Overview
Sandra Bland was a 28 year-old African American university administrator and activist who was arrested during a traffic stop on July 10th, 2015 and was found dead in her prison cell three days later. Initially ruled a suicide, online and offline protests spurred the Texas Rangers of Waller County to begin investigating her death as a murder, echoing the public outcry from other police brutality controversies of 2014 and 2015.
Background
On July 10th, 2015, Sandra Bland was in the process of moving to Texas after taking a job offer from her alma mater university, Prairie View A&M.[1] A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper named John Encinia pulled Bland over for improperly signaling a lane change and, after she refused to put out a cigarette, the two had an exchange where Bland ended up on the grass next to the road, shouting that her head had been slammed on the ground.[2] The officer arrested her for “Assault on a Public Servant.” The arrest was filmed by a bystander and uploaded to social media by an unknown user.[1][4] The dashcam footage was released on July 21st, although, according to NBC News, “At several points in the video of Bland’s arrest, posted Tuesday to the department’s YouTube channel, video of a person walking or a car driving by are cut or repeat themselves as the audio continues uninterrupted,” leading to claims that the dashcam video had been edited.[13]
On July 13th, after spending the weekend in jail, Bland refused her 7 am breakfast. At 9 am, she was found dead in the cell. Prison authorities say that she had hung herself with a plastic bag.[2] A video of the hallway outside the cell was released by the department, and officers claimed that since the camera was motion-detecting, they could confirm that no one had been in the hallway for 90 minutes prior.
The official ruling on her death was suicide, but on July 21st, 2015, the District Attorney of Waller County announced that the death would be investigated as if it were a murder investigation after a public outcry, including a Change.org petition that received over 150,000 signatures.[12] This outcry included the opinions of her family, friends, pastor, and a bailbondsman who spoke to Bland the day before her death, all of whom said that they didn’t think that Bland would kill herself. Family cited no history of depression and the fact that she was excited about her new job to back up their claims, as well as a history of racism in the Waller County Police Department.[1]
Notable Developments
#WhatHappenedtoSandraBland
On July 14th, 2014, users in the community of Black Twitter began tweeting photographs of Sandra Bland, mostly smiling selfies, with the hashtag “#WhatHappenedtoSandraBland.”[8] The users also linked back to a post by Isiah Carey, a local Texan Fox News reporter, who had claimed to have spoken to Sandra Bland’s family and said that no one seemed to understand why she would commit suicide, especially her family.[5] On the following day, after the bystander video of her arrest had been broadcast, the hashtag was 4,000 times, and the hashtag #SandraBland (often paired with the un-hashtagged phrase "Whatever Happened to) had been tweeted 34,000 times.[6][7] As of July 21st, 2015, both hashtags have been used on Twitter more than 155,000 times. Another hashtag, #JusticeForSandy, was also in circulation during this time.
In addition, many images featuring the hashtag have been circulating on Facebook and Tumblr.[9]
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody
After a second death in police custody, that of African American teen Kindra Chapman, accused of stealing a cell phone and then also found hung in her jail cell the following day, activists took to Twitter using the hashtage #IfIDieInPoliceCustody, using it to leave messages to their followers about how they would like to be treated or how they would like their deaths fully investigated.[11] Some tweeters said they would want their families to ask questions of their deaths in the same way that Sandra Bland’s family was pushing the media and Texas police to question hers; in addition, many users Tweeted pictures they would like used or messages they would like to give. The effect of the protest was to make clear that they believed that this type of death could happen to any black person in America. First tweeted on July 15th, 2015, the hashtag was used more than 35,000 times in the six days following, and on Sunday July 19th, activists used it, in tandem with the slogan Black Lives Matter, at a Town Hall Meeting featuring presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.[10]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Washington Post – A black woman was arrested after a traffic stop in Texas. Days later, she died in a jail.
[2]New York Times – New Details Released in Sandra Bland’s Death in Texas Jail
[3]CNN– DA: Sandra Bland’s death being treated like murder investigation
[4]ABC7 – ROADTRIPFORSUBURBANWOMANENDS IN JAILHOUSEDEATH
[5]Isiah Factor – A DEATH IN WALLERCOUNTYTEXAS!
[6]Twitter – WElevationMag’s Post
[7]Topsy Analytics – #SandraBland, #WhatHappenedtoSandraBland, #JusticeForSandy
[8]Twitter – Search: #WhatHappenedToSandraBland
[9]Tumblr – Search: #WhatHappenedToSandraBland
[10]Topsy Analytics – #IfIDieInPoliceCustody
[11]CNN– Twitter responds to jail deaths with ‘if I die in police custody’
[12]Change.org – Take Over The Investigation Into The Death of Sandra Bland From The Waller County, Texas Police Department.
[13]NBCNews – Sandra Bland Death: Texas to Look Into Alleged Edits of Dashcam Video