SANDRA BLAND AT 30 and THE PROPOSED SANDRA BLAND ACT

SANDRA BLAND WOULD HAVE BEEN 30 YEARS OLD TODAY

• Sandra Bland was arrested for a failure to signal after, she said, she was tailgated by a police officer. She moved to get out of his way. He stopped her. He provoked a fight on dashboard cam over her continuing to smoke a cigarette. He cuffed her and yanked her around during the arrest then said Bland was the aggressor. Bland had been on her way to a job interview. After two to three days in jail, Bland was found dead in her Waller County Jail cell. 

•  Her death was ruled a suicide by hanging but some have doubts.

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston on a proposal that some are now calling THE SANDRA BLAND ACT. Basically THE SANDRA BLAND ACT calls for changes to what it is legal and illegal for cops to do when making a minor traffic stop.

"Although it's legal, it doesn't make sense for someone to be arrested because of a traffic violation or for a stop like Bland's to escalate into an arrest, Coleman said....

If a driver's tail light is out, or they cross over the yellow line, no matter how briefly, "the law says they are jailable offenses, so we have to remove that from the statute....[Encinia] "was well within his right to [arrest Bland], and that's where we're running into the problem...It's baked in the cake. Injustice is baked into the cake."

Other proposals from the committee include eliminating consent searches and raising the threshold for stops to something higher than the current "probable cause" and "reasonable suspicion." "

Read More: http://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/local/texas/2017/02/04/texas-house-committee-report-lays-foundation-sandra-bland-act/97495578/

SANDRA BLAND'S FAMILY SETTLEMENT IS FOR LESS THAN 2 MILLION DOLLARS

Feeling Rebloggy

Sandra Bland's family has reached a $1.9 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit, the family's attorney said Thursday.

The settlement includes compensation for Bland's death in custody as well as several changes to jail procedures in Waller County, Texas. Bland was found dead in her jail cell three days after she was arrested for failing to use her turn signal in July 2015.

~CNN 

Officer Encinia, the arresting officer, was fired earlier in the year in connection with perjury charges. 

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Read More: 
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/15/us/sandra-bland-wrongful-death-settlement/index.html

GRIM SLEEPER FOUND GUILTY IN LOS ANGELES

#allBLACKlivesMATTER

"After a day and a half of deliberations, jurors found [Lonnie] Franklin guilty of 10 counts of murder in the killings of nine women and a 15-year-old girl. Jurors also found Franklin guilty of one count of attempted murder. 

The trial lasted nearly three months.

The victims were all young and black, with some leading troubled lives during the chaotic 1980s in South L.A. The dead were left along a corridor in the Manchester Square neighborhood. Their partially clothed or naked bodies — some decomposing — were found amid the filth and garbage of alleyways. All were left without identification, and each was initially labeled Jane Doe....

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-grim-sleeper-verdict-20160504-story.html

They found Franklin guilty of killing 9 to 10 women but he might have killed dozens or 100s of black women.

 Never heard of this serial killer of black women? Ask yourself why not then answer yourself after reading more below.

So DO YOU  remember “The Grim Sleeper.”

Have you even heard of the “The Grim Sleeper” before?

Do you instantly recognize the name “Lonnie Franklin?"

I whizzed past “Tales Of The Grim Sleeper” in the TV schedule then came back to it because I'd seen a black woman’s face near the title.

When I saw the name of the documentary and the black woman's face together, it came back to me. “The Grim Sleeper” was the name given to a serial killer that murdered dozens if not 100s of black women over 25 years beginning in the 1980s.

Watching “The Grim Sleeper” documentary on HBO made me a little sick. I didn't want to watch it in the first place. I thought it would make my ears bleed to hear even one excuse for dozens of black women being murdered by a serial killer for 25 years without too many people noticing. This is especially galling since the police knew a serial killer was hunting black women in South Los Angeles by 1987 but didn't let the public know, didn't let black women in the South Los Angeles area know they were prey until 2008.

Read More:
http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/11/review-tales-of-grim-sleeper-part-1.html

SAY HER NAME: JOYCE CURNELL UPDATE

A black woman who was arrested at a hospital over the summer for failing to pay court fines died the next day because she was deprived of water at the Charleston County jail, her family’s attorneys said Wednesday.


A black woman who was arrested at a hospital over the summer for failing to pay court fines...died because she was deprived of water
A black woman who was arrested at a hospital...died.....was deprived of water 

A black woman...died...deprived of water

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20160224/PC16/160229636

EVERYDAY POLICE BRUTALITY for BLACK PEOPLE: Joyce Curnell was in a hospital for court costs -- not for robbery, not for kidnapping, not for murder. The police went to get her in a hospital due to unpaid court costs. Then they didn't tend to her as if she was ill....when they went to get her in a hospital

ORIGINAL STORY:  DEADLY JULY: FIVE BLACK WOMEN FOUND DEAD IN JAIL CELLS
http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/07/deadly-july-five-black-women-found-dead.html

GYNNYA McMILLEN UPDATE 4: DETENTION CENTER EMPLOYEE'S HISTORY OF ABUSE

"Reginald Windham, who has been a worker at the Lincoln Village Regional Juvenile Detention Center since February 2005, was put on special investigative leave with pay on Jan. 21 for falsifying reports that he had completed required 15-minute bed checks the night before McMillen, 16, was found unresponsive in her cell, according to a letter sent to Windham from the Department of Juvenile Justice, which was included in his disciplinary records."

...The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice has disciplined or reprimanded Windham in five other instances as a staffer, including two excessive force incidents and three instances where he showed a lack of competency and professionalism, according to his personnel record.

But the real question is this: Why was Reginald Windam working there at all with such a long history of abuse. If he has 5 incidents of abuse on his record and he's still working, who else is still working there with children. 


Read More About Gynnya McMillen's Last Days And Reginald Windamhttp://www.buzzfeed.com/leticiamiranda/detention-center-staffer-in-gynnya-mcmillen-case-has-a-histo#.meYEDx1ZD

GYNNYA McMILLEN UPDATE 3: STAFF USED MARTIAL ARTS RESTRAINT DUE TO HOODIE

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. -- The day before a teenage Kentucky girl was found dead in her juvenile detention cell, staff used an "Aikido restraint" on her, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice confirmed Friday.

16-year-old Gynnya McMillen was restrained after refusing to remove her sweatshirt in order to be searched and photographed for booking at the Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center, the spokesperson, Stacy Floden, wrote in an e-mail.

And if we hadn't started screaming about what happened to her, we'd have never known.

Read More: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-detention-staff-used-martial-arts-on-gynnya-mcmillen/

GYNNYA McMILLEN UPDATE 2: NOTHING NEW, NOT EVEN THE CALLOUS DISREGARD

They called her breakfast. 

She didn't move

They didn't check on her



They called for a snack

She didn't move.

They didn't check on her



They asked her if she wanted to take a phone call

She didn't move

They didn't check on her



They, the adults running Kentucky's Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center, were supposed to check on her every 15 minutes. The interactions I just listed were much further apart than 15 minutes. Clearly, they didn't even check on her then.


Official excuses begin and end with Gynnya's behavior being consistent with non-response.

An expert quoted in the article below says that kids are in a kind of shock when they are first put into a juvenile detention center. Gynnya's behaving as if depressed --before they ignored the fact that she was dying or already dead-- doesn't require an expert's diagnosis. Someone should have been trying to get her to interact, to talk, telling her everybody is scared at first.

I'm straddling fury and tears.

* * * * *

"My mother was calling her to check on her and see what was going on. And they hung up on her like four times. It kept getting disconnected. And then when she finally got through they said (McMillen) was unresponsive," Simms said.

It is not yet clear what time McMillen's mother first called, or why she was disconnected. It is also not clear why McMillen was alone in a cell or how often she was checked on throughout the night. In Kentucky, youths in isolation must have video surveillance at all times. That footage has been turned over to investigators.

McMillen's death is currently under investigation by the Kentucky State Troopers and the Justice Cabinet's Internal Investigation's Branch. Officials have so far indicated they believe McMillen died in her sleep...

Last week, Justice Cabinet Secretary John Tilley requested the investigations be expedited along with McMillen's autopsy, but Simms criticized the slow trickle of information so far....

~CBS NEWS

Read More:  

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/alarms-missed-day-gynnya-mcmillen-died-in-kentucky-juvenile-detention-experts/

Like I said, when 16 year old male, football players drop dead for no reason there's an expedited autopsy that shows SOMETHING.  People are paying attention long before the autopsy. Experts have something to say about what they thing MAY have happened.

Another article I read says that the-anonymous-they don't think her death was heart related.

We'll have to wait and see what killed Gynnya other than her care givers not bothering to give a damn  


More Info Here (unfamiliar website)http://wfpl.org/new-details-emerge-in-gynna-mcmillens-death/

GYNNYA McMILLEN - HER JANUARY 11th DEATH MAKES IT INTO MAIN STREAM NEWS

It took 8 days to get some traction on this story. But we did it. Main Stream News is picking up this story. Now the state of Kentucky knows we're watching them.

Maybe the family can get an answer other than "natural causes" and an actual sequence of events that led to her death. An autopsy is being done.

Original Post on Gynnya McMillen
http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2016/01/what-happened-to-16-year-old-gynnya.html



New Main Stream News Stories


Shaun King at "The Daily News"
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-serious-questions-death-teen-girl-ky-cell-article-1.2501773

The Root
http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/01/ky_teen_dies_in_police_custody_family_left_with_little_answers.html

CBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teen-girl-gynnya-mcmillen-dies-in-kentucky-juvenile-detention-few-details-released/

SANDRA AND SANDERS

Sandra Bland "would be alive today if she were a white woman," according to Bernie Sanders  



http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bernie-sanders-statement-sandra-bland

SANDRA BLAND CASE: TEXAS GRAND JURORS DECIDE NOT TO INDICT JAIL STAFF

...JUST BEFORE A MAJOR HOLIDAY
...AGAIN



Feeling Rebloggy

Grand jurors in Texas declined on Monday to indict anyone in connection to the July death of a Chicago-area woman, Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County jail, one of the special prosecutors assigned to the case said.

Many activists have called for charges against Brian Encinia, the Texas state trooper who arrested Ms. Bland after a routine traffic stop in Prairie View, northwest of Houston, turned contentious.

...Mr. Jordan, one of five special prosecutors in the case, [said] “The case is not over. That’s what I’m stressing right now. The case is not over.” [He] said Monday’s decision not to indict anyone related only to Ms. Bland’s death and to the conduct of the jail staff.

~New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/us/grand-jury-finds-no-felony-committed-by-jailers-in-death-of-sandra-bland.html?_r=0

Again, the grand jurors refused to bring charges against the jail staff.  However, I'm not that hopeful about a criminal case being brought against Officer Brian Encinia either --not in Texas.

But I am hoping that the 2017 civil case will bring the family some measure of Justice. 

And while it's too much to hope that Black Lives Matter will be successful in breaking the police union's ability to blackmail cities into paying the entire bill for bad cops before Bland's civil case goes to court, I can hope that we can shine enough light on this case that Officer Brian Encinia becomes too much of liability to keep on the payroll.



By the way, it ain't magic that these cop killer cases keep going to court just before the holidays. The Eric Garner court decision of no indictment was handed down between Thanksgiving and Christmas, in the first week of December. The Mike Brown court decision, of no indictment, was very near Thanksgiving, on November 25 2014.  And I tend to think that the "prosecutors" are going along with this timing. Now that I think about it, the first of the Freddie Gray Trials started between Thanksgiving and Christmas too; I wonder if the officers who beat Freddy Gray will just happen to be tried near the holidays in 2016.



The powers that be are getting a little smarter though. This time the grand jury for the Sandra Bland case came back out with their decision and we're only 4 days from Christmas instead of three weeks to a month out -- which decreases the chances multiple protests dramatically, doesn't it?

The one I really want to see in jail for his abuse of power is Officer Brian Encinia anyway. Yet that seems out of reach as well. I guess I'll pray on Christmas day that the special prosecutor manages to throw a Hail Mary in January 2016. A miracle is probably what it will take for Encinia to pay and cops across this nation to stop arresting people they don't like based on skin color, or not performing obedient slave behavior, or not performing demure female behavior.

   

SAY HER NAME

SANDRA BLAND

TRIAL DATE SET FOR SANDRA BLAND

Feeling Rebloggy

U.S. District Judge David Hittner set trial for Jan. 23, 2017, for the lawsuit filed by the family of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Chicago-area woman whose death July 13 was ruled by a medical examiner to be a suicide. Her family disputes the finding and is seeking unspecified damages from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the white state trooper who arrested her, Waller County and two jailers.

Cannon Lambert, the Bland family's lead attorney, told Hittner he couldn't accept the suicide finding - that she hung herself in her jail cell by using a plastic garbage bag as a ligature - because his legal team hasn't been able to examine the report of an investigation of the case by the Texas Rangers following Bland's death.

READ MORE: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-trial-date-has-been-set-in-sandra-blands-wrongful-death-suit_56741b4ee4b0b958f65641d9