{"id":718,"date":"2015-07-23T02:46:10","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T02:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/?p=718"},"modified":"2015-07-23T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T02:46:10","slug":"sandra-bland-dead-in-a-texas-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/2015\/07\/23\/sandra-bland-dead-in-a-texas-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandra Bland – Dead in a Texas Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just weeks after our President so movingly eulogized<\/a> the nine African-Americans murdered, while praying with their killer in their Charleston church; college official Sandra Bland — who happens to be African-American — was on her way to a new administrative position in Texas. <\/p>\n

But she never made it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, she was stopped by a white Texas police officer — who made a u-turn to follow her car<\/a> — for failing to use her blinker to signal a lane change, on his turf.<\/p>\n

She tells the officer she changed lanes to allow his car to pass.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s an easy catch. Who will question him for pulling over a black person, a female black person in Texas?<\/p>\n

She complies with the officer, is issued a ticket and cleared to go back on the road. But State Trooper Brian Encinia was not quite ready to end his victory over a black woman. <\/p>\n

Rather than walk back to his car, he stays, to ask Ms. Bland to extinguish her cigarette. She refuses, stating he has no authority to make that request. <\/p>\n

For questioning his authority to follow his illegal and laughable command, Bland — as seen in this video<\/a> — is grabbed and forcefully pulled from her car, then thrown to the ground, on which a screaming Encinia appears to force her head.<\/p>\n

Three days later, Sandra Bland’s lifeless body was found hung, in a hauntingly empty area of the Waller County, Texas, jail.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because she refused to extinguish her cigarette; because she had the audacity to speak back to the white officer. <\/p>\n

In police parlance, she \u201cresisted arrest,\u201d for refusing to follow his command.<\/p>\n

Officer Encinia acted<\/a> as one whose authority was being challenged by an \u201cuppity\u201d African American woman.<\/p>\n

Tragically, horrifically, instead of starting her new job at Prairie View College, Sandra Bland is handcuffed and taken to the Waller County jail; where, mysteriously, she is found, hanging from a plastic bag, into which she — allegedly — placed her neck. <\/p>\n

Jail officials allege Ms. Bland told them she was suicidal; yet they did not put her on a suicide watch, and claimed they found Ms. Bland dead in her cell.<\/p>\n

Are we to believe that these white men had nothing to do with this black woman\u2019s death? This woman who was so \u201cuppity\u201d to them? <\/p>\n

Someone check the fingerprints on the sheets and plastic bags, please? And the DNA around her neck and police uniforms.<\/p>\n

When will this stop?<\/p>\n

White supremacists will never get over their hatred. But when will public officials stop them from getting uniforms and guns? <\/p>\n

Because it must be done.<\/p>\n

Forget another “national conversation.”<\/p>\n

We need justice. Now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just weeks after our President so movingly eulogized the nine African-Americans murdered, while praying with their killer in their Charleston church; college official Sandra Bland — who happens to be African-American — was on her way to a new administrative position in Texas. But she never made it. Instead, she was stopped by a white […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718\/revisions\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}