A grand jury declined to indict anyone Tuesday in the death of Sandra Blanton, a 28-year-old Black woman who was stopped for a traffic infraction by Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia July 10, about fifty miles northwest of Houston. She was jailed and found hanged three days later from an apparent suicide.
The Texas jury was looking for misbehavior in the death of Bland by the staff at Waller County Jail, and it had nothing to do with indicting Encinia, the White Trooper who pulled her over while she was starting a new job at Prairie View University.
“If Sandra Bland were a White woman she would be alive today,” according to Sen. Bernie Sanders, a democrat campaigning to be President of the United States.
Sanders hit the nail dead center–because–Bland was stereotyped from the onset by a White lawman with too much time on hand. He saw a Black woman change lane without signaling and a bell went off, ‘maybe she’s transporting drugs.’ Or she might be a criminal so we’ll start off with an illegal lane change violation and see what happens next. You’re laughing but this happens quite often to Americans who are guilty of “Driving while Black.”
That may have occurred with Bland, who was stopped for changing lane without a signal. Soon the exchange got out of hand after she refused to put out a cigarette. That’s when Encinia lost control and demanded she get out of the car. After Bland refused the officer said “he would light her up” with his taser. He wound up dragging her from the vehicle.
The recent Prairie View University graduate was roughed up and thrown to the ground. She told the officer to stop he was hurting her and she has epilepsy. Encinia responded by saying ‘good,’ and proceeded to handcuffed her. He told several lies on the audio portion of the tape.. One lie involved was that he never told Bland she was under arrest: he did. Another lie was the type of profanity he said she used to describe him was not present on the audio tape. She was booked into Hempstead Texas jail. The Chicago area native was also charged with assault on a public servant. The medical examiner ruled her death a suicide. Encinia was placed on administrative duty and cited for unprofessionalism by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Maybe Bernie Sanders was implying that a White woman would not have been pulled over for changing lanes without signaling, unless she was implicated in a prior incident, and officers should be on the lookout for her in that vehicle.
Black drivers are marked from the beginning and will get ticketed at the slightest hint of an infraction. Sometimes officers will run a report on your license plates to see if Black drivers have outstanding warrants so they can ticket or make an arrest. The drivers involved in these kind of activities are not White women or White males on most occasions. They are people of color, and City and County Governments rely heavily on income derived from traffic violations. But they shouldn’t be targeting Black drivers excessively in order to meet their revenue goals, as in the case of Sandra Blanton.
The family of Sandra Bland filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Officer Brian Encinia and several staffers at Waller County Jail. The grand jury will convene in January.
hubiejones.com 