General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Sandra Bland Was Murdered [View all]passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)She was resisting his request...arguing with him about why she had to put out her cigarette. Again, I suspect she did not know he had a legal right to ask her, or order her to put it out. I think at that point he just lost it, because she had been so negative to him from the very beginning that he was fed up, and being a black woman probably did have a lot to do with his reactions (my assumption). I'm not saying he was in the right. Legally, he was, but not humanely, and apparently not according to how he was trained to handle it. As a cop he needs to know how to handle difficult people without escalating everything into an arrest or fight. He needs to know how to handle upset people. He has to know that people are always upset when pulled over, and if they were already upset about something else, it will just amplify it. And he needs to not change his actions depending on the color of who he pulled over. We can't know for sure that he did, but statistically, it is looking that way.