#WhatHappenedToSandraBland – it’s the trending hashtag started after Sandra Bland was found dead in her cell a few days after being arrested for “resisting” on July 10, 2015.
According to Bland’s autopsy, the death was a suicide and Waller County Jail has confirmed Black hung herself, yet friends and family of the 28-year-old refuse to believe she would commit suicide.
Skepticism around Bland’s epilepsy and a possible head injury has many believing the suicide was staged. Evidence points to the dash cam footage and its being tampered with.
Though the original 52-minute video has since been removed by the Texas Department of Public Safety for investigation, some footage was left online including a bystander’s video and clips from the dash cam:
In both videos, it’s evident the state trooper, Brian Encinia, handles Bland in a violent way and can be seen holding her against the ground in the bystander’s footage. Also in the videos are her pleas to the officer saying, “You’re about to break my wrist,” and “You just slammed me, knocked my head into the ground.”
According to a tweet by Selma director, Ava DuVernay, “…anyone can see this official video has been cut.” Included in the tweet is a link to Ben Norton’s blog post providing evidence to the theory.
Norton writes, “It appears that someone cut footage out and looped part of the video in order to correspond with the recorded audio of Texas state trooper Brian Encinia speaking. Who exactly edited the footage is unknown, but the video was recorded by police and released by the Texas Department of Public Safety.”
The above clip is taken from the originally released dash cam video and is one of several examples on Norton’s website. There is no denying the video has been tampered with, especially by use of looping the same clip over the sound of Encinia’s voice. The footage starts with a man exiting his truck and 16 seconds later the video skips and the man exits again.
In an effort to get to the bottom of Bland’s mysterious death, Texas Tribune reporter, T.L. Langford, reached out to the TxDPS, and tweeted their response:
“The video has not been edited. To eliminate any concerns as to the efficacy of the video DPS previously requested the FBI examine the dash cam and jail video to ensure the integrity of the video. The entire video was uploaded to include the audio and video of the conversation the trooper had by telephone with his sergeant, which occurred after the arrest. Some of the video that occurred during this conversation was affected in the upload and is being addressed. We are working to repost the dash cam video.”
There is no current update on the story at this time; however, evidence is evidence, and right now, Texas looks guilty.
Original article via Raw Story.
Photo via WMUR-9.
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