[chrisinhouston]

I don't watch any TV news at all. I mostly get news from the radio, my local NPR or their national shows. I read news at a lot of websites. Some are newspaper ones, others are purely internet based news sites. For the last 48 hours the story of Sandra Bland being stopped by the DPS trooper in Hempstead, TX has been a pretty frequent topic.

So now that the dash cam video and a transcript has been released and lots of experts have weighed in here is my take. And by experts I don't mean talking heads on TV but I've heard several law enforcement professors and lawyers who handle civil rights cases, I consider them to be pretty knowledgeable in their fields. Most that I have heard have said this DPS trooper was way off base to arrest her.

She said she moved over without signalling to let the cop pass her but he stops her and after running her ID decides to give her a warning. I have gotten a few over the years and while I would rather have one than a ticket what is the point of them? Does it some how justify the police being out on their beat? Why not just a verbal warning? Anyway, so she is upset and who isn't upset at being stopped especially if you thought you were just yielding the road to the police cruiser. So he asks her if she is upset and why and she tells him. I thought she was fairly polite, she pointed out that she wanted to give him room to pass.

Then he asks her to put out her cigarette which from just about everything I have read or heard was just in the ashtray, not like she was waving at him or blowing smoke in his face. She declines and says it's her car... seems legal to me. He orders her out of the car. She protests and repeatedly asks why. He tells her she is under arrest and she asks why and what is the charge which he never answers.

Things get more heated and he reaches in (putting himself at risk) and then points his stun gun at her and threatens to "light her up" if she does not comply. Now a Taser is supposed to be your last option before using your side arm and it is really meant for when an officer feels threatened. Experts agree it is not intended as a tool to get people to move along or get out of a car.

She finally complies and they argue back and forth and unfortunately go off camera. He repeatedly gives her conflicting commands like "Stay here", "Go there." Yes it didn't help that she finally gets so mad and frustrated that she calls him names but that is not against the law.

Over the years I have been stopped by police, mostly for minor things and I have always found that here in Texas the DPS are the nicest most polite police around. For the life of me I can't figure out why this one escalated the situation. Of course he claims he was trying to calm her down in his police report and when he was recorded talking to the other officers but the dash cam video and transcript don't support that.

Sad because she is dead now. Why knows why someone takes their life. I came close to suicide a few year back so I know it doesn't make any sense except to the person who is very depressed and considers it. Now they say she used the phone in her cell to call a friend and left a message that she was upset and couldn't believe she got arrested for not using a turn signal.

The funny thing is that I've seen comments in news websites and forums about how she deserved it and asked for it by being argumentative. Briebart News even said police often instruct suspects to put out cigarettes because they could be used as a weapon... For real??? Some have said that she appeared to roll through a stop sign without stopping before the lane change but the officer never mentions that so it is irrelevant even if it did happen.

The other thing is that he gave her back her ID and was going to give her a warning and then he suddenly is arresting her. He never says why she is being arrested? He doesn't claim he feared for his safety. He later claims he arrested her for assaulting him but she certainly didn't assault him when he first told her she was under arrest. This whole thing doesn't seem right.