On December 21th 2015, the grand jury said it will bring no charges in the death of Sandra Bland. She died in jail last July, three days after a traffic stop in Waller County, Texas. Two videos of the stop went viral. The medical examiner said she had hanged herself using a trash bag.
Her family seriously doubts it was suicide. Jail officials did not think she was depressed either, even after she told them that she had tried to take her life last year after a miscarriage. They did not put her on suicide watch.
Assata Shakur:
“In prisons, it is not at all uncommon to find a prisoner hanged or burned to death in his cell. No matter how suspicious the circumstances, these deaths are always ruled “suicides.” They are usually Black inmates, considered to be a “threat to the orderly running of the prison.” They are usually among the most politically aware and socially conscious inmates in the prison.”
That fits Sandra Bland. She was Black, she stood up for herself and she was a Black Lives Matter activist.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) admits that it keeps an eye on Black Lives Matter through the Internet for:
“situational awareness purposes” to “ensure that critical information reaches appropriate decision-makers in federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments.”
but denies that it keeps files on anyone in the movement – the sort of thing the FBI did to the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s under Cointelpro.
The grand jury heard nine hours of evidence. As is common with grand juries, and unlike trial juries, the hearing was held in secret, there was no judge present, and no lawyer to question the evidence and witnesses presented by the prosecutor.
The grand jury decision was presumably based mainly on the autopsy. Yet that same autopsy says that she had high levels of marijuana in her blood, so high that she would have had to have smoked marijuana in jail!
The grand jury will meet again in January to decide “other issues” – presumably whether the arresting officer, Brian Encinia, broke any laws during the traffic stop. Encinia is still on paid leave.
The family has brought a wrongful-death civil lawsuit against:
- Officer Brian Encinia,
- the Texas Department of Public Safety,
- Waller County,
- the Sheriff’s Office,
- jail officers Elsa Magnus and Oscar Prudente.
No one would go to jail, but the state or county may have to pay damages, maybe several million dollars. And, the family might at last get some answers.
So far all that we know about the case, aside from one citizen video, is whatever state and county authorities have chosen to make public. The family does not even have the report on Sandra Bland’s arrest or death. It is also missing key parts of the autopsy, which is holding up their own independent autopsy. Authorities say it is because the investigation is still ongoing.
After January, they will no longer have that excuse.
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (January 7th): The grand jury has charged Encinia with perjury, saying that he lied about why he pulled her out of the car. If found guilty, he could face up to one year in prison and a $4,000 fine. More.
Sources: Mainly LA Times, Mother Jones, Democracy Now!, “Assata” (1987) by Assata Shakur.
Image: Friends of Jusrice.
See also:
- Sandra Bland
- grand jury
- Black Lives Matter
- Assata Shakur
- Cointelpro
- Black Power
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Apparently in the land of WHITENESS, Black Lives Do NOT Matter,
It might as well be 1815 instead of 2015 … same song, different year!
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In prisons, it is not at all uncommon to find a prisoner hanged or burned to death in his cell. No matter how suspicious the circumstances, these deaths are always ruled “suicides.” They are usually Black inmates, considered to be a “threat to the orderly running of the prison.” They are usually among the most politically aware and socially conscious inmates in the prison.
…and…
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) admits that it keeps an eye on Black Lives Matter through the Internet for:
“situational awareness purposes” to “ensure that critical information reaches appropriate decision-makers in federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments.”
Really?
This is really worrisome!
It’s too similar to something that happened in a different time, a different place and different protagonists.
Try to re-think about the case and:
* instead of Sandra Bland put Steve Biko;
* instead of the decade 2010-20 put 1970-80;
* instead of USA put South Africa;
* instead of US Department of Homeland Security put South African Security Forces (especially the Police).
Do you get it?
It seems that the USA is becoming more and more similar to past Apartheid‘s South Africa!
It’s worrisome… and a reversal of the direction of the boat is urgently needed!
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I will always remember her and say her name. This is a travesty of justice. Where she was stopped a minor traffic violation by a racist cop in a racist town and being murdered in jail. And law enforcement and coroners saying she committed suicide and insulting black folks intelligence. And to add insult to injury nothing is done and the racist pig is let off the hook.
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The US Department of Homeland Security keeping watch over BLM, sounds like The FBI and Cointelpro who used to watch civil rights activists and the Black Panthers. We are in retrograde in 2015 and the years to come.
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It was the result of racism Mirkwood. She knew her rights, was “uppity” and they killed her for it.
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If you really cared about Black lives you wouldn’t turn Ms. Bland death into a political add for Bernie Sanders.
Instead you would HONOR her memory.
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@LOM: Would you please try to be respectful. This is not some fucking political debate. What is wrong with you? Have you no decency at all? For once dig your stupid head out of your ass.
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@michaeljonbarker: Thank you for being respectful of Ms. Blane’s memory.
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@michaeljonbarker
Of course he doesn’t care about Sandra Bland or racism. He’s a Bernie Sanders/socialist troll.
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@LOM: Why do you post on this forum? It obvious that you care nothing for black lives, all you do is talk about the “effing Irish” and “effing Bernie Sanders” Way to be an a-hole right now. You are so disgusting and disrespectful.
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@Lord of Mirkwood “Also, your comment about the “effing Irish” reveals you to be akin to Adolf Hitler on the racism level.”
That’s a low blow any way you look at it. Your true colors are gradually coming to the surface. It will be interesting to see your true face. I look forward to the reveal.
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For a self-proclaimed ally of Black people, it’s interesting that Mirkwood has absolutely no allies (believers in his message) here – unless you count his foot as being a really close ally to his mouth!
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@Mary Burrell
You are so on the money!
LOM writes like a sociopathic Euro-troll. Self absorbed, rarely listening/reading and therefore rarely learning…and there is so much to learn at this site from Abagond and the commenter community.
LOM’s writings convey no sense of decency because LOM does not seem to care what we feel, think or write. It is all about his thoughts and concerns. Black people and their concerns seem unimportant to LOM. The result is trollish behavior and tone deaf arguments.
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@Afrofem: Yes, we are on the same page.
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@ Lord of Mirkwood
Could you just for once give it a rest?
This is an effin’ tragedy, and it has nothing to do with capitalism. The same thing could have happened just as easily under socialism or communism or whatever.
Because it was about racism. Not about how much money she had or what social class she belonged to, but about the color of her skin.
So if you can’t honor and respect Sandra Bland’s memory, kindly shut the eff up.
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OMG, did I just read that someone referred to Ms. Bland as a political casualty? How callous can one get?
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I just haven’t heard this type of “anti-capitalist” claptrap (as the cause of all evil) since the Soviet era. It’s like 1950’s Cold-War thinking.
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I believe she committed suicide. I havent heard any evidence to the contrary.
She shouldn’t have been arrested, but I don’t think they killed her.
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@ Solesearch
I believe she was drugged and hanged. She would have been stripped search before being put into fatigues. The toxicology report is the smoking gun. The police were holding her even though they had nothing to charge her with. So some sociopath in the department “cleaned it up” because she was disposable. That’s my gut instinct.
“I will always remember her and say her name.” Mary Burrell
May she rest in peace and know that she was loved even by a community who had never met her yet knew her. She was everybody’s mother, aunt, sister and child.
Justice is a great leveler and the intended sins of the fathers will be handed down and the unintended consequences of racism, incarceration and murder will be paid for in the blood of a dying Empire.
“We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”
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@Michael Jon Barker
“I believe she was drugged and hanged.”
I agree. I believe she was drugged with a couple of substances: an unknown one to disable/paralyze her so she wouldn’t struggle during her murder and THC to smear her character after her death.
The public toxicology report and comments by officials are classic signs of an official coverup. The truth is we may never have access to the facts of her case. What drugs they used in her murder may never be known. The declarations of her alleged drug use in jail are a red herring designed to misdirect and mislead the general public. They not only wanted to assassinate her body, they also wanted to assassinate her character and memory.
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[…] Sourced through Scoop.it from: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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“Justice is a great leveler and the intended sins of the fathers will be handed down and the unintended consequences of racism, incarceration and murder will be paid for in the blood of a dying Empire.”
.
Profiling, eh MJB? You nailed it, again.
This closely corresponds to the things Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, said about Amerika. Obama then threw his ex-pastor under the bus.
I can barely see the sun now, with all those pigeons flying overhead, darkening the skies as they’re flying back from every imaginable place Amerika has sinned against… coming home to roost!
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“I believe she committed suicide. I havent heard any evidence to the contrary.”
.
@Solesearch,
Are you suffering from some form of enchantment??
If not, then shame on you!
Have YOU not read the testimonies of former white cops/district attorneys of how Black people are systematically treated should they be unlucky to fall within the grasp of a corrupt criminal justice?? Not that we need them to validate what many of us have known our entire lives.
If the public relied solely on law enforcement to present and share whatever “evidence” it possessed of their own wrongdoings, how many cover-ups (or deaths by suicide, deaths by a barrage of bullets, deaths by choke holds, deaths by spinal injury, deaths by so-called accidents, deaths by wrong address, deaths due to phantom guns, deaths due to fear of 12 year old Black boys, etc, etc,) would the public have knowledge of?
Let me give you a hint.
0.
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“The family does not even have the report on Sandra Bland’s arrest or etc.”—-‘Thank you so much for reiterating this. I get so tired of hearing people claim both autopsies said she committed suicide when the independent one is not even complete. I think it is highly suspicious that they refuse to release the information on their autopsy to the family. That alone screams cover up to me.
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@Sharinalr: I agree with you.
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@ munubantu
I got it: I did a post on Steve Biko shortly after her death.
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@ Lord of Mirkwood
I want to apologize for the exceptionally harsh words, “…sociopathic Euro-troll…”.
I have read plenty of comments by people who are sociopathic Euro-trolls on this blog and other sites. Your comments don’t go to that extreme.
Your comments are often highly ideological and very narrowly focused on your own notions of history and reality. Yet, ‘sociopathic’ is not an apt description of your writing. Tone deaf and inappropriate sometimes, but not entirely devoid of conscience.
Lord of Mirkwood, I hope 2016 is a year of listening, reading, learning, empathizing and understanding for you… and for me. Happy New Year!
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Update: The grand jury has charged Encinia with perjury, saying that he lied about why he pulled her out of the car. If found guilty, he could face up to one year in prison and a $4,000 fine.
More:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/01/sandra-bland-trooper-indicted-for-perjury/422976/
h/t King
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@Abagond: Even if they find him guilty one year in prison and $4,000 fine is still not enough in my opinion.
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@ Mary
It is not enough because perjury was not the worst thing he did. But if they send him to prison, I will be happy. That will be way more than what most cops get, unfortunately.
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And i hope the racist swine will not be able to collect a pension.
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they know darn well she did not kill herself. We know the truth
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I saw a recent story about the release of Sandra Bland’s own cell phone video of her arrest.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hevRqm40RvM)
This must be very difficult for the family.
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Sandra Bland should be alive to see her 34th birthday. She was an activist. She would have been tremendous in the BLM protest and movement especially after the George Floyd murder. May she rest in power, and may her memory be a blessing.🕊✊🏿
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Happy Heavenly Birthday Sandra Bland. Rest In Peace and Power.🙏🏿🕊✊🏿
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