A visit to Waller County Jail raises more questions than answers.
I held off my emotions so that I might properly judge all that my eyes touched in this moment. I suspended reality in hopes of a commentary that would bring ease to America’s hurting African-American community, whose dreams of equal protection have been subject to alarmingly high incidences of assault at the hand of law enforcement agencies as of late.
I’m well aware that it has been documented that Sandra Bland committed suicide and hey, maybe she did. However, if she did, then there are a few things that still need explaining.
On the outside of this shoe box that they call a county jail are three separate sally port’s to which people placed into custody are brought. After a quick observance I noticed that only two of those entrances had security cameras. Not long after that I encountered Carie Cauley, an activist from a nearby city. She confirmed that Bland was indeed brought in through the back entrance. Yes, the one without a camera.
Listen to Cauley:
“Me and the people at my church were completely moved by the death of her. I’ve been here for seven days straight at this point and I intend on staying here until justice is done. I watched the YouTube video of her arrest and I don’t believe that she did anything wrong. People have tried to validate what was done to her because she raised her voice, but she was a lady and he irritated her. I feel like it escalated because of him yelling at her about a cigarette. I felt like he was just trying to find something.
“I also do not believe that she hung herself, and that’s why I’m here. I have never heard of anyone who had just got a new job that took their own life. The other day they showed us the type of trash bag in which they say she killed herself with and it looked too weak to be able to hold her. She was like six-feet tall. A few minutes after that we asked which way was she brought into the jail and they pointed to the back. So we went around there and saw that there was no cameras back there to record her arrival.”
I waited for my opportunity to visit and interview Sheriff R. Glen Smith. An officer on duty told me that he wasn’t in today and that I was also out of luck in wanting a copy of Bland’s mug shot and arrest report. The sheriff has to OK all of that kind of stuff.
I told the officer, who was also obviously the secretary for the day, that “Maam, I don’t mind paying for it and it’s public record, so why does he have to give an OK for you to push a printing button on a public record.”
Just the way it is, she said.
I stepped outside and waited. About an hour later, Sheriff Smith pulls up in his truck and casually strolls into the building, full cowboy hat and all. I raced back inside to speak with him. Credentials in hand, I again asked the officer to speak with the now-present sheriff. She disappeared into the back room for about three minutes and then returned to say, “no” to an interview.
Sheriff Smith has decided not to speak to anybody else about Sandra Bland.
I smiled and said thank you and left out the door. As I stepped onto the front porch of the jail a couple of more protestors had arrived. Unlike the sheriff they were more than willing to talk.
Here’s the Rev. Hannah Bonner of Houston, Texas’ Saint John’s Church:
“When we heard the news of what had happened to Sandy I was quickly approached by some of her friends that had attended Prairie View A&M with her. They wanted to know if there was anything we can do to help. I began to watch her videos on the Internet and one thing she kept saying was, ‘I can’t do this by myself, I need your help.’ That really touched our hearts.
“Earlier this week, her mother came for the memorial service and she told us that before Sandy left she told her that she knew what her purpose in life was and that it was to end racial and social injustice in the south. To me, that’s clearly what she was doing in her videos and with her life. She was a part of this Black Lives Matter movement. What we’re witnessing across America, this is not a race war; this is an attack on black lives.
“Personally, I don’t believe that she killed herself. The image that I have in my head of her is a woman that was bold and unapologetic for herself and her faith. Even as clergy she has convicted my spirit because she was so much more strong in her faith than I am. It’s disturbing to watch media portray her a certain way as they try to help this county jail tell there twisted story on her arrest. Releasing information that she had marijuana in her system before they released the cause of death is totally wrong.
“I hear what the official news is but it doesn’t add up to what we see or what her family says about her. I think that something truly terrible happened to Sandra Bland.”
I left the Waller County Jail and after about two right turns and one left, I was at the memorial sight for Sandra Bland. It was here that I realized that this woman’s death was completely unnecessary. Whether she was murdered or committed suicide took a back seat to my findings here.
If Bland did kill herself, then the actions of the arresting officers drove her to it. Who wouldn’t be aggravated for being pulled over for not making a turn signal on a college campus in the middle of the summer? The time of year that next to nobody is on the campus. The time of year where the head janitor is arguably the best jump shooter in the gym. The time of year where even the professors blow through stop signs just to say that they did something dangerous this summer.
After the confrontation is escalated by the officer because she refused to put out her cigarette, Sandra is thrown into the grass, off camera. It is here that she pleads with the officer, telling him that she is hurt after hitting her face on the ground. Now, face down in the dirt, she is approximately 200 feet from Hope A.M.E. Church, which was her church during her time as a Prairie View student.
Fast forward to the county jail and we have to take a coherent look inside the mind of Sandy.
In the video she constantly repeats that she can’t wait for her day in court. She had also just landed the highest paying job of her life. She was not in a foreign place, as this area used to be like a second home. With those things all true, just what do we have in this story at this point?
We have the nauseating assertion that we need to understand that this young lady not only hung herself with a plastic bag, but that she also knew that something in the ceiling could hold her body weight. Oh yes, just disregard that it was her first time in the building. Accept that she decided to go on and kill herself knowing that her family was coming to get her.
Let’s just say that those telling that version are right. Could somebody please produce the psychiatric medicine that Sandra was obviously on to make so many bold and bad decisions with an educated mind. Without that, she is the most unlikely suicide candidate ever.
(Kelvin Cowans can be reached at kelvincowans@hotmail.com.)
https://tsdmemphis.com/news/2015/jul/30/sandra-bland-most-unlikely-suicide-candidate-ever/