We had a bad storm last night and lost power; we'd been watching coverage of the protests around the country over the shooting deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. We lost power before hearing about the shooting of eleven police officers — and the deaths of five — in Dallas during what had been a peaceful protest.
I’m kinda glad we lost power; I am tired of the killing.
I am tired that today is the 190th day of the year.
I am tired that, as of today, 566 people have been killed by police officers in this country; that’s nearly three people every day; the majority being Native American or Black.
Today is July 8th; in the first seven days of this month 21 people have been killed by police in July; three every single day.
I am indicting the justice system, and those in law enforcement, who instead of finding answers tend to “circle the wagons” and lay the blame on the victims.
They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. He shouldn’t have had a gun.
Where is the right place for Black Americans I wonder, if it’s not walking, driving, living, selling CDs, free, and free of the threat of death, in America?
I am indicting the media that, invariably, when a black American is shot and killed by police, look for a mugshot of the victim for the story; but when it’s a white American the media posts a prom picture … a wedding photo … a family picture.
I am asking White America, where is your anger? Are you angry, but internally glad that it wasn’t you, and will probably never be you? Where is the anger? Is it because, like the shooting in Orlando, “they’re” killing all the right people?
Where is the anger from the GOP? Oh, sure, they’ve rallied behind the dead police officers in Dallas — as we all should — but where were they when Alton Sterling was murdered in Baton Rouge? Where’s the anger over the police officers who murdered Alton Sterling and yet, conveniently, lost their body cameras before the shots were fired?
Where were they when Philando Castile was murdered for having a broken taillight? Yes, I know that’s not why he was shot, but it’s what lead to him being shot.
When asked for his license and registration during a routine traffic stop, Philando Castile told the officer he was carrying a licensed concealed handgun and as he reached for his wallet the officer fired into the car at close range four times.
Shouldn’t that make us all angry?
If it doesn’t, head over to The Counted and you can see, every single day, the numbers go up of people who are killed by police officers in this country.
And before you tell me that sometimes there is no other option, I know that; I know that. But not every time … not in the case of Tamir Rice playing in a park … not in the case of Eric Garner, choked to death on the street … not in the case of Sandra Bland … found dead in a holding cell.
Not every time.
And to change we need to start with gun laws; make it tougher for people to get guns because maybe there would have been no snipers in Dallas … maybe a police officer wouldn’t have felt threatened enough to shoot in Falcon Heights … maybe two officers wouldn’t have tackled a man and shot him while he was on the ground in Baton Rouge.
And we need to fix the judicial system which gives harsher, longer sentences to people of color than it does to white Americans. We need to fix our political system which, when people die in this country from senseless gun violence, offer no solutions but “thoughts and prayers” while they cash their NRA donation checks.
We need to fix it.
If we were all truly equal in this country, and if we were all treated truly equally, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or religion, if we are treated one another with the same dignity and respect that we ask for, we’d be in a much better place.
We wouldn’t be burying sons and fathers and brothers and sisters and mothers and aunts and uncles who were shot to death for being ….. ?
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Showing posts with label Sandra Bland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandra Bland. Show all posts
Friday, July 08, 2016
What's Goin' On ....
Monday, January 11, 2016
A Modicum Of Justice For Sandra Bland ... Though It's Not Enough
Y’all remember Sandra Bland? The black woman stopped for a traffic violation and then was arrested and was later found hanged in her jail cell? And, of course, nothing happened with that case; no arrests for the police; no questions about her treatment in jail; no reason why she would have killed herself.
Well, this week Waller County grand jurors have indicted Department of Public Safety [DPS] trooper Brian Encinia on a single charge of perjury because they believe he lied about his actions during the arrest of Sandra Bland.
The charge against Encinia stems from his own statement at the time of Bland’s arrest on July 10 about why he felt the need to yank her out of the car and throw her to the ground.
In a dashcam video of the traffic stop, Encinia can be seen opening Bland’s driver’s side door and reaching in for her. When she refuses to come out and he threatens to use a Taser on her.
But in his written report Encinia simply says:
“I had Bland exit the vehicle to further conduct a safe traffic investigation.”
The Bland family attorney, Cannon Lambert, says his clients don’t understand why it took six months to reach the indictment, though I have three reasons:
She was Black. This was a white police officer. It happened in Texas.
As a result of the indictment — the only one issued by the grand jury in the Bland case — a warrant was issued for Encinia’s arrest. If convicted, Brian Encinia could face up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. In addition to the indictment, Brian Encinia has been fired from DPS.
Lambert will now pursue the Texas Rangers report investigating Bland’s death. The report has been withheld from the public because of grand jury proceedings, but “that’s over now” and Lambert has plans to depose people involved in the Texas Rangers investigation to make their case.
Still, it’s a shame there was no real justice for Sandra Bland, but hopefully her family will find closure in knowing that Brian Encinia is a proven liar, may do jail time, face a substantial fine, and is out of job; and possibly, hopefully, he will never be able to carry a badge again.
For, without Brian Encinia’s overzealous and violent treatment of Sandra Bland, she might still be alive today.
And that’s a crime.
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Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Waller County Police Blame Sandra Bland's Family For Her Suicide
Remember Sandra Bland … the young Black woman from Chicago who was driving through Waller County, Texas when a sheriff's deputy pulled her over for not signaling before making a lane change?
The police officer asked to see her license and registration, which she gave him, and while he was writing the ticket, Sandra, sitting in her car, lit a cigarette. He asked her to put out, and when she told him she was in her own car, doing nothing illegal, he ordered her from the car. When she began arguing he pulled her out of her car, slammed her to the pavement, and threatened to "light her up" with a taser before arresting her for "assault on a public servant."
For smoking. In her car. While being ticketed for not signaling during a lane change.
Sandra was taken to the Waller County jail, where she was held for three days because she was unable to make the $515 bond; on her third day behind bars she committed suicide.
Now, Sandra Bland’s mother has filed a federal wrongful death suit against the county, the two screening officers at the jail, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the officer who arrested her daughter.
In response, lawyers for Waller County have filed a response to that suit; a 39 page brief that lays the blame for Sandra Bland’s suicide at the feet of her family and friends because they didn’t bail her out of jail before she hung herself:
"Bland committed suicide by hanging herself in the jail cell, using a rolled/twisted plastic trash bag as a ligature, and tying it around the support of a privacy partition in the cell. It is apparent now that Bland’s inability to secure her release from jail — and her family and friends’ refusal to bail her out of jail — led her to commit suicide."
The brief claims the jail personnel “did not have any subjective knowledge of and were not deliberately indifferent to any alleged serious risk of suicide,” and should be held blameless. The brief completely ignores the allegations by Sandra Bland’s mother that Sandra should never have been arrested, never have been detained without a providing her a hearing, and a lawyer to defend her.
"What made (it) illegal was that they arrested this woman and kept her in a jail cell, and there was never a finding that she was a danger to the community. There was no adversarial hearing with a lawyer where that question was asked, let alone answered, and there was no finding that she was a risk of flight. They put this amount of money on her head, and basically said, ‘You will be kept in this cage unless and until you pay this arbitrarily set amount of money,’ without any inquiry into her ability to pay it.” — Alec Karakatsanis, civil rights lawyer
Let me put my spin on it: a woman was stopped for not using a turn signal; while waiting for the officer to write her a ticket, she starts smoking.
This action alone caused the police officer to drag her out of her car, slam her to the ground and threaten to use a taser on her. Then she’s taken to jail and held for three days until she ends her own life.
For a turn signal and a cigarette. And now the police in Waller County say it’s her mama’s fault because she’s too cheap to bail he daughter out of jail?
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Sunday, July 26, 2015
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