Sandra Bland
Jul. 20th, 2015 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimrose_eilwynnI signed this petition and thought I'd give you a chance to as well:
https://www.change.org/p/the-united-states-department-of-justice-attorney-general-loretta-lynch-take-over-the-investigation-into-the-death-of-sandra-bland-from-the-waller-county-texas-police-department/sign?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=349404&alert_id=yUxboGXeIn_DUq7Epz6G3W0wZombe0jSUmv9QzdHJ4NYvjbzqIA3SE%3D
Sandra Bland is a 28-year-old Black woman who had recently moved to Texas from Chicago. She was a graduate about to start a brand-new job, and she was by all accounts excited, enthusiastic, and full of life. She was pulled over by local sheriffs for failing to signal before changing lanes, and was for some reason taken into police custody. (Apparently this is now an arrest-worthy offense.)
Locals were able to film a 2-minute video of Bland's arrest. She was lying face-down, with an officer's knees pressed into her back, her arms being pulled behind her. She was screaming and crying. She said her head was being slammed into the ground and she couldn't feel her arms; she was also having trouble hearing.
At about this point in the video, another police officer intimidates the local into stopping his filming. (This is against the law, I might add; US citizens have every right to film policemen on public property.)
A few days later, policemen found Bland dead in jail. They claim she was found hanged and that she committed suicide. Others fear her head injury caused brain hemorrhaging and killed her, but the local police have her body in their possession, so we can't tell for sure.
So what is this petition asking for? It's asking for The Department of Justice to conduct its own autopsy on Bland's body, outside of the local police's jurisdiction. Considering the suspicious circumstances of her death, this is only fair. If the autopsy is found to corroborate the police's story, that's fine. But we want to know for sure -- we want to know the truth.
Please sign this petition asking the Department of Justice to investigate this matter.
UPDATE: It's been revealed Sandra Bland was asked to exit her vehicle after being pulled over, but didn't on account of feeling threatened. The policeman was holding a stun gun and threatened to "light her up." This is shortly before the video in which Bland was being held facedown with her arms behind her back. The policeman was being threatening, intimidating, and needlessly violent. Yet another case of unconscious bias against Black people engendering a suspicious and vicious reaction.
UPDATE: The altercation between the policeman and Bland escalated because the policeman tried to force Bland to put out her cigarette in her own car. This story just gets weirder by the second.
UPDATE: Bland should not have been put in a segregated cell just for an altercation with a police officer. Additionally, if she indicated previous suicide attempts on her intake form, she should never have been left alone long enough to hang herself in the first place.
UPDATE: Bland said in a phone call one day after her jailing that she suffered from a broken arm or shoulder. She declined medical attention. Would she have had the strength to hang herself?
UPDATE: Bland had been arrested and jailed previously. This makes her statistically much less likely to have hung herself because of being jailed. Her arrest record also shows no previous resistance to police.
https://www.change.org/p/the-united-states-department-of-justice-attorney-general-loretta-lynch-take-over-the-investigation-into-the-death-of-sandra-bland-from-the-waller-county-texas-police-department/sign?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=349404&alert_id=yUxboGXeIn_DUq7Epz6G3W0wZombe0jSUmv9QzdHJ4NYvjbzqIA3SE%3D
Sandra Bland is a 28-year-old Black woman who had recently moved to Texas from Chicago. She was a graduate about to start a brand-new job, and she was by all accounts excited, enthusiastic, and full of life. She was pulled over by local sheriffs for failing to signal before changing lanes, and was for some reason taken into police custody. (Apparently this is now an arrest-worthy offense.)
Locals were able to film a 2-minute video of Bland's arrest. She was lying face-down, with an officer's knees pressed into her back, her arms being pulled behind her. She was screaming and crying. She said her head was being slammed into the ground and she couldn't feel her arms; she was also having trouble hearing.
At about this point in the video, another police officer intimidates the local into stopping his filming. (This is against the law, I might add; US citizens have every right to film policemen on public property.)
A few days later, policemen found Bland dead in jail. They claim she was found hanged and that she committed suicide. Others fear her head injury caused brain hemorrhaging and killed her, but the local police have her body in their possession, so we can't tell for sure.
So what is this petition asking for? It's asking for The Department of Justice to conduct its own autopsy on Bland's body, outside of the local police's jurisdiction. Considering the suspicious circumstances of her death, this is only fair. If the autopsy is found to corroborate the police's story, that's fine. But we want to know for sure -- we want to know the truth.
Please sign this petition asking the Department of Justice to investigate this matter.
UPDATE: It's been revealed Sandra Bland was asked to exit her vehicle after being pulled over, but didn't on account of feeling threatened. The policeman was holding a stun gun and threatened to "light her up." This is shortly before the video in which Bland was being held facedown with her arms behind her back. The policeman was being threatening, intimidating, and needlessly violent. Yet another case of unconscious bias against Black people engendering a suspicious and vicious reaction.
UPDATE: The altercation between the policeman and Bland escalated because the policeman tried to force Bland to put out her cigarette in her own car. This story just gets weirder by the second.
UPDATE: Bland should not have been put in a segregated cell just for an altercation with a police officer. Additionally, if she indicated previous suicide attempts on her intake form, she should never have been left alone long enough to hang herself in the first place.
UPDATE: Bland said in a phone call one day after her jailing that she suffered from a broken arm or shoulder. She declined medical attention. Would she have had the strength to hang herself?
UPDATE: Bland had been arrested and jailed previously. This makes her statistically much less likely to have hung herself because of being jailed. Her arrest record also shows no previous resistance to police.
