High emotions in Texas
Experts say footage not necessarily clear-cut case
Dewayne Charleston speaks at a Waller County Commissioners Court meeting about the jail cell death of Sandra Bland in Hempstead, Texas, Wednesday.
Hempstead, Texas — When Sandra Bland refused to put out her cigarette, the police officer flung open her car door and tried dragging her out of the vehicle. She asked at least four times why she was being arrested and got no answer. When she told him she had epilepsy, he shouted, “Good!”
The tense dashcam video of Bland, a 28-year-old black woman, getting pulled over by a white Texas state trooper for not signaling a lane change renewed the national debate Wednesday over how police treat blacks and outraged some critics of law enforcement who saw a motorist who was squarely within her rights.
Bland’s traffic stop drew special attention because shewas found dead in her jail cell three days later, and family and supporters continue to dispute that she hanged herself with a plastic bag, as authorities have concluded.
Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Bland had told a jailer July 10 about a previous suicide attempt. He said she provided the information while being asked a series of questions posed to each person booked into the jail in Hempstead, about 60 miles northwest of Houston. He said when a second jailer interviewed Bland, she said she wasn’t depressed and instead was upset about her arrest.
The video of the traffic stop drew more than 1.2.million views on YouTube less than a day after the Department of Public Safety made the footage public. But a range of experts, including former law enforcement officials and civil rights attorneys, say the video is not a clear-cut case.
The state trooper pulled over Bland on July 10, when she was at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college, to interview for a job at her alma mater. The traffic stop swiftly escalates into a shouting match after Trooper Brian Encinia tells Bland she seems “irritated” and asks her to put out her cigarette. When Bland protests, Encinia orders her out.
Simply ignoring instructions to stop smoking typically isn’t sufficient grounds for police to demand someone to get out of their car. But officers also have wide discretion on a scene.
The justification for using force is generally supposed to be proportional to the circumstances. Bland is asked more than a dozen times to get out before Encinia, by then visibly annoyed, reaches into the car to drag her out.
“We don’t observe anything that would suggest there was a legitimate law enforcement reason to get out of the car. It seems to be just an issue of asserting his authority,” said Rebecca Robertson, the legal and policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. But at the same time, she said, if an officer instructs you to get out, “you have to get out of the car.”
The speed with which Bland was threatened seems to run counter to best practices described in a 2011 Justice Department report about Tasers.
The director of the Department of Public Safety, Steve McCraw, has said Encinia violated internal policies of professionalism and courtesy, but he has not said the trooper acted outside the bounds of the law. Encinia has been placed on administrative leave for violating unspecified police procedures and DPS policy.
Bland’s sister Sharon Cooper said Wednesday that she believes her sister acted reasonably when confronted by the arresting officer. Speaking during a news conference near Chicago, she said that she, too, would have felt threatened and wouldn’t have gotten out of the car if a trooper had threatened to “light me up.”
Bland was arrested for assault on a public servant. In an arrest affidavit, the trooper wrote that Bland had swung her elbows at him and kicked him in the shin.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Wednesday that Bland’s family “deserves answers” and that the Texas Rangers will coordinate with the FBI in the investigation.