What should be one of the biggest concerns in America today is the state of race relations almost one hundred and fifty three years after the Civil War. While there is a general consensus that these relations are not what they should be, the severity is often debated by both parties. One branch that stems from these deficient relations is the concern of police brutality. Police brutality is not something that has developed recently; the issue has been around for decades, but with the help of outlets such as social media, it’s suppression has become more difficult. With major rallies centered around brutality such as the Ferguson and Trayvon Martin rallies, it’s discussion has become more contentious. There is not only a partisan divide on the issue but also a racial one; 73% of Blacks say that police violence is a very or extremely serious problem with only 20% of Whites in agreement. An important event that is considered evidence to the issue of police brutality is the arrest and death of Sandra Bland. To further examine and interpret exactly what happened during this traffic stop that makes it so pertinent in the dialogue of police violence, a timeline of the event, an analysis of the dialogue that occurred, and an examination of the psychological aspects of police brutality will be presented.
Police violence against minorities has existed since the beginning of organized police departments. The first departments were established in the North during the 1830’s where European immigrants were most often targeted with these harsh tactics. However, as African American’s began to flee from the terror of Jim Crow, they too became victims. In the South during the Civil Rights era, peaceful protest were met by aggressive opposition. Dispersion tactics that were often used against them were police dogs, firehoses, and physical violence. Today, police brutality has faced resurgence due to live streaming on different apps such as Facebook and Twitter. The use of social media has forced people to reevaluate the state of racial relations between police departments and their communities.
On July 10, 2015 in Prairie View, Texas, Officer Brian Encinia turned on his lights and pulled over Sandra Bland, a twenty eight year old woman and recent college graduate of Prairie View A&M University, for failure to signal a lane change. What began as a routine traffic stop violation caught by Officer Encinia’s dashcam camera, quickly escalated to a physical confrontation and violent arrest. The footage was published on YouTube by the Texas Department of Public Safety after much public outcry. The ordeal began with Officer Encinia approaching the passenger side door to collect Bland’s driver’s license and insurance. After returning the documents, Encinia asks Bland why she looks upset. Bland responds she is irritated that she is receiving a ticket for moving out of the officers way considering he was the one tailing her. Bland is telling the truth here as the officer can be seen driving close behind her. This is where the dynamic of the conversation changes. Encinia, now also irritated, asks for Bland to put out her cigarette. When Bland refuses to do so, Officer Encinia demands for her to exit the car. Their argument continues as Bland refuses to speak to Encinia other than to identify herself. Bland eventually exists the car after Encinia threatens her with “get out of the car, or I will light you up” (TXDPS) while holding a taser. Encinia then physically arrests Bland for assaulting a public servant because she was argumentative and uncooperative during the arrest. Bland is later taken to Waller County Jail and placed in a cell after being deemed a high risk to others. Her bail was set at five thousand, but still Bland could not find anyone to pay it. On July 13, three days later Bland refused breakfast and two and a half hours later was found dead in her cell. An autopsy ruled her death as a suicide by asphyxiation. The controversy surrounding her death and arrest began with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards releasing a statement saying that the "guards violated policies by failing to do timely checks on inmates" the report also stated that the employees had not been adequately trained to deal with mental health problems. According to Bland’s intake forms, she had attempted suicide at least once before after a miscarriage, and should have been placed on suicide watch, meaning face to face checks every fifteen minutes. This was not the first time Waller County Jail had failed to place someone on suicide watch who would later kill themselves, and because of this, Bland’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the jail.
The first step in analyzing Officer Encinia’s behavior is to try and understand what triggered him to respond in the manner in which he did. The dynamic of the conversation changed after Officer Encinia asked Bland why she was upset. Something in her response prompted Encinia to begin behaving aggressively an erratically. Was it bias or her attitude that set him off? In an analysis of the dialogue, Lowrey-Kinberg and Buker discuss how language played a key role in in the escalation of the encounter between Bland and Officer Encinia. Officer Encinia tries to invoke his authority as a member of law enforcement by repeatedly using the word “lawful order”. The authors state that “In this way, Encinia’s use of “lawful order” is consistent with a revised claim to legitimacy that maintains his right to authority, rather than accommodating to Bland’s concerns” (402). Bland’s resists his claim by her use of questions and “demonstrates that she chooses not to act within the boundaries of what is expected of her as a lay person” (392) when speaking to a person of authority. The content of her questions is a direct challenge to Encinia’s actions, as she constantly demands that Encinia justify his commands to her. Bland’s use of questions therefore sends the clear message that she does not accept Encinia’s claim to legitimacy. Bland asked exactly 34 questions in the encounter and Encinia only responded to 2. If Officer Encinia ordered Bland out of her car out of retaliation to his anger, then he would be violating of her fourth amendment rights.
Concern as to why Sandra Bland was even in jail led to an investigation of the dashcam footage and ignited the conversation over the possibility of Officer Encinia’s actions being racist. Statistically, minority have a higher probability of being searched when pulled over compared to whites. According to Frank Baumgartner, based off the analysis of the statistics provided by over a dozen states, that people receive different treatment depending on the color of their skin in the outcomes of a traffic stop (47). This means that Baumgartner believes minorities are being searched based on racial profiling and not reasonable suspicion. The contrasting argument to racial profiling is the idea that being searched should not be an issue if you have nothing to hide. If officers are told not to profile someone, how else are they to determine suspicion?
The disagreement over whether or not Officer Encinia used excessive force is an issue of both party and race. The distinct difference in thought between American’s is primarily based on one’s own experiences, bolstering the racial divide, and values, bolstering the partisan divide. If an African American has experienced, or knows someone who has, police violence or unfair bias due to their race, they are more likely to see brutality as a very serious problem. According to a phone poll collected and distributed by The Associated Press – NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, nearly three-quarters of all African Americans surveyed found violence by police officers a very serious problem with less than twenty percent of whites in agreement. Interestingly, there is widespread agreement that race relations in America are not what they should be, but the division exists on whether they effect the behavior of the police . Half of all Black Americans reported being treated unfairly by police, while sixty percent of whites consider race as not a factor in police violence. (AP-NORC). These statistics provide evidence that there is a wide racial divide over the performance of police officers. The other side of this disagreement is based on party preference and moral values. Republicans generally put a greater emphasis on societal order and thus tend to be more supportive of authority figures such as the police. This increased respect may also be the reasoning behind their positive attitudes for police officers, regardless of the circumstances. In contrast, Democrats are generally more skeptical of these authority figures and empathize more with vulnerable groups who receive disproportional treatment. Naturally there are exceptions to these generalizations, but the data does show a split when it comes to authority.
When assessing the legality of Sandra Bland’s arrest, the question is not if Officer Encinia had the right to arrest her, but rather if he behaved in a way proportional to the situation. Technically, failure to use a turn signal is an arrestable offense in Texas, but it rarely, if ever, happens. The cigarette appears to be the turning point of this conversation. According to an article written by K.K. Rebecca Lai in the New York Times, Bland has the right to smoke in her car unless Officer Encinia wanted to “argue that the cigarette was interfering with police business” (Lai). However, there was no real need to ask Bland to do so since Encinia had already processed her papers. During a traffic stop, the officer has the right to ask the driver to exit the car, as a way of securing their own safety, but Officer Encinia would have to argue that “Bland’s refusal to put the cigarette out gave him the impression she was violent” (Lai). If this was the case however, he should not have walked away from the car for five minutes. At this point, with Officer Encinia yelling for Bland to exit the vehicle, the only possible basis for arrest is the crime of resisting a lawful order to get out of the car. If Officer Encinia wanted to arrest her for the traffic violation, he should have indicated to her as is in the department’s courtesy policy. With Bland out of the vehicle, Officer Encinia had to arrest her because she was resisting arrest, but her resistance was in response to him escalating the situation. Was Officer Encinia’s response proportional to the circumstances? Lai argues that a “judge would see that restraint as disproportionate physical force” against Bland. The term used to describe this increased force is police militarization. The Black-Democrats groups who see police violence as a serious issue generally agree that police are being taught to use excessive force too quickly. The AP-NORC survey found that eighty one percent of blacks say police use force too quickly compared to thirty three percent of whites. Martin Kaste, in an article for NPR news, argues that police are being taught to militarize by their training companies in the face of growing tension with their communities. He states that by showing police officers clips of the worst case scenario, they escalate the situation too quickly. Others, such as the training companies, believe that these high adrenaline scenarios is what keeps them alive. To disprove this, Kaste discusses a case in which a cop did not shoot where force would have been justified. The officer was praised by many for restraining, but other cops denounced his actions as showing weakness. He accordingly concludes that comparing restraint to weakness may be inadvertently promoting the use of brutality.
The contrasting opinion surrounding the behavior of police officers is focused on an idea known as the Ferguson Effect. The Ferguson Effect is a term used to collectively describe the feelings that officers have surrounding huge riots such as the ones that occurred in Ferguson. This theory, generally held by the White-Republican groups, argue that negative publicity towards police officers is affecting their sensitivity. For instance, more officers fear that the local residents have become more cynical towards police and therefore the officers fear more danger. Nix and Wolfe argue that this fear and lack of trust is what causes an officer to escalate a situation more quickly. If an officer fears for their life, even when not justified, they are going to act more erratically. Erickson, a known Republican and the founder of Americans in Support of Law Enforcement, opinion’s piece published on Fox News’s website, offers a contrasting viewpoint in response to the death of Sandra Bland and the behavior of Officer Encinia. Erickson discusses the Mothers of the Movement event that happened as a result to the growing concern of police brutality in America. He does not deny the pain that the mothers are feeling from losing their children, but rather disagrees with the decision to not discuss how officers and their families are feeling in response to this increased fear and the pain felt when a police officer is killed in the line of duty. Erickson believes that a lack of respect towards police exits in our culture and that it is perpetuating the lack of trust and fear felt.