Sandy Bland- Why, after 3 days, was she still in a jail cell?

WHY WAS SANDRA BLAND FORCED TO GET OUT OF HER CAR?





 The Long version of this traffic stop follows.  I don't know what everyone else saw here but it appears to me that at 9:56 of the following video ms Bland was assaulted by this officer. At that time she was neither under arrest nor in the act of committing any crime,  unless saying one is annoyed  or smoking in one's car while it is stopped is against the law.  We don't see what happened off camera but under the circumstances ms Bland may well have thought it was necessary to defend herself against an out of control assailant.
 The next thing we know, the news is full of stories about a young woman who allegedly committed suicide in her jail cell.  Why, after 3 days, was she still in a jail cell?  The dash cam video clearly shows that she was the one being assaulted yet 3 days later she's still locked up in a Texas jail and charged with assaulting her assailant.  Now I don't expect white folks to relate too well to this but a Black person knows that this could mean spending years behind bars.  I don't know if ms Bland took her own life or not but the sad fact is that her life has been lost.  I can't understand how millions of people can witness this video and not be screaming for the person who assaulted her then had her falsely imprisoned to be brought to justice. I have no doubt that the state will pay millions of dollars to cover his actions  but that will be of little value to the next Black people that this loose cannon gets his hooks into and will yet again serve to demonstrate that police may do as they wish to Black people with impunity.

Police smash window, stun passenger

 This does seem to be excessive force for a seatbelt violation. When is the last time you were asked for ID when you were a passenger in a car where the driver was stopped for a minor traffic violation?

This is the terrifying moment police drew their guns, smashed a car window and tasered a passenger during a routine traffic stop.
Lisa Mahone, 47, was driving with her boyfriend Jamal Jones and two children, Joseph, 14, and Janiya, seven, in Hammond, Indiana, when she was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt.
Officers collected her license and insurance card, before asking to see Jones's ID, which he said he did not have because he had recently received a ticket.
(See article)

NAACP wants cops in Taser incident pulled from street

Hammond police officers Patrick Vicari and Charles Turner were named in a federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District court Monday, alleging they used excessive force when they broke a car window during a traffic stop for a seat belt violation Sept. 24

The 14-year-old boy who filmed Hammond, Indiana police breaking his mother’s car window to stun her passenger with a Taser is speaking out about the “scary” police brutality he witnessed.

What do you think about this Indiana traffic -stop case from 2009?

Court: refusal to identify law applies to passengers | The Indiana Lawyer

Although state law allows police to request identification from passengers inside a car that they’ve stopped, two Indianapolis officers shouldn’t have arrested a man for refusing to identify himself when there was no reasonable suspicion he’d done anything wrong.


The Indiana Court of Appeals addressed that issue in a six-page opinion today in Adam Starr v. State of Indiana, No. 49A04-0912-CR-677, which overturned a ruling by Marion Superior Judge David Certo.


In September 2009, officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department arrested Adam Starr for refusing to identify himself, a Class C misdemeanor as defined by Indiana Code 34-28-5-3.5. Two officers pulled over a vehicle driven by Starr’s girlfriend, who’d made an illegal turn. After determining her identity, the officers questioned Starr about his identity. He denied having any ID, claimed he could not remember his Social Security umber, and said his name was “Mr. Horrell.”