Sandra Bland’s death sparks provocative social media campaign

Sandra Bland’s death sparks provocative social media campaign

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The story of Sandra Bland continues to unfold, bringing more questions than answers.

The African-American woman from Naperville was pulled over on July 10 by Texas State Trooper Brian T. Encinia for a minor traffic violation in a small Texas town and was arrested for assault.

Three days later she was found dead in her jail cell.

The initial finding was that she hung herself, but the investigation has widened and it’s now being treated as a murder case, according to the District Attorney in Waller County.

“It’s still unknown whether Ms. Bland was murdered by Waller County law enforcement officials, which is really what most people believe, or whether she committed suicide. But whatever the cause of death, there’s one thing for certain, it was a wrongful death,”  Jeffrey L. Boney, associate editor for the Houston Forward Times and talk show host for 1230 AM KCOH in Houston, told Morning Shift.

There are currently no official wrongful death charges against Waller County Police. Bland’s family has hired an independent medical examiner to investigate her death.

The latest controversy surrounds the newly released police dash-cam video of the traffic stop and arrest by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Bland’s family claims the more than 52-minute video shows signs of editing about midway through, raising more questions.

The department says the video hasn’t been edited, but says there were technical glitches as a result of uploading the video. A new, glitch-free, 49-minute video has been released.

The 28-year-old civil rights advocate’s death is the latest in a string of African-American deaths either in police custody or in confrontation with law enforcement.

Almost immediately after news of Bland’s death broke, the hashtag #IfIDieinPoliceCustody took off on social media. The hashtag exposes the truth and fear that many feel surrounding the relationship between the police and African Americans.

Boney of Houston Forward Times said the reason behind the hashtag is simple.

“You have a group of individuals that are sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he said.

Jamilah Lemieux, senior editor for Ebony.com, participated in #IfIDieinPoliceCustody.

She explained her tweet on Morning Shift.

“That means the right that I have to challenge someone who is violating my legal rights is something I’ve put aside in hopes, in hopes, that I won’t be killed by a police officer,” Lemieux said.

Along with the hashtag, the Black Lives Matter movement and the black press have closely followed the story, some argue more than the mainstream media.

“Social media networks, particularly Twitter, [has] become another arm of the black press. People who are not traditional journalists, and reporters and writers, have a voice and have the ability to make stories like this relevant to larger audiences. Other outlets, the TV news, they were forced to pay attention to this story because of social media and because of quote, unquote, black Twitter,” she said.

10 Compelling #IfIDieinPoliceCustody tweets