Sandra Bland Traffic Stop

Steelgrave · July 22, 2015, 07:58:15 PM

Quote from: Gusington on July 22, 2015, 07:43:01 PM
I'm not defending bad cops. I'm also not defending run of the mill civilian assholes. There are jerkoffs everywhere.

I know you're not, Gus. Cameras are the best thing to happen to policing and hopefully are opening our eyes. More often than not, they exonerate good cops who have frivilous charges thrown at them. And the times when bad cops are caught on tape, that's when blue has to clean shop and our juries need to drop the hammer on someone who abuses their authority.

mirth · July 22, 2015, 08:03:09 PM

^Well said, Steelie.

Gusington · July 22, 2015, 09:25:42 PM

The cop in this case was definitely out of order. But...BUT...Bland wasn't being particularly cooperative either. Which leads me back to what I originally posted...don't be a dick and there's less of a chance you'll end up injured or dead.

LongBlade · July 22, 2015, 11:49:52 PM

I just finished watching The Boys from Brazil on Amazon Prime.

There's a fine lesson in there about how to deal with hate. Wish more folks would learn that lesson.

JasonPratt · July 23, 2015, 07:54:31 AM

Quote from: Gusington on July 22, 2015, 02:41:33 PM
Everyone needs to get laid and drink a beer before we all kill each other.

If I recall correctly, those are two of the biggest contributors to murder... ;)

mirth · July 23, 2015, 09:48:28 AM

Legal analysis of the stop

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/20/us/sandra-bland-arrest-death-videos-maps.html

BanzaiCat · July 23, 2015, 09:56:55 AM

Failure to use a turn signal in Texas is indeed an arrestable offense, but as there are thousands of morons here that either cannot wrap their head around how a turn signal works, or are too lazy to actually spend the energy to do it, it's surprising that more don't get pulled over for it. It would be a gold mine of ticket income for the city and county.

That was an interesting analysis. Seems that the cop technically had reasons to order her out of the car and arrest her, though all are pretty thin when compared to what really happens in the real world.

Also, her family saying she would never kill herself - well, I hate to say it, but a lot of families of suicides say the same thing. It came out yesterday or the day before that Ms. Bland admitted to trying to kill herself a year ago. I doubt the cops hung her but it would be horrifying if this was actually proven to have happened.

Mr. Bigglesworth · July 23, 2015, 10:20:51 AM

There would have to be a motive for the suicide. You could guess she feared the arrest would make her lose her new job. How many will suicide over a job loss? People lose jobs all the time. You also have to consider she said she cannot wait to go to court. That is not a weak person. She was out to bury the officer (legally) so he buried her literally.

[Sarcasm on] See, if she had learned to say "Yessum Master!" she would be ok. The equivalent for the other races, such as Danke, herr Stormtrooper! Allow me to lick my blood off your fine boots, herr Stormtrooper. [Sarcasm off]

I don't think so.

Mr. Bigglesworth · July 23, 2015, 11:08:59 AM

It seems to me that 3 things are required:
Annual psych evals
Undercover minor offense testing to prove 99.9% of police encounters are done properly.
A 6 month vacation cycle or transfer to low hostility areas to give the officers time to unwind.

jejo68 · July 24, 2015, 01:43:47 AM

Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on July 23, 2015, 10:20:51 AM
There would have to be a motive for the suicide. You could guess she feared the arrest would make her lose her new job. How many will suicide over a job loss? People lose jobs all the time. You also have to consider she said she cannot wait to go to court. That is not a weak person. She was out to bury the officer (legally) so he buried her literally.

[Sarcasm on] See, if she had learned to say "Yessum Master!" she would be ok. The equivalent for the other races, such as Danke, herr Stormtrooper! Allow me to lick my blood off your fine boots, herr Stormtrooper. [Sarcasm off]

I don't think so.

well lets see. depression, suicidal tendency and the fact that your own family refuse to bail you out of jail. you think that might be a cause to commit suicide ?
oh and incidently its the same Family that now cry over how wonderfull a person she was.

mirth · July 24, 2015, 04:43:38 AM

Quote from: jejo68 on July 24, 2015, 01:43:47 AM
well lets see. depression, suicidal tendency and the fact that your own family refuse to bail you out of jail. you think that might be a cause to commit suicide ?
oh and incidently its the same Family that now cry over how wonderfull a person she was.

You're right. Better that she's dead. ::)

Steelgrave · July 24, 2015, 07:45:41 AM

A post-natal suicide attempt is quite often a singular event and does not necessarily indicate suicidal tendencies. And as far as bail goes, is it not possible that her family simply did not have the money? If you've read otherwise, I missed it.

One has to echo her words in the phone call when she asked, "how did a traffic stop come to this"?

mirth · July 24, 2015, 08:08:29 AM

If, as the jailers claim, she admitted to a suicide attempt during processing, why weren't precautions taken to reduce the chances an attempt in the cell would be successful? Why wasn't she checked regularly in her cell? There's a lot of questions about the whole thing, beyond the mishandled traffic stop.

Mr. Bigglesworth · July 24, 2015, 10:10:14 AM

I would think that a woman wanting to hang herself would use her bra or her pants. A trash bag being strong enough would never occur to most people. As for lack of struggle marks at the neck, wouldn't most people start to fight for life when they are choking? My guess is she was cuffed or sat on on the floor. The bag was put over her head to suffocate her when she was immobilized.

BanzaiCat · July 24, 2015, 10:23:23 AM

You'd be surprised with hanging and how easy it is to accomplish. I saw more than a few victims when I worked off an ambulance. It's somewhat funny (not in a comedic way, of course) how hanging victims usually put themselves in such a position where they cannot recover; more than a few have that 'struggle moment' where they probably thought, "what the hell am I doing?" and try to stop it, but that's not often something that happens. If they know what they're doing, they can knock themselves unconscious so they're not able to recover.

I say 'funny' because if you've ever heard anything about the suicide jumpers that step off of the Golden Gate Bridge ('The Bridge' is a fascinating and disturbing documentary about such suicides and attempts), you might have heard that those that actually survive, as soon as they step off, immediately regret it and wish they had not. I can only imagine that happens with anyone going through with it...but I don't know, I'm no expert.

Look at Robin William's suspension hanging suicide - that method was unfortunately rather simple. All one needs to do is sit up straight to stop it, but the way he did it, it brought unconsciousness first, then death. I'm thinking this might have happened to Ms. Bland too, though obviously I don't know for sure what happened.