One can make at least this assumption about the arrest of a young woman.
It is that she well might be alive today if the Texas state trooper who arrested her had followed proper policeĀ procedure.
Sandra Bland, though, is dead after hanging herself in her Waller County jail cell. The Department of Public Safety trooper, Brian Encinia, has been indicted by a grand jury for falsifying the circumstances of Bland’s arrest.
DPS commander Col. Steve McCraw has told the Texas Tribune that the trooper blew it and that the agency is going to terminate the officer.
Now . . . is there cause for a wrongful death lawsuit, which Bland’s parents have filed against the state? I don’t know and I hate to speculate about that matter.
Bland was pulled over this past year in a traffic stop. She and Encinia got into an argument after Bland allegedly failed to signal properly prior to making a lane change. The trooper, rather than calming the young woman down, escalated the argument. She left her vehicle and, according to the trooper, struck him while he was taking her into custody.
To think that someone is thrown into the slammer for a lane-change violation. Good grief.
Well, the grand jury doubted the allegation that Bland had struck Encinia. Hence, the indictment.
This case drew national attention after corrections officers found Bland dead in her jail cell. I don’t believe she was killed by authorities in the lockup, which some had speculated. I believe she took her own life.
But the root cause of the entire tragic situation goes back to the arresting officer and his abject failure to follow proper policy.
I hope this incident has awakened police officers and their commanders to the dangers of every-day police work.
What’s more, I also hope it drives home the point that no traffic stop is never, ever routine.
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See the video of Col. McCraw’s interview with Texas Tribune editor in chief Evan Smith.
http://www.texastribune.org/2016/01/19/video-a-conversation-with-steve-mccraw/