Sandra Bland Jailhouse Hanging Being Investigated as a Possible Murder

The jailhouse hanging death of 28-year-old police-reform activist Sandra Bland outside of Houston earlier this month smelled fishy from the get-go, and not just because she was originally pulled over for failing to make a turn signal before a lane change. The Texas Department of Public Safety quickly suspended the officer on the scene, Brian Encina, and now comes word that, despite Bland's death being ruled a suicide by the medical examiner, the case is now being investigated as a possible murder:

"This is being treated like a murder investigation," Elton Mathis, Waller County's district attorney, said at a press conference Monday. 

Mathis said he made the determination after talking to Bland's family and to those who saw her last, including the bail bondsman, who was among the last to hear from her alive. […]

"There are too many questions that need to be resolved. Ms. Bland's family does make valid points. She did have a lot of things going on in her life for good," Mathis said.

The district attorney also said the dashboard video of the traffic stop in Prairie View that was retrieved from Encinia's patrol car would be released on Tuesday.

I was on MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry show Sunday to talk about the case, along with Bland's sister and the family lawyer, who also characterized that dash-cam video:

Comments

[Spencer]

"who also characterized that dash-cam video:"?

An odd turn of phrase.

[Pro Libertate]

Ye gods. It's like a Daredevil episode.

[Granny Weatherwax]

It is? Who got beat to a bloody pulp after the hanging?

[commodious spittoon]

Waller County taxpayers, eventually.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

There *may* be an innocent explanation, like she chose this time to commit suicide, but of course let's have an investigation.

Why not an inquest? Many states do that with suspicious deaths.

[John C. Randolph]

I guess they figured she was too high-profile to shoot herself in the head with her hands cuffed behind her in the back of a police cruiser after being searched twice.

-jcr

[Hicks]

If she had just given the officer a BJ, there wouldn't have been any problems.
As the saying goes, "Do you want to make things hard?".
/s

[Fist of Etiquette]

In the first video the panel seems to be fixated on her race. It's not that she was black. Police only see one color: blue. Anything else is the wrong color.

[Heroic Mulatto]

They see coyote tan/brown as well in some jurisdictions.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The one piece of advice I would give the community organizer on the panel: If you're trying to convince the widest possible group of people of your point, presentation matters. Visible tattoos and nose piercings are probably at some level counter productive to any stated cause. Best to follow Welch's lead and look like a Poindexter.

[Spencer]

How dare you judge based on the appearance she works hard to put forth? Can't you quit staring at the voluntary tattoos and piercings that are in places one can't help but see and, instead, look beyond her manufactured image to hear the message?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I suppose anything's possible.

[In League with the Dark Ones]

Best to follow Welch's lead and look like a Poindexter.

Welch looks like a nerd from the 50s/60s. He'd fit in with the nerds on Apollo Mission Control.