#SandraBland

Monetary Settlement And More Reached In Sandra Bland Death

September 16, 2016 Leon Neyfakh, www.slate.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #SandraBland, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality, Sandra Bland, Settlements

By Leon Neyfakh for Slate - In July 2015, the death of Sandra Bland became a central flashpoint in the national debate over race and law enforcement. Bland was pulled over by a Texas state trooper because she didn’t signal a lane change. She was screamed at and threatened with a Taser because she refused to put out her cigarette. Because she couldn’t make bail, she was confined to a Waller County, Texas, jail cell for three days—an experience that evidently caused her so much distress that she hung herself in her cell.

New Doubts About Official Version Of Sandra Bland’s Death

March 12, 2016 Michael McLaughlin, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, #SandraBland, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality

By Michael McLaughlin for The Huffington Post - Contradictions in files about Sandra Bland's death are raising new questions about how the 28-year-old woman died in a Texas jail last summer. A medical examiner ruled in an autopsy that Bland killed herself in a jail in Waller County, Texas, three days after a state trooper was filmed manhandling her during a combative traffic stop. But documents obtained by The Huffington Post show discrepancies in the way officials described the condition of Bland's body when she was found dead in her cell.

Petition: Sandra Bland Deserves Justice

August 1, 2015 Ultra Violet, www.act.weareultraviolet.org Petitions and Online Actions #BlackLivesMatter, #SandraBland, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM)

By Ultra Violet - Last Friday, 28 year-old Sandra Bland was driving to her new job in Waller County, TX when she was pulled over for switching lanes without a signal--a routine violation that usually ends with a ticket. But instead, officers slammed her head into the ground and arrested her. Three days later, she died in police custody. This is one of the most outrageous cases of police abuse we've seen yet. There is video showing the officer slamming Sandra to the ground as she pleads for them to stop. And the local sheriff, who claimed Sandra killed herself, was fired in a different city for multiple counts of racist and violent conduct. That's why we can't leave an investigation into Sandra's suspicious death in the hands of local officials.

Sandra Bland, Rebel

August 1, 2015 Richard Ward, www.counterpunch.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #SandraBland, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM)

By Richard Ward in Counter Punch - Sandra Bland was a rebel in the classic sense, as Albert Camus defined it: “What is a rebel? A woman who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. She is also a woman who says yes, from the moment she makes her first gesture of rebellion. A slave who has taken orders all her life suddenly decides that she cannot obey some new command. What does she mean by saying “no”? “She means, for example, that ‘this has been going on for too long,’ or ‘up to this point yes, beyond it no,’ ‘you are going too far,’ or, again, ‘there is a limit beyond which you shall not go.’ In other words, her no affirms the existence of a borderline.” Sandra Bland had reached her borderline before her life was snuffed in Waller County by racist, vicious agents of the state.

The Cost Of Failing To Comply With Structural Racism

July 31, 2015 Zachary Norris, www.truth-out.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, #SandraBland, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality, Racism

By Zachary Norris in Truth Out - As a member of Black Lives Matter Bay Area, I attended last weekend's Movement for Black Lives convening in Cleveland, Ohio, and witnessed a whole new generation of us following. We are refusing compliance. While I was in Ohio, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the organization of which I am the executive director, hosted a vigil and speak out for Sandra Bland back in Oakland. Black women claimed the space and expressed their rage over what happened to Sandra, the many injustices they have experienced at the hands of the state, and the need for revolutionary change. We are not asking for entrance or acceptance into this order of things. We see a Black president presiding over the country, and the killings haven't stopped. We know the president has his own "kill list." In a country such as this one, the simple demand that Black lives matter has always been a demand for a whole new order of things.

#SandySpeaks: ‘I’m Here To Change History’

July 28, 2015 Kirsten West Savali, www.theroot.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #SandraBland, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality

By Kirsten West Savali in The Root - As I watched 28-year-old Sandra Bland assert her humanity by refusing to roll over and play slave for white Officer Brian Encinia, who had grown increasingly agitated by that refusal, the words of Zora Neale Hurston rang in my head through the numbness: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” On July 10, Bland was ready. If she was to die, if she was to feel the blows of brutality on her brown skin, no one would be able to say that she enjoyed it. Some may say that Bland foreshadowed her own death in Texas. Her Facebook cover photo—highlighting the hypocrisy of state-sanctioned anti-black terrorism—shows a caricature of Dylann Roof eating the Burger King burger his arresting officers bought him after he was captured for murdering nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

At Sandra Bland’s Funeral, A Mother’s Call To Action

July 26, 2015 Marwa Eltagouri and Maggie Angst, www.chicagotribune.com Resist! #SandraBland, Police abuse, Police violence, Racism, Sandra Bland

By Marwa Eltagouri and Maggie Angst for the Chicago Tribune - Sandra Bland's mother was the last to speak at her daughter's funeral. Geneva Reed-Veal’s voice didn't break as she addressed the hundreds before her; she didn't shed any tears. She spoke clearly and decisively, determined to raise a call to action with each word. “I'm the mama, and I'm telling you that my baby did not take herself out,” she said. “The fact is, I'm the mama. And I still don't know what happened. You think you're mad? I'm mad too.” She recalled the last words her daughter spoke to her, in which Bland said, even before she received a job interview, that she wanted to go to the South and stop the injustices against blacks. “Sandy knew what her purpose was,” she said. “Some call it a tragedy. Some call it a travesty. But I've got to call it testimony.”

Police Arrest 12 At Sandra Bland Police Violence Protest In NYC

July 24, 2015 Scott Heins, www.gothamist.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #KindraChapman, #SandraBland, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality

By Scott Heins in Gothamist - For the second time in less than a week, protests against police brutality and racial injustice led to a flurry of arrests in the middle of 34th Street. According to an NYPD spokesman, 12 demonstrators were arrested over the course of the evening, all of them charged with disorderly conduct. While last Friday's protests and arrests came during a march to commemorate the death of Eric Garner, "Justice for Sandra Bland!" was the rallying cry at last night's protest. Bland, a 28-year-old black woman active in social justice movements, died last week in a Texas jail after being arrested during a traffic stop. Authorities claim Bland committed suicide while in her jail cell, but many are disputing this official account and an investigation is currently underway.

New Warning Sign For Motorists Where Sandra Bland Was Arrested

July 23, 2015 Jen Hayden, www.dailykos.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #SandraBland, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Law, police brutality

By Scout Finch in Daily Kos - The probe into the jail cell death of Sandra Bland will be treated as thoroughly "as it would be in a murder investigation," a Texas district attorney said Monday. "There are many questions being raised about this case," Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said during an evening news conference. "It needs a thorough and exhaustive review." Yet, Waller County Sheriff's Office Captain of Patrol Brian Cantrell said at the same press conference that Bland's July 12 death inside a Waller County Jail was already ruled a suicide. "I want to make clear that the death of Ms. Bland was a tragic incident — not one of criminal intent or a criminal act," Cantrell said. Cantrell claimed Bland, 28, strangled herself with a jail cell trash bag, but her family has disputed the very notion that she would kill herself. They have asked for an independent autopsy.

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