Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Driving While Black Not Using Your Turn Signal Deadly in Texas
Driving While Black Not Using Your Turn Signal Deadly in Texas
The death of Sandy Bland in Waller Texas is senseless, despicable, and never should have happened. Being taken into custody for "failure to use her turn signal"? Seriously?
She "had been was combative on the side of the road" Sheriff Glen Smith told a reporter.
Salon link here: http://www.salon.com/2015/07/16/video_shows_that_african_american_woman_who_died_in_custody_did_not_assault_an_officer_as_police_claimed/
If you pulled me over for failure to use my turn signal, and asked me to step out of the car, I would have been verbally and physically very unreceptive. Really, a turn signal violation? If Sandy Bland had been a rich white woman, shed be alive today. She either would never have been pulled over, or an expensive lawyer would have been secured on July 10th when she taken to the county jail; she would have posted bond, and she would have posted on The FaceBook about how inappropriate the sheriffs deputies had been in pulling her over in the first place for something that everyone has done at least one forgetfully, or frequently done willfully. Forgetting to use a turn signal is not a reason to get a ticket (a warning, maybe, sure), or to be taken out of your car, or to be thrown to the ground and knelt upon by an obese sheriffs deputy, or to be put in jail, or to remain in lock-up for 3 days.
I Do Not Know if Sandy Bland committed suicide or if someone came into her cell and strangled her with the plastic bag. I think the former is unlikely and the latter is pure evil. Hopefully a ligitimate coroners inquest will get to the facts clearly, and quickly. I Do Know that there was no reason to pull her out of her car, to incarcerate her, or to leave her in a jail cell for 3 days. Write her a warning or a full fledged ticket Sheriff Glen Smith (which she could have fought in court), Even If she is being resentful or verbally combative or physically resisting the sheriffs deputys draconian behavior.
Despicable.
Yeah, we live in a "post racial era". Right.
