Tag Archives: Sandra Bland

State news

Bland jail death case still not resolved

bland

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 police 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.

***

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/

 

State news

Lawmakers right to grill DPS head over Bland arrest

Texas legislators are putting the head of the state’s police agency on the hot seat.

He needs to stay there until he can offer some remedy for an incident that resulted in the tragic death of a young woman who was arrested for a traffic violation.

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw came under fire this week in a Texas House committee hearing over the arrest of Sandra Bland by a DPS trooper; Bland later died in a Waller County jail after apparently hanging herself in her cell.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/lawmakers-review-county-jail-procedures-following-/

“I know the death happened in the jail, but the catalyst for the death clearly happened at the traffic stop,” state Rep. Jonathan Strickland, R-Bedford said.

The catalyst was a confrontation between Bland and Trooper Brian Encinia, who pulled Bland over after she failed to signal before making a turn in her vehicle. He asked her to extinguish her cigarette.Then matters got ugly.

Bland sassed the officer, who then became agitated. Bland then became angry. Encinia got even angrier. The trooper then pulled his Taser out and threatened to “light you up” with the device.

Bland and Encinia exchanged more heated insults. She exited the vehicle and was taken to jail.

And for what? Because she didn’t use her turn signal.

Strickland also wondered aloud why the trooper is still on the job, to which McCraw answered that the agency has a process that he intends to follow before deciding how to handle Encinia’s future with DPS.

The incident, which has drawn international attention, needs a thorough examination. McCraw has promised to provide one.

One avenue that needs exploring is how a trooper — who is supposedly trained to de-escalate tension with the public — actually took it in the opposite — and tragically wrong direction.

State news

More questions regarding the Bland case

2 Comments

bland

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.”

State news

Texas trooper goes under the glare

Now this. What in the world … ?

Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia pulled a young woman over for what some media actually reported was a “routine traffic stop.”

He told the young woman, Sandra Bland, to douse a cigarette. She refused. The trooper then became agitated. So did Bland. They argued. He threatened her with his Taser. She got even angrier.

The “routine stop”? Well, it became un-routine in less than two minutes.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/21/video-officer-became-enraged-bland-over-cigarette/

Bland was arrested … forcibly. She was taken to the Waller County jail. Bland then died in her cell by hanging.

And the stuff has hit the fan.

This case is looking for all the world like some other police cases involving the arrest of African-American suspects. Eric Garner was choked to death by a New York City police officer, who sought to arrest him for selling cigarettes illegally. Walter Scott was shot to death by a Charleston, S.C., police officer as he was running away from the officer. Freddie Gray died in jail from a broken neck after he was arrested in Philadelphia.

Now we have Sandra Bland arrested and rousted out of her car by a police officer. For what? Because she mouthed off?

Sure, Bland shouldn’t have sassed the trooper. But aren’t police officers taught in the academy to look past rude behavior? Aren’t they schooled on how to respond with coolness and calm?

Was the young woman drunk? No. Did she brandish a weapon? No. Was she using an illegal drug? No.

And what in the world happened in that jail cell?

Oh, my. This case is troubling in the extreme.