A Look at Racial Tensions in Waller County, Texas (786 hits)
This afternoon, the Waller County District Attorney released new video showing footage of Sandra Bland while she was being booked in the Waller County jail. The video answers several questions surrounding what happened to Bland before she died in the jail three days later.
"The reason we're doing this is because of the misinformation that has been put out — both through social media and even through mainstream media," Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said Tuesday afternoon. The jail released dozens of hours worth of unedited footage.
In the beginning of the video provided, Bland is shown sitting down while still wearing her own clothes from earlier in the day. During this time a jailer interrogates her. In another clip, she is escorted to a bathroom and disappears from the camera's sight. When she reappears she has changed into an orange jumpsuit.
Bland then sits on a bench and materials for her jail cell are placed next to her by jailers.
The footage then cuts to a clip of her walking over to a gray wall to take a mugshot. Duhon says she had been sleeping in the holding cell before she walked over to take the photo. As this part of the video was shown, Duhon called out, "People who have gone to great lengths to insinuate or imply that she's deceased."
Following her death, some speculated whether Bland was alive while she was taking her mugshot. Some tweeted that it appeared that Bland is lying down on the ground while the photo is being taken. These rumors came amid inconsistent information provided by the Waller County police.
The 28-year-old African-American woman was supposed to begin a new job in July. Waller County authorities have called the incident a suicide. Sharon Cooper, the sister of Sandra Bland, recently told Democracy Now that she cannot speak on the latest reports supporting the claim that Bland committed suicide, because her family has not seen the documents themselves.
"Unfortunately, we have not received a copy of their completed autopsy or any type of the preliminary report. Everything that we’ve received to this point has been through the media, so I still feel very misinformed," Cooper said.
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Resa Henderson, 48, another life-long resident and former nurse, has not experienced discrimination in the town. "I try to stay out of trouble," she said. Another resident by the name of Eugene Hood spoke straight about what he sees happening. "There's a lot of prejudice going on." (Photo: AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
