This country is fucked up, man.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/nytnow/online-campaign-questions-official-account-of-sandra-bland-death.html?smid=tw-nytimes

http://abc7chicago.com/news/road-trip-for-suburban-woman-ends-in-jailhouse-death/853139/

https://twitter.com/Bipartisanism/status/621718126225305600

Uh, no. They're supposed to be obedient to the scary white man?

Hell, yes. For once I actually agree with AG. Doesn't matter who's right, you have to obey the scary man with the gun when you are pulled over. That's simple survival, imo. Minorities are more at risk, no doubt about that. None of us are really safe from them though. When I was a teenager, my best friend and I got a nice taste of how power crazy some of these guys are. The way I see it, you can be right or you can go home alive/unhurt.

I actually had no idea any sane person ever challenged police when they are pulled over, until my husband told me a story about how he did once. Ideally, that would obviously be ok, but I've never considered it a viable option. Now that I'm a middle aged white woman (shine is off the penny and all that) I feel a little safer when I'm pulled over, but I still wouldn't risk engaging one of these guys in a debate. Fight the ticket in court, if you want to fight it.

I have to say that you need to be very careful if you get stopped by the police. With body cameras being equipped on officers in a lot of jurisdictions now, there are officers who are going to be on better behavior because there will be recordings of incidents.

New information out, video surveillance in the jail shows that nobody walked near or past her cell in the time leading up to her being disovered dead. Obviously her family didn't REALLY know what was going on with her. And the whole argument started when she wouldn't put out her cigarette. REALLY? You gonna give a cop lip over something that petty?

The real argument started the minute he pulled her over for such a petty violation. When you see a black and white speeding up behind you, it's a gut reaction to get out of its way. For her to be pulled over for not signaling in that very understandable circumstance was just petty. I live off of two major thoroughfares and day after day, night after night, I see these cops speeding without sirens like little boys in go karts. It is so unnecessary and it makes me nervous. If they need to reach such speeds in order to quickly respond to an emergency, they need to cut on their sirens. Otherwise, to me it just looks like people abusing their authority, and anyone willing to abuse his or her authority by racing up and down a major road is in my book just as willing to abuse his or her authority by pulling folks over at whim.

Hell, yes. For once I actually agree with AG. Doesn't matter who's right, you have to obey the scary man with the gun when you are pulled over. That's simple survival, imo. Minorities are more at risk, no doubt about that. None of us are really safe from them though. When I was a teenager, my best friend and I got a nice taste of how power crazy some of these guys are. The way I see it, you can be right or you can go home alive/unhurt.

I actually had no idea any sane person ever challenged police when they are pulled over, until my husband told me a story about how he did once. Ideally, that would obviously be ok, but I've never considered it a viable option. Now that I'm a middle aged white woman (shine is off the penny and all that) I feel a little safer when I'm pulled over, but I still wouldn't risk engaging one of these guys in a debate. Fight the ticket in court, if you want to fight it.

While getting angry and confrontational isn't really my style, I don't think that we should live in a world where we get punished, nay killed, for "giving lip". We have a right to be upset in the face of injustice. Sticks and stones.

That said, there are many ways that an officer can handle a situation. Look how the officer handled this one. If the man pulled over was black in 2015, he'd probably be dead.

Edited July 22, 201510 yr by SFK

Mouthing off to cops isn't my style either but that doesn't make them less dangerous. People keep saying to be calm and quiet with cops but that's the same advice they give for dealing with dangerous animals.

I'm sorry, I have to be honest. She was looking for a fight from the very beginning and she got what she wanted. It all started out pretty calm and probably would have stayed that way if she had remained calm. I'm not saying the officer was right, but at the same time, the situation was helped any by the driver. These days everyone wants to be an activist and go viral, and she probably thought it would have been a good topic to discuss in a video.

This poor woman No one deserves this..

I hate that law enforcement is getting a bad name cause of a few select psycho's. I have cousins who are sheriff's and they would NEVER dream of treating someone this way

Many are questioning why the arrest video released appeared to be altered:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/07/22/sandra-bland-jail-cell-video-jump-cut-texas-lavandera-newday.cnn

The footage seems to be looped at certain points with some cars appearing and disappearing and appearing again, the video is chopped while the audio runs in a continuous stream.

Edited July 22, 201510 yr by DramatistDreamer

I just read that the Texas department investigating that claim says that it wasn't edited.

Of the few times I've been pulled over by the police, I was a straight up smart ass. I don't know why but it just irritated me so bad. The cops never really fed into it though, which kinda surprised me. Then again, I'm a white dude, so...

While getting angry and confrontational isn't really my style, I don't think that we should live in a world where we get punished, nay killed, for "giving lip". We have a right to be upset in the face of injustice. Sticks and stones.

That said, there are many ways that an officer can handle a situation. Look how the officer handled this one. If the man pulled over was black in 2015, he'd probably be dead.

Right, but that's my whole point. It's not about the world we should live in. It's about the world we do live in. Right here, right now the best thing to do is tread very carefully when you are pulled over. A person's only job when being stopped by an officer is coming out of it alive and unmolested. That's my feeling anyway.

Mouthing off to cops isn't my style either but that doesn't make them less dangerous. People keep saying to be calm and quiet with cops but that's the same advice they give for dealing with dangerous animals.

Humans are dangerous animals, especially when they have the kind of power police have. I'm not even as anti police as I probably sound. There are a lot of dangerous criminals in the world. It's go to take a similar type of person to bring them to heel in many cases. Who else would want the job? Law enforcement is societies deal with the devil. Maybe we can make it better, but I doubt it can ever be a perfect system. The police officer who just shot an unarmed guy in the head was wearing a body cam for pity's sake.

Other countries (the ones that are not rife with corruption) do not seem to experience these types of issues with as much frequency as the U.S. When I mention other countries, I mean industrialized countries of similar socio-economic stratas like Canada and England.

Other countries (the ones that are not rife with corruption) do not seem to experience these types of issues with as much frequency as the U.S. When I mention other countries, I mean industrialized countries of similar socio-economic stratas like Canada and England.

Yes, but we have an insane gun culture here, those other places don't. Isn't it the UK where police don't even carry guns? Can you imagine that here? I live in freaking Omaha and we have gang issues and shoot outs.

As for corruption, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a country that isn't knee deep in corruption and racism. Yes, the US is screwed up, but Europe has it's own problems (Jews, Muslims and Roma have a rough time in a lot of European countries even now). Sweden is generally seen as a model country and they were caught keeping lists of Roma, including children. After what happened in the Holocaust, I found that absolutely chilling. http://www.ibtimes.com/swedish-police-keep-secret-files-roma-gypsy-people-fighting-crime-or-ethnic-profiling-1495498

It's really sad how conservative and backwards America is compared to other well developed countries.

Yes, but we have an insane gun culture here, those other places don't. Isn't it the UK where police don't even carry guns? Can you imagine that here? I live in freaking Omaha and we have gang issues and shoot outs.

As for corruption, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a country that isn't knee deep in corruption and racism. Yes, the US is screwed up, but Europe has it's own problems (Jews, Muslims and Roma have a rough time in a lot of European countries even now). Sweden is generally seen as a model country and they were caught keeping lists of Roma, including children. After what happened in the Holocaust, I found that absolutely chilling. http://www.ibtimes.com/swedish-police-keep-secret-files-roma-gypsy-people-fighting-crime-or-ethnic-profiling-1495498

Oh yes, every country has corruption, some more than others but I was comparing the U.S. to similar countries as opposed to say Somalia, which has a completely different standard of living and governance. I mentioned England and Canada since they, like the U.S. are English speaking countries with similar socio-economic systems, albeit different governance since Canada has a greater similarity to England with their Parliamentary system.

I once lived in Canada and in the U.K. and yes there is ethnic tensions, and violence and in London there was even a very well publicized case of the death of a Black man in police custody in the 1990s but the U.S. has a high rate and an exceptionally high frequency of violence which is overwhelmingly gun related. Most of my relatives abroad are actually afraid to come to the U.S. because to them it appears to be 'crazytown' from what they see in the news.

In terms of that video, I read that Texas authorities have released a 'new' shorter video. Why can't they release the raw footage and let people see everything? And the jail cell looks to have been altered as well- shouldn't it have been treated as a potential crime scene and left alone?

If this woman used a plastic bag in her suicide, why was there another plastic bag in the trash can (was it replaced?). If this woman disclosed that she had attempted suicide before, shouldn't the jail cell have been 'swept' of any paraphernalia that could have assisted a suicide? Why was there a trash bag and a rope hanging from a shower curtain left in the cell with someone who had diclosed that she had a previous suicide attempt (who also said she did not feel suicidal that day)?

Different media outlets were allowed access to film the cell and at least two have varying versions of what was inside the cell.

Can anyone blame people for being suspicious?

By the way, there was another story of the suicide of another even younger Black woman, apparently jailed for cellphone theft who allegedly committed suicide the SAME day as Sandra Bland.

WTH is going on though?! I can accept a coincidence but I need some proof-- and a chopped up video with loops and skips is not going to convince me.

Also, on the video Sandra Bland was heard telling the officer she was epileptic. I don't know the veracity of this but it adds yet another variable.

Edited July 23, 201510 yr by DramatistDreamer