General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: BREAKING: Sandra Bland's family's attorney just reported [View all]Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)her arrest. Any mental problems that she may have had might contribute to her death, so are relevant.
We are left with what seems clearly to be a wrongful arrest and then a subsequent death in custody, and the wrongful arrest cannot be separated from the death, whether suicide or murder.
As an outsider, looking at this from the little we know, it seems to me that the officer's actions are such that he bears a large portion of the responsibility for her death, even if it is a suicide.
I don't have any difficulty imagining that a person could be so despairing in these circumstances as to commit suicide. It must have seemed to her that the whole system was against her. Even if she got out on bail and was able to retain her new job, could she have confidence that just driving down the road to the supermarket the same type of thing wouldn't happen again? Could she have belief in her own future?
This is what civil rights violations do to people. They lose all confidence in themselves, in society, in justice and in their own futures. That's why civil rights violations are so completely destructive.