Though she didn’t know it then, Sandra Bland recorded the event that would lead to her death. That we are just now learning of the video tells us everything that we need to know about the quality of the investigation and the primary aim of the investigators.
The newly released video tells a story of a proud woman confronting an entitled man displaying all the symptoms of toxic masculinity and who had absolutely no respect for her personhood and only disdain for her womanhood. We see how easily he overcame her attempts to assert herself and her rights. We see how aggressively Brian Encina approached her; that seconds into the encounter he used the threat of violence to secure her compliance — he would “light her up,” he promised while pointing the taser directly in her face. Sandra’s video allows us to see that she didn’t stand a chance. She had no defenses. Her fate was sealed.
And so we are all horrified and appalled anew at how a hopeful young woman on her way to her brand new job was attacked, criminalized, and pushed into an early grave by an out-of-control officer of the law. But I truly believe that the central message of the video is to remind us that there’s work to do. We cannot rest on our laurels. We cannot just be angry and outraged and go back to things as usual. For three years now the human train wreck occupying the White House has done everything in his power to suck up all the oxygen in the joint. We cannot breathe. But while we are allowing ourselves to be distracted and (for some) entertained by his shenanigans — criminal and otherwise — police officers continue to kill and brutalize with impunity.
Take a look at the cases below.