Sandra Bland was on her way to her new job at her alma mater in Texas when she was racially profiled, brutalized, and then thrown in jail. This was the stop where the cop threatened to “light you up” for her daring to question him about his abusive, intimidating behavior. Sandra was found dead in her cell three days after that horrendous example of over-policing and power-tripping.
Sandra’s family agreed to a settlement of $1.9M but also managed to exact a promise that a bill, to be named in her honor, would be introduced in the Texas Legislature to address the systemic issues which led to her murder.
Bland family attorney Cannon Lambert said all parties have agreed to terms including a $1.9 million payout to the family — $1.8 million from Waller County and $100,000 from DPS — and changes in jailing and law enforcement practices that could have statewide implications.
Representative Garnet Coleman promised that among other things, the legislation he’d offer would for sure deal with the very real problem of over-policing and lack of police accountability.
Legislation in Bland's honor is a term of the lawsuit settlement, and state Rep. Garnet Coleman, a Houston Democrat and chairman of the House County Affairs Committee, said he will introduce the Sandra Bland Act during the 2017 session. The bill will address protocols for dealing with mental health issues in the criminal justice system, look for ways to divert people to treatment over incarceration and emphasize police de-escalation. (my bold)
And indeed he did. Rep. Coleman’s comprehensive bill sought to deal with racial profiling, motor vehicle stops, complaints against officers, accountability in jails, police training, and also proposals for dealing with mental health issues.
Racial profiling
- Agencies would be required to provide a complaints process for all tickets, citations and warnings.
- Law enforcement agencies would be required to review data on stops to determine if there are racial disparities between drivers who are stopped and the racial and ethnic makeup of the county.
- Officers found to be profiling drivers would be required to go to counseling and training. If that officer is later found to be profiling again, the bill would mandate they be suspended "for not less than six months" and be required to go through counseling and training again.
The Sandra Bland Act now sits on Governor Greg Abbott’s desk awaiting his signature. All mention of police accountability and police reform have been stripped from the law.
And why were all measures having to do with over-policing removed from the bill? I give you one guess.
Whitmire struck some provisions in the original version of the bill amid criticism that it would hamper law enforcement's work, including requiring police officers to learn how to identify implicit bias. It also would have required counseling and training for officers who racially profiled drivers and prohibited what are called "pretext stops"— traffic stops for one offense that are used to investigate another.
None of those provisions were in the bill the Senate approved Thursday. A day earlier, Whitmire said that police groups opposed earlier provisions regarding consent searches and implicit bias and that the only way the legislation had a chance of passing was if it was written as a mental health bill. Two police organizations told the Tribune that language about racial profiling and bias came from a place of distrust of law enforcement.
Surely the GOP, the NRA, and police unions must sit atop the totem pole of evil. It seems that they exist for one purpose and one purpose only: to deprive us of good things.
The so-called "Sandra Bland Act" evolved as it moved through the legislative process amid criticism from law enforcement officials. The version the Senate unanimously approved on Thursday — authored by state Sen. John Whitmire — would mandate that county jails divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment, make it easier for defendants with a mental illness or intellectual disability to receive a personal bond and require that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths. (The agency would be any appointed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and cannot be the agency that operates the county jail.)
Sandra’ s sister gave the family's reaction to the declawed, blame-shifting version of the SBA:
Saying she was speaking on behalf of the Bland family, Cooper said the legislation as it now stands "isolates the very person it seeks to honor" and makes compromises at the expense of the family. "It painfully misses the mark for us," she said.
And:
“What the bill does in its current state renders Sandy invisible,” Sharon Cooper, Bland’s sister, told the AP. “It’s frustrating and gut-wrenching.”
And that it does. They robbed her of her life and have now added egregious insult to murderous injury. In essence, the Texas Legislature has codified victim-blaming into law. Yes, the bill that the governor will sign into law essentially blames Sandra Bland’s death on her mental state. Nothing about the part an over-zealous, racist cop played in dragging her out of her car, brutalizing her, arresting her and how that may have impacted her mental state.
Shouldn’t they be forced to remove her name from a law that so dishonors her?
Rest in peace, Sandra. #SayHerName. #JusticeforSandra.