Sandra Bland, One Year Later

Hard to believe it's been a year since this horrific chain of events that ended up with the lost of Sandra Bland's life. Just an update on where things stand. While her death was officially ruled a suicide, the family is bringing a wrongful death lawsuit. In addition, the trooper who wanted to "light her up," was indicted and is currently awaiting trial.

Encinia was indicted for perjury, a misdemeanor, because a grand jury decided he had lied when he said he removed her from the car purely to conduct a “safe traffic investigation.” Few other details of his indictment were made public. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. He was fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety after the indictment. “The citizen has a right to be objectionable — they can be rude,” agency director Steve McCraw told The Texas Tribune. “We have an obligation not to react and be pulled into that.” [Source]

Reforms are stemming from this in Texas. So there's that.

...lawmakers are already discussing improvements to how jails deal with mental health problems, reforms to the bail system so people arrested for minor infractions are not held in jail, and changes to laws that allow people to be arrested for minor traffic violations.

After Bland’s death, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspected the Waller County Jail and found that officers were not checking on inmates often enough and not all of the jailers had completed a required yearly suicide prevention training. A local committee assembled by county Sheriff Glenn Smith made additional recommendations. Smith promised to make changes in how the jail dealt with mental illness, and began training employees in de-escalation.

Anyway, just an update in case anyone was interested.

#SayHerName