Sandra Bland was arrested by police during a routine traffic stop and sent to jail. Three days later she would be found dead in her cell.
The circumstances seemed highly suspicious. Bland was in Texas to interview for a new job when she was arrested. Her family said she was lively, and had no reason to commit suicide. And being a black arrested by a white policeman, the racial undertones never went away.
In the interest of an open investigation, the dashcam video of the arrest has been released. It shows a chaotic arrest, and fuels speculation something else might have been at work. The situation spun out of control because of a cigarette.
Via Buzzfeed :
“The nearly hour long video shows Bland being pulled over by a state trooper — identified in Bland’s warrant for arrest as Brian T. Encinia — for failing to signal a lane change, and what appears to be a curt, short exchange between the two quickly turn into a violent encounter that ended with Bland in jail.
When Encinia returns to the car — with what he later described as a warning — tensions quickly escalate when he asks Bland to put out a cigarette.
“You mind putting out your cigarette, please?” the trooper asks. “Do you mind?”
“I’m in my car, why do I have to put out my cigarette?” Bland responds.
“Well, you can step out now,” Encinia says.
Bland repeatedly refuses to step out of the car despite Encinia’s orders, and both begin to yell as the trooper opens the door and the two begin to scuffle inside the vehicle.
In the video, Encinia can be heard repeatedly ordering Bland to get out of the car, as she continues to refuse.
At one point, the trooper yells, “Get out of the car! I will light you up!”
Bland was finally arrested and sent to jail, where she died three days later. Investigations into the matter continue, but at this point each subsequent case just raises the tensions and makes another one much more likely to occur.
Watch the video below, with another one filmed by a passer-by.
This white people would tell you they are no longer racist.