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The Following Is Submitted
by Alan Bean
I don’t know how Sandra Bland died.
It’s
hard to believe that a young woman anticipating a dream job
at her alma mater would hang herself in a prison cell.
Strong evidence has emerged that Ms. Bland had evidenced
what psychologists call “suicidal ideation” in the past, but
wouldn’t Bland have been determined to see justice prevail
in this instance? Suicide was the way of passive
acquiescence, the complete opposite of the mental state
Sandra exhibited in her confrontation with trooper Encinia.
It’s
equally hard to believe that anyone would hate her enough to
take her life and, thus far, there is no direct evidence
suggesting foul play. That could change, but for the moment
the facts are too fuzzy to justify confident conclusions.
The
temptation to speculate is strong with us, but we should all
admit that we have more questions than answers.
But
we do know enough to ask why Sandra Bland was
arrested in the first place. If you have been following this
story, you know that the young woman from Illinois was in no
mood to be messed with when State Trooper Brian Encinia
pulled her over. Bland believed she was the victim of racial
profiling and entrapment. Her answers to the trooper’s
questions were curt and defensive.
In
the course of a prolonged verbal exchange, Brian Encinia
admitted that he had initially intended to issue a warning
and let the minor infraction pass. But the trooper didn’t
like Bland’s attitude so he intentionally escalated the
tension by asking her to extinguish her cigarette.
And
that’s when everything went south.
Here
in the land of the free, we are allowed to smoke cigarettes
in our own vehicles. Encinia might not be comfortable with
this level of freedom, but it wasn’t his call.
When
Bland challenged his right to issue this demand, Encinia
immediately ordered her to leave the vehicle. He didn’t tell
her why he wanted her feet on the pavement; he simply issued
another comply-or-die order.
As
the situation escalated, Encinia was so insistent that Bland
demonstrate due deference that he unholstered his Taser and
threatened to use it.
The
goal was to establish dominance. This had nothing to do with
police work or maintaining public safety. Encinia’s
superiors have stated uncategorically that the trooper
departed from the established protocols of his profession
and no seasoned police officer would defend his behavior.
And
yet we are hearing the usual “if she had complied with the
officer’s demands nothing would have happened” comments on
social media. A healthy percentage of the population
believes that police officers can be as nasty as they wanna
be and it is our responsibility, as docile citizens, to
trust and obey.
Trust
and obey
for
there’s no other way
to be
happy in a police state
than
to trust and obey.
The
authoritarian impulse is fundamentally undemocratic, but it
too is strong among us.
It is
commonly assumed that certain people live above the law:
police officers and soldiers (because our safety depends on
their efforts); entertainers and athletes (because we take
our entertainment very seriously) and captains of industry
(because we need the jobs their entrepreneurial heroics
create).
If a
police officer or a soldier charged with the abuse of
authority can summon the support of a dozen opinion leaders
chances are he will escape the consequences of his actions.
This principle even applies to vigilante cops like the
increasingly bizarre George Zimmerman.
The
evidence that Bill Cosby is a serial rapist has long been
strong, and gets stronger with each passing day. But, unlike
Sandra Bland, Cosby is unlikely to see the inside of a
prison cell. That’s because “The Cos” has a penchant for
telling white America what it wants to hear about Black
America and the eclipse of racism. Having supported their
great black hope for so long, white folks ignore the long
string of victims the Pudding Pop Man has left in his wake.
And
what are we to make of Donald Trump’s meteoric rise to the
top of the Republican presidential pack? As I write, it
remains to be seen whether Trump will survive his
mean-spirited (and grotesque) attack on John McCain who,
whatever you may think of his politics, showed rare heroism
as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. But Trump’s ugly assault on
Mexican Americans and the sophomoric insults he hurls at his
political competition only endear the man to his passionate
admirers.
For
those who divide the world into “makers” and “takers,”
Donald Trump is the epitome of makerhood, a man who
transcends the usual rules of social etiquette. If you are
worth as much as The Donald, you don’t have to be good, or
merciful, or kind, or humble or even rational. Traditional
virtues are for losers. If you win, you make your own
morality. Right?
Tough
guy cops like Brian Encinia can abuse American citizens (so
long as they are bad-ass blacks) and trained assassins like
Chris Kyle are free to roam from one bar fight to another
without reckoning with the legal consequences or drawing the
censure of macho America.
This
valorizing of macho posturing doesn’t translate into concern
for military veterans struggling with an under-funded VA
system, nor does it inspire the slightest concern for the
astronomical rates of suicide and PTSD we have seen within
the military community. As Mr. Trump suggests, the real
winners made it out sound of mind and body. Tough guys don’t
get PTSD. Right?
Brian
Encinia, the man who transformed a questionable traffic stop
into a funeral, will almost certainly lose his job over this
latest example of blatant police misconduct and racial
injustice. The episode was captured on film. It looks worse
every time you look at it.
The
same was true of Eric Casebolt, the temporarily insane
officer in McKinney, Texas who repeatedly flung a scantily
clad, one hundred pound, teenage girl to the sidewalk.
Again, the episode was caught on film.
And
that’s the way it works. If there are no cameras present,
these episodes devolve into he-said-she-said narratives. If
the misconduct is captured by the camera, all bets are off.
And
yet, even after rogue cops like Casebolt and Encinia step
down in disgrace, they will remain culture war heroes in the
minds of many.
Donald Trump will eventually nosedive in the polls; most
likely sooner than later; but his brief moment of glory
proves that, in our America, some of us live above the law,
above the rules, above the moral consensus. So long as their
enemies are our enemies they can do no wrong. Right?
Alan Bean, Ph.D., is
Executive Director Friends of Justice
Used by permission
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org |
