Tag Archives: Brian Enciana

State news

More questions regarding the Bland case

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It’s highly likely that Sandra Bland took her own life in the Waller County jail cell.

The young woman had been arrested and tossed into the cell after being pulled over for the heinous crime of failing to signal before making a turn in her motor vehicle.

She got agitated with the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, Brian Enciana, who violated just about every rule prescribed for calming a tense situation. He is supposedly trained to use restraint whenever possible. Did he do that? No. He did precisely the opposite.

The dashboard camera aboard his police cruiser tells a grim story of a police officer going too far.

Bland never should have been put in that jail cell. Yes, she behaved badly when the trooper stopped her. Yes, she should have reacted more calmly than she did.

Did she strike the trooper, as he contended in his arrest report? The camera doesn’t reveal that. If she struck at the trooper, she did it outside of the range of the camera. That, right there, gives a lot of folks pause to accept the officer’s word that she attacked him. She’s no longer able to refute the allegations, correct?

DPS officials need to take a long and careful look at what happened before Bland ended up in that jail cell.

It appears highly likely now that the young woman didn’t die at the hands of those who were detaining her.

However, she never should have been put in that jail cell in the first place.

national news, State news

Never argue with those who carry guns

Sandra Bland likely would be alive today if she had followed a rule that I’ve followed my entire adult life: Never argue with someone packing a pistol.

Having said that, I want to stipulate in the strongest terms possible that the pistol-packing principal in Bland’s fateful confrontation never should have done what he did to escalate a minor traffic stop into what has turned into a shameful example of police intimidation.

Bland died in a Waller County jail cell after being arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Enciana, who stopped Bland’s vehicle after she allegedly made a turn without signaling properly. As the Dallas Morning News editorial attached here notes, what should have been a routine ticket-writing event turned into a mind-boggling tragedy.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20150722-editorial-troopers-bad-decisions-set-sandra-bland-tragedy-in-motion.ece

The editorial explains what happened. No need to detail it here.

What’s equally mind-boggling is that the DPS is a first-rate law enforcement agency. Its officers are well-trained and are taught to use restraint to cool down potentially explosive situations. Enciana did precisely the opposite. He ordered Bland to extinguish her cigarette; why he did that perhaps is the first great mystery of that case.

Granted, Bland didn’t react well. But as the Morning News editorial pointed, out Enciana is the one with the training — and he’s the one carrying the weaponry.

Maybe the most mind-bending element of all is that later today, when I leave my house to run some errands, I am likely to see dozens of people doing precisely what Bland supposedly did that caused Trooper Enciana to pull her over. Drivers routinely “break the law” by failing to signal their turns; indeed, I’ve actually seen law enforcement personnel doing the very same thing.

Someone, somewhere will have to explain how this case turned so terribly tragic.

We’re all ears out here.

State news

Susan Bland’s death cries out for explanation

The circumstances surrounding the arrest of a young woman by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper have been fairly well established.

Trooper Brian Enciana pulled Susan Bland over for failure to signal a turn in her motor vehicle. She mouthed off to him. He told her 15 times to get out of her car, after telling her to put out her cigarette — which she declined to do.

He threatened to “light you up,” meaning, I guess, he would use his Taser on her. She got angrier.

Then the two of them walked out of “dashcam” range, where she allegedly kicked and elbowed the trooper.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog

Then she got tossed into the Waller County jail.

Three days later jailers found her hanging in her cell. Sandra Bland was dead.

Can there be some explanation as to why this young woman was taken into custody in the first place — in an incident that started out as a traffic stop? And what in the world happened to her in that lockup?

This young woman’s death while in police custody has created yet another national furor centering most notably on the race of the victim. As Erica Greider reports in Texas Monthly: “And so I agree with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Bland’s family and loved ones deserve answers; since it may take some time to provide them, the search should be handled as transparently as possible, wherever it may lead.”