July 19, 2015
By Ryan Carey-Mahoney
The Texas Department of Public Safety (click here) announced that the trooper who pulled over, and later arrested, Sandra Bland violated procedures. Bland was later found hanging in her jail cell. VPC
She didn't deserve her treatment and she never committed suicide. Where is the record of her depression and treatment? Suicide does not happen overnight. Was she raped while in custody? I am sure it would have showed up in autopsy.
I am also somewhat upset the dialogue focuses on the events and not the fact she was a person with interests and basically a life. The national dialogue is somewhat depersonalizing. It isn't fair to discuss the problem with her death without appreciation of her life.
The hashtag shares its sentiment with #BlackLivesMatter, which has appeared throughout the last year in response to the police-involved deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and more.
Of the tweets, many expressed their frustrations over the perceived lack of value their lives have just because they are African Americans.
If she was an activist of any kind she could have been a target as well. Easily. There is a long history in the USA that targets those engaged in changing injustice. It doesn't matter the subject, racism or otherwise, African-American or otherwise; hatred results by those without power to stop it and there are prices to pay.
I am somewhat curious about the street she was stopped on. It appears as though it was a residential, quiet street. You mean to tell me there are so few infractions in the law that police have incentive to pull cars over for obscure reasons? "Neglecting to use a signal when changing lanes" is usually cited in car accidents, not routine traffic stops. If trends in ticketing (court cases that provide points to a license) shows lane change as a real problem I would be very surprised.
Police that care about the public are more interested in the safety of a person and stop cars when that is an issue. Improper lane change when it is done unsafely would bring a police officer to cite a person than that of a simple lack of turn signal. I suppose a police officer would address a lack of signal as an inspection violation, but, I would never expect the stop escalate to the extent it did. The entire scenario is disturbing.
The cases involving the death of African Americans are turning up as an interaction because of a traffic or pedestrian issue. That is harassment. The length of the interactions is significant. There is something occurring that citizens recognize as beyond the simple incident. In the case of Michael Brown the community was traumatized by living in a fish bowl. The community could not carry out their lives without tripping over a law of some kind and end up in a cycle of financial abuse.
There are problems beyond the simple interaction of police and citizen. In this case the policeman had a young woman involved in recognizing police abuse that led to inappropriate deaths of African Americans.
Let me say this, there is such a thing as a social police stop than one that is based in the law. Most of the deaths have resulted because of personal judgment by the police officer. Time and again the country is witnessing deaths of ordinary citizens that is a complete surprise. I have to remind that we now have a President that has received acts of racism on a right regular basis. It is somewhat better now, but, the six years or more that preceded his election were hideous when it comes to expressions of racism. There is a racism overlay to the lives of African Americans in the USA.
But, to Sandra, this was a violation of human rights as well as civil rights. That is important. If African Americans are to live their lives without noticing skin color the entire focus has to include human rights. An American should walk through life without racial overtones. That isn't occurring with African Americans in the USA. Human rights has to begin with a sense of understanding a person is safe to live a life promised to them at birth. In the case of the USA there are all kinds of reasons parents have expectations of their beginning a family. Many of those reasons have expectations of quality of life and a promise to rise above a social position of their parents. That is just the beginning of the expectations of a birth of a child.
Sandra was a victim. From the time she was stopped she was a victim. Her words on the film I saw is that of caution to the police officer. She stated he was being treated her wrongly. The police officer never stopped his determination of Sandra being less than a 'good person.' If a "good person" is stopped in a perceived violation of which they might be innocent they don't expect rough treatment at the hands of a police officer. The determination to bring a woman to arrest from what might be a mechanical failure of a car is outrageous. What is hanging in the balance of many of these deaths is the fact the person is a criminal. There is a stereotype of 'bad person' facing Americans when interacting with police. Add to that idea of being a bad person the fact African Americans will run into being 'a bad person' with a police officer far easier than any Caucasian person. The gun is already loaded to carry out justice at the curbside. I suppose it is profiling, but, it isn't really. It is determination of guilt before any interaction occurs.
The police officer, in this case, should have realized Sandra was traumatized by his behavior and he should have moved away from it. The police officer is self-righteous. Enforcing the law is not about self-righteous behavior, it is about law enforcement that sees the person over and above the law. That is why a police officer hands out warnings or simply points out a danger to the driver's life because a tail light isn't functioning or their tail light cover is broken. The THREAT by police officers in the African American community is real. Threat by police officer should not exist, especially in such an interaction over a lack of signal of changing lanes.
Sandra felt threatened. She felt as though she was a victim. Her feelings were never respected. The "I can't breath." of Eric Garner was never respected. The only defense a person has when dealing with a police officer is their voice, their words, their understanding and in time and again those words mean absolutely nothing.
The danger to citizens by police should never exist. The weapon of a police officer is an act of defense, not apprehension of a suspect. A police officer should never reach for their gun simply because a person runs away. In the case of African Americans running away from police is an act of understanding there is more before them than a simple interaction of a broken tail light.
The action the police had to take in regard to Walter Scott was to impound the vehicle when he didn't return to it. The police officer never had to chase him. All that had to occur was to wait for Walter Scott to return to his car. If the police officer didn't treat him as a bad person needing to be dealt with, Walter Scott would still be alive struggling to pay his child support.
The 'policing' in the USA is way out of line with the reality of citizens. White people are suits when they run into the law. White people automatically are 'not guilty' and they don't deserve the ticket. White people are good people that happen to run into a bad situation in their lives, such as not turning on a signal. Black Americans have a far different reality realizing parents of African American sons have already told them police see their skin color and not the person.
If White people in the USA had the predetermined racism to a traffic stop, there would never be a death from texting because I guarantee you there are plenty of times turn signals aren't instituted while texting.
An old memory recently haunted me. I was moving and was driving a U-Haul. It was the early morning hours simply because that is what worked out with my helpers. That is a ridiculous scenario, but, true. People have multiple jobs these days and the time to actually move from one residence to another occurs at odd times. I was driving the U-Haul to my next residence and unloading it would wait until the next day. As I drove down a street fairly absent of traffic there were police lights that came on and I pulled to the curb. I picked up my wallet and took out my driver's license and waited.
The police officer was taking his time in coming to the driver's door, so I got out of the truck with the documentation of the vehicle and my driver's license. I got to the officer's car and his first words to me were "What are you doing at my door?" He was a black officer. I simply stated I wanted to provide my information to him and thought it would be helpful in bringing it to him. I asked why I was being stopped and he stated, "Because it is very late and you are driving a U-Haul." No word of a lie. The vehicles that people rent are not suppose to be moving at night unless it was questionably legal. He never looked at the document and simply let me go. I don't know what he was expecting to happen, but, he didn't expect a white woman driving her household items to her new residence.
That incident is more than laughable. That incident was expected to produce a behavior and it didn't happen. Since when are police officers required to carry out sting operations? The incident was quite some time ago.
There are these identities with police officers that expect a certain behavior by African Americans, or Hispanics for that matter and when that behavior manifests the police officer becomes the judge and it is a 'good kill,' ie: Walter Scott and Michael Brown.
There are many problems in the USA with the behavior of police officers. Even the training of the police are rushed and inadequate.
What I think that police officer expected by putting his lights on was for me to increase my speed and a chase would occur. When that didn't happen, he was at a loss to know what to do next.
So. What happened to Sandra? She was a black woman. That is what happened to Sandra. And that is all that happened to Sandra. Her turn signal works even today.
