Yesterday, January 6, 2015, the Texas State Trooper who pulled over Sandra Bland, Brian Encinia, was fired after being charged with perjury. According to a grand jury, he lied about the confrontation that took place between him and Bland after pulling her over. He claimed she was “combative and uncooperative” while testifying in court, also providing a written statement to detail the altercation.
The affidavit stated that he “”removed her from her vehicle to further conduct a safer traffic investigation,” but grand jurors “found that statement to be false,” said special prosecutor Shawn McDonald, who was one of five special prosecutors appointed to investigate the case in question.
In case you needed a reminder: After making an improper lane change, Sandra Bland was pulled over by a police officer who, with video evidence available, holds his gun and repeats “I will light you up!” after Bland refused to get out of her car. His claim for the arrest was that she assaulted a public servant (police officer), although the video provides audio footage of Bland off-camera screaming that the officer had knocked her head into the ground and that he was about to break her wrists.
Sandra Bland was taken to a jail 50 miles outside of Houston, and three days later was found hanging in a jail cell. Bland’s death was ruled a ‘suicide’ and sparked a nationwide outrage amongst the Black community, civil rights activists and citizens who supported the Black Lives Matter movement and who believed her death was a homicide. Most recently, a grand jury had decided not to persecute any sheriff’s officials or jailers in her death.
Encinia’s perjury charge carries a maximum of one year imprisonment plus a $4,000 fine. On top of the charge, the Texas Department of Public Safety has begun “termination proceedings” against Encinia, who had still been receiving a paycheck even after Bland was found dead in her cell.
While this will never be enough in the fight of the Black Lives Matter Movement or the grieving families of all those unlawfully killed by police brutality and an unjust system, may we have a small piece of hope knowing that some justice is better than none. We continue to pray for her family and the families of those who we will never forget in our quest for equality and respect in America.
Read our ode to Sandra Bland here.
