate a person?

[laserhaas]

13. Good questions.

We know if you braid plastic, it is stronger; but it also "stretches" too.

I don't even see where she could have hung herself, the bed is not even a bunk bed.

And there were no bars.

It ALL - S M E L L S - to high heaven.

[ghostsinthemachine]

14. Doesn't matter

The simple truth is, a trash bag of any nature, style or size WOULD NOT EVER be allowed inside a jail cell.

This is a lie from the get go.

[Ken Burch]

15. Well yes, but proving that is isn't even possible for someone to hang herself with a trash bag...

...would completely discredit the "suicide" story. Which then means the police would have to acknowledge that somethhing else happened.

[laserhaas]

20. How determined does one have to be to hang themselves (from low orbit)?

I mean - Sheesshhh - it simply doesn't make any sense....

[Ken Burch]

5. Could the arrest have been payback for that video?

Officer Encina needs to be questioned...and perhaps should be offered immunity if he were to present hard, incontrovertible proof (and agree to testify to it in court) that the word had been sent down from above to "get" Sandra Bland.

[laserhaas]

6. You most certainly do raise a compelling question for investigation.

As the video details - she was well aware you could end up dead - and dashcam detailed her threats to sue.

They thought they could get away with it (possibly) because she was an out-of-state'ee

Just doesn't add up that she killed herself.

How hard is it to do so by a trash bag?

- What if the marijuana in her system was to get her knocked out to do something?

[Ken Burch]

12. Marijuana normally doesn't produce aggression, that's true.

I remember a quote from former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper in which he said, essentially that cops usually found it easier to deal with potheads than with drunks-far less violence, volatility and 'tude from the stoners.

[MoonRiver]

8. Well, he threatened to "light her up" at the arrest.

Maybe just following through.

[uponit7771]

7. There's 9 mins of tape missing from her jail cell camera also, this whole thing stinks

[laserhaas]

11. Where do you have that info from 'uponit7771'?

I'd like to review that footage.

7 minutes is an estimated time it would take to suffocate someone.

[Ken Burch]

16. If so, the missing 9 minutes could be crucial. n/t.

[laserhaas]

17. We already know that the dashcam tape was edited.

Now they come out and say they fixed the glitch.

Which means they "edited" it (again)

[Ken Burch]

18. Sounds like they "fixed the glitch"-in the veterinary sense.

[laserhaas]

19. EEEWWWW.... I hate that issue.... spade/neuter -

Why not just make them a vegetable - and stick a vibrator in there - with a wagging tail

[Ken Burch]

21. uh, it's "spayed", not "spade".

The spelling matters, given the subject of the thread.

[uponit7771]

30. Link inside with quotes

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/20/sandra-bland-arrested-officer-annoyed-smoking

Texas police have released video taken from inside the county jail during the last minutes of Sandra Bland’s life as activists claimed that the traffic stop that led to her imprisonment escalated into a confrontation because a trooper was angry that she was smoking.

The footage is three hours long but does not provide a clear view of cell 95 at the Waller county jail, where officials say the 28-year-old was found hanged on 13 July, three days after she was arrested for alleged assault on a public servant.

The camera is motion-activated and stops recording after 15 seconds without detectable movement, according to authorities, meaning there is more than nine minutes of time unrecorded. The inside of cell 95, at the end of a hallway and in the top right corner of the picture, is not visible. Officials said that the tape showed there was no movement down the hallway to Bland’s cell for the 90 minutes prior to her body being discovered.

[Volaris]

34. Public police cameras should be connected to live Internet feeds...

No different than police and emergency radio scanners.
If my tax dollars are paying for it, I should be able to witness it.

[laserhaas]

36. Great Idea (like Police scanners of old)

Hard to act wrong and/or bully - if you have NO idea who is watching.

Exactly the way it should be - fearing doing anything wrong.

[Aerows]

10. Why in the hell are we even debating this?

She was taken "into custody".

"Into custody" means that you take care of them until the facts come to light, not "throw 'em in a jail cell and hope for the best".

If you are afraid that everyone under the sun will get arrested so that they can benefit from the iron bar hotel's luxurious accommodations, what the hell does that say about our society?

[hifiguy]

28. Yup. It's that simple.

Negligence or homicide, take your pick, it's on the LEOs either way, and my bet is homicide.

[laserhaas]

22. Hanging, in a jail, doesn't make sense. Where are the noises everyone would have heard.

It simply boggles the mind.

Even IF she did do such - there would be sounds of your body instinctively fighting the shock of it all.

I'm calling Bull Chit!

[0rganism]

23. know what? even if she did commit suicide, they're still responsible

after arresting her, removing her from control of her circumstances, and throwing her in jail, from that moment on her health and safety became their responsibility, and they failed miserably.
even discounting any malicious actions on the part of her captors, they failed miserably to accomplish their #1 job.

[laserhaas]

24. Totally agree; but we all know that "once your in - anything happening to you - isn't a sin"

Just the mindset of the authorities and media/public at large

[Nevernose]

25. As you can expect, the RS comments are disgusting

Between the victim blaming, the accusations of race baiting, and the jackboot-lickers, it's really nauseating.

[laserhaas]

37. Worse - they are blocking every single one of my comments - via Disqus

And refuse to explain why

[KT2000]

26. why didn't she have a lawyer

at arraignment? or maybe she did - do we know that?
The cop escalated which is against more than courtesy policy.

[laserhaas]

38. A Judge in the case was saying bad stuff on Twitter and

has since yanked down his account

[hifiguy]

27. I don't have a lot of money to throw around, BUT

I'd put $100 on the barrelhead that this woman was murdered in cold blood by the kkkops.

[TheKentuckian]

29. Of course. I'm not seeing a reason to believe anything else.

Maybe they can fill in some "coincidences" but for now I'm not even considering being willing to go with the old silly "benefit of the doubt" bullshit.

Right now I believe she was the victim of premeditated murder, executed and covered up.

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. Taibbi's right, and some of DUs cop fetishists need to get

Their racist heads out their damn asses on this issue.

[AtomicKitten]

32. I was appalled when the DA came out yesterday and divulged really personal stuff about Sandra.

That she had THC in her system.
That she had signs of "cutting."
That she had had an abortion.
That she had contemplated suicide before

That's how/why I know they are lying. She was murdered by the bastards.

[laserhaas]

33. yup...Detective Rules 101

Those trying to build an alibi

Usually dont have one

[uponit7771]

35. Omg... They actually said something about all that?! What bastards

[Charles de Gaudless]

39. Even if she hung herself...

...that asshole cop is guilty of criminal negligence causing death, and should be arrested.

[laserhaas]

40. Agree.... this guys abuse was "cause and effect"

The whole process smells to high heaven

as does the campaign to paint Sandy in a bad light.