Rest in Paradise Sandra Bland, my sister in Greekdom, my “Indy,”
my beautiful black sister.
There are times in life when being respectful of authority
is a decision made without question and others where authority must be questioned
because it doesn’t come from an impartial place. I wasn’t going to comment on
the Sandra Bland situation because I didn’t have all the facts, however, after
seeing the dash cam footage of Bland’s encounter with police, I am up in arms.
There is commentary on the video that is typical of these types of incidents; “if
she would have just complied with the officer’s instruction, then this could
have all been avoided.” My follow-up question is simply, who decides when it is
appropriate to comply with directives, and when they deserve to be challenged?
For instance, what made it appropriate to challenge the authority of the
British Crown in the establishment of this nation, or what made it appropriate
to challenge the secession of the Confederate States of America to preserve the
union?
Let’s be clear about a few things; I do not know if the
trooper in question had a valid reason to pull Sandra over, I do not know if
there were any underlying factors that brought reasonable suspicion up to
probable cause such to substantiate any arrest and/or detention, and I do not
know how Sandra Bland met her unforeseen demise, but I do know that the
circumstances that placed her in jail were totally uncalled for! Those who
happen to come across my blog and are not faithful readers may be unprepared
for what I am about to say, however, I don’t have much of a filter on here so I’m
just going to let it fly.
SANDRA BLAND WAS RIGHT; THE TROOPER WAS INDEED A PUSSY.
Allow me to further elaborate on this point. While the word
pussy is considered by society as vulgar terminology for a woman’s genitalia, it
is also defined as “a cowardly man or boy,” a definition that I feel needs the
following addition; “because he acts as a woman/girl.” I have never understood
why law enforcement officers ask “is something wrong?” during a traffic stop.
Despite the initial infraction which gave rise to the stop, it doesn’t take a
rocket scientist to figure out what would be wrong with someone who is
receiving a traffic citation. The person stopped could be running late for
work, worried about finding the monetary funds to pay for any fines associated
with their traffic violation, the inconvenience of having to take off work to
contest a ticket, the resulting increase that such a violation may have on
their insurance premium, it’s a variety of things. Taking all that to consideration
reminds me of interactions within relationships where women ask “is something
wrong,” when they know damn good and well that something is wrong, and probably
have an idea of what it is. So when the man verbalizes what is wrong and why it’s
affecting his demeanor, the incident immediately becomes a conflict. The same
thing happened here, the trooper asked what’s wrong, and Bland simply gave him
a piece of her mind, despite the tone she used, she did not disrespect the
officer in my opinion, but this probably incited the officer because he, like
most bad cops, thought that this woman should be pleasant and accommodating to
anything he asks because he wears a badge. Mind you, this is not calling the
trooper in question a racist, or saying that all cops are bad, but simply that
he was on a power trip and should heed to advice that my father and prophytes
have given, respect is not simply given based upon one’s status but earned by
their actions.
As a fellow smoker, I too, light up when pulled over by law
enforcement, to keep my emotions in check and remain in a calm place despite
what particular kind of person I am dealing with in the course of my detention.
(Notice I said person, not law enforcement officer, because I’ll come back to
this point later.) So long as Sandra did not intentionally exhale her smoke in
the trooper’s face, which can be considered an assault, he had no reason to ask
her to put out her cigarette. Her refusal to do so was considered as a
challenge to his authority, and because he was a pussy, he had to assert his
authority even though he had no right to do so. Yes, he did have the right to
ask her to step out of the vehicle but he must give a reason, be it for a
search of the passenger compartment, or to effectuate a lawful arrest,
something he indeed failed to do. Also, I question any officer who has a
problem with lawfully being filmed, what exactly are you trying to hide? I
think the unnecessary use of force in this case based upon a situation where
the law enforcement officer should have been the bigger man and showed the
greater form of restraint as he SHOULD HAVE been trained to do, was beyond
uncalled for.
Armed with this evidence that Sandra Bland had no reason to
be in the cell that she would spend her last few hours on this earth, it’s hard
not to question the circumstances surrounding her “apparent suicide.” This
young lady seemed to have her life in order, was headed back to her old
undergraduate stomping ground for a new position, now I could be wrong, but
this doesn’t seem like the type of person that would be a suicide risk. And as
with most occurrences where police overstep their boundaries, the victim is vilified
faster than they can be buried. We are now being told that Bland “was not a
model person” being stopped. Why is that? Because she questioned unreasonable
requests? Because she knew her rights? Despite Bland’s tone, the trooper had
all responsibility to deescalate the situation, something he failed at doing.
This new evidence does nothing to answer how Bland met her untimely demise, but
it does throw out a bunch more questions. And if this is the kind of behavior
that one can expect from law enforcement in Waller county, then can we say
without a doubt that other pussy troopers didn’t play a hand in her death?
We should never rush to group all law enforcement officers
in the same category because they are people first, their badges come second.
Yet, this officer in the Sandra Bland case was a shitty person; a pussy. Had he
taken his vow to PROTECT AND SERVE seriously, this situation would have never arisen
to the level that it did and hopefully Sandra would still be with us. Rest on
sister, we will find the truth!!!
