Grand jurors in Texas declined on Monday to indict anyone in connection to the July death of a Chicago-area woman, Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County jail, one of the special prosecutors assigned to the case said.
Many activists have called for charges against Brian Encinia, the Texas state trooper who arrested Ms. Bland after a routine traffic stop in Prairie View, northwest of Houston, turned contentious.
...Mr. Jordan, one of five special prosecutors in the case, [said] “The case is not over. That’s what I’m stressing right now. The case is not over.” [He] said Monday’s decision not to indict anyone related only to Ms. Bland’s death and to the conduct of the jail staff.
Again, the grand jurors refused to bring charges against the jail staff. However, I'm not that hopeful about a criminal case being brought against Officer Brian Encinia either --not in Texas.
But I am hoping that the 2017 civil case will bring the family some measure of Justice.
And while it's too much to hope that Black Lives Matter will be successful in breaking the police union's ability to blackmail cities into paying the entire bill for bad cops before Bland's civil case goes to court, I can hope that we can shine enough light on this case that Officer Brian Encinia becomes too much of liability to keep on the payroll.
By the way, it ain't magic that these cop killer cases keep going to court just before the holidays. The Eric Garner court decision of no indictment was handed down between Thanksgiving and Christmas, in the first week of December. The Mike Brown court decision, of no indictment, was very near Thanksgiving, on November 25 2014. And I tend to think that the "prosecutors" are going along with this timing. Now that I think about it, the first of the Freddie Gray Trials started between Thanksgiving and Christmas too; I wonder if the officers who beat Freddy Gray will just happen to be tried near the holidays in 2016.
The powers that be are getting a little smarter though. This time the grand jury for the Sandra Bland case came back out with their decision and we're only 4 days from Christmas instead of three weeks to a month out -- which decreases the chances multiple protests dramatically, doesn't it?
The one I really want to see in jail for his abuse of power is Officer Brian Encinia anyway. Yet that seems out of reach as well. I guess I'll pray on Christmas day that the special prosecutor manages to throw a Hail Mary in January 2016. A miracle is probably what it will take for Encinia to pay and cops across this nation to stop arresting people they don't like based on skin color, or not performing obedient slave behavior, or not performing demure female behavior.
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| SAY HER NAME SANDRA BLAND |
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