Activists blast deal dropping perjury case against trooper
HEMPSTEAD — Activists gathered in front of the Waller County courthouse Thursday to denounce a special prosecutors’ agreement to drop a perjury charge against the sincedismissed state trooper who pulled over Sandra Bland.
Bland hanged herself in the Waller County Jail two years ago after being pulled over by trooper Brian Encinia for an improper lane change. Their interaction turned confrontational and ended with Bland jailed for three days.
The group of five activists blasted the prosecutors’ choice and asserted that the judge had shown sympathy with law enforcement in other cases.
“Are we surprised that there were charges dismissed? Absolutely not,” said Cynthia Cole, a Greater Houston Coalition for Justice board member. “At the end of the day, there is still no justice.”
Cole said the Bland family holds on to faith in a just God. “There will be a day,” she said. “Every pharaoh has a day.
“There are a lot of good law enforcement officers,” Cole added. “This is not about ‘There’s nothing but bad law enforcement.’ ... The bad guys should be recognized for bad things, and the good guys should be recognized for all the good they do in our communities.”
The Rev. Hannah Bonner, a United Methodist pastor in Waller County who has long spoken out on the Bland case, argued that police accountability requires more than criminal charges.
“We need to make the trigger harder to pull,” she said. “And that is why we need convictions, not just indictments.”
Blanca Rodriguez Alanis, with the Autonomous Houston Brown Berets, said the dismissed charges against Encinia fit a national pattern of the criminal justice system allowing officers to “continue getting away with murder.”
The activists pointed to other controversial incidents across the country, including the recent strangling death of John Hernandez in Houston after a fight with the husband of a Harris County sheriff’s deputy. A grand jury indicted both the husband and the deputy, who helped restrain Hernandez, with murder.
The Bland case has deepened racial divisions in rural Waller County.
The special prosecutors assigned to the Bland case agreed to drop the charge under the condition that Encinia, who had been terminated by the Texas Department of Public Safety, turn over his police credentials and sign a sworn statement promising not to seek work as a licensed peace officer in Texas or elsewhere.