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July 16, 2015 at 6:41 pm #27320znModerator
Texas sheriff involved in the death of Sandra Bland fired from previous post for racism
Sandra Bland died in police custody this past Monday. Visiting Texas from Chicago to interview for a college job at her alma mater of Prairie View A&M, she was pulled over for a routine traffic violation (failure to use her turn signal). Everything from that point forward screams racism and foul play, including her death in the Waller County jail Monday.
The first red flag is that Bland was officially arrested on Friday for assaulting a police officer. What we see from a bystander video is her telling the officers she is in pain and cannot hear after her head was slammed on the ground by the male arresting officer. The video is below.
We have now learned that Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, who made the first public comments about Bland’s in-custody death, was suspended for documented cases of racism when he was chief of police in Hempstead, Texas, in 2007. After serving his suspension, more complaints of racism came in, and Smith was actually fired as chief of police in Hempstead:
Council members are reviewing video of four arrests and detentions over the past month. The officers and police chief, who are the targets of the complaints, are white. Some residents are calling for a third of the city’s 15 person police force to be suspended, disciplined, or fired.
Allegations of racism have led to the Hempstead police chief being suspended and ordered to take anger management classes.
The Hempstead city council has been reviewing the case since last week and finally came to a decision at around 2am Tuesday. A number of residents have come forward with claims of racism by at least four white police officers.
The council reviewed the complaints, along with videotapes before making their decision to punish Chief Glen Smith. Some say it wasn’t enough. The chief says he respects the decision.
“My action during the arrest did not meet professionalism as it should with language and I’m not above policy and procedure, no more than any officer of this city,” said Chief Smith.
It would seem that once a law enforcement officer—a chief of police no less—is suspended and then fired for racism and abuse, his ability to serve in law enforcement would cease.
That’d be too much like right, though.
Hell, it made Glenn Smith popular in Waller County, where he then ran for the elected position of sheriff and won against—you guessed it—an African-American candidate, Jeron Barnett, who would’ve been the first black sheriff ever in Waller County.
Police are claiming that Bland killed herself in her cell, but all of her friends and family have serious reservations about that version of events:
Longtime friend LaNitra Dean tells the I-Team that Bland “was a warm, affectionate, outspoken woman” who spoke out about police brutality often on her Facebook page and was critical of injustice against African Americans.
“Each one of us feels like we lost a part of ourselves and it’s hard, it’s going to be hard for a very long time,” said her sister Sharon Cooper.
“The Waller County Jail is trying to rule her death a suicide and Sandy would not have taken her own life,” Dean said. “Sandy was strong. Strong mentally and spiritually.”
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Daily Kos columnist Shaun King has also reported that there have been other suicides recently at the county jail.
Shaun King @ShaunKing
Learning that the Waller County jail has a “suicide” problem and that as many as 4 deaths there have been ruled as such.
Shaun King @ShaunKing
Wow. Just learned that the last man to “hang himself” in the Waller County jail was also arrested for “assaulting an officer”
July 16, 2015 at 6:48 pm #27321znModeratorSandra Bland Tried to Post Bail Before Allegedly Committing Suicide
She called a bondsman before she turned up dead in a Texas jail cell and also spoke of depression and PTSD.Before she was found dead of apparent suicide in a Texas jail cell, Sandra Bland called a bail bondsman hoping to get out.
“I talked to her when she first went to jail,” Joe Booker of Hempstead told The Daily Beast on Thursday. “I called her mother for her.”
Booker then hung up and didn’t respond to further requests for comment. It would have cost friends or family $500 to bail out Bland, Captain Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff’s Office said.
Why she would take her own life after apparently working with Booker to secure her freedom is one of many questions surrounding her death.
“Based on the Sandy I know, that’s unfathomable to me,” Bland’s sister Sharon said at a press conference.
Bland did, however, say in March that she was dealing with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I gotta be honest with you guys,” she told people in a Facebook video, “I’ve been dealing with something that some of you all may be dealing with now. It’s a little bit of depression as well as PTSD.”
Bland also expressed her faith in God, who “blocked that depressing moment in my mind.” Bland closed the video with an apology for her lack of posts, saying, “Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are things that affect everyone—black, white, it does not matter.”
Bland’s body was discovered by a jail worker on Monday morning. Bland was hanging by unspecified means—police said she did not have shoelaces or a blanket in her cell. An autopsy performed Tuesday listed Bland’s cause of death as suicide by asphyxiation, but her family and many people online suspect foul play. (The autopsy report which contains that and much more detailed information has not yet been made available.) The Texas Rangers said they are investigating her death, and the Bland family has retained an attorney.
At 7 a.m. Monday, Bland reportedly asked to make a phone call. Two hours later, she was found dead.
Bland was pulled over by a Texas Department of Public Safety officer on Friday afternoon for changing lanes without signaling, according to the Houston Chronicle. Bland reportedly struggled with the officer, who at some point was joined by another cop, both of whom are seen struggling with Bland on the ground in a video taken by a motorist.
“I can’t even fucking feel my arms,” Bland is heard saying on video, calling the officers “motherfuckers” several times. “You just slammed my head into the ground, do you not even care about that? I can’t even hear!”
One of the officers tells the person recording the video, “You need to leave.”
As Bland is being walked to a police car, she speaks again.
“Thank you for recording! Thank you! For a traffic signal, slammed me into the ground and everything!”
Bland’s sister told the Associated Press on Thursday that Sandra called her from jail after the arrest and said she believed her arm had been broken by police.
Bland had recently moved to Texas from the Chicago area, according to her family, and was preparing to start a new job. Bland had lived in Texas while attending Texas Prairie View A&M and had previous interactions with police for minor offenses.
Bland pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession in 2010 and paid $373 in fines, according to court records. A 2009 drug paraphernalia charge was dismissed in Harris County, court records also show. Her driver’s license had been suspended three times prior to last year, and she was on court supervision in Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune. On July 31, Bland’s license was set to be suspended again, the Tribune reported.
Bland spoke out against police, the deaths of blacks at the hands of law enforcement, and other issues affecting the African-American community on her Facebook page. She called the video dispatches “Sandy Speaks.” In one, she took on the subject of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“What I need you guys to understand is that being a black person in America is very, very hard,” she recently said.
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