Sandra Bland: Say Her Name

YouTube vid of her arrest 

Here we go again.  Hours after this was shot, Sandra Bland was "found dead" in her cell.  At this point I've lost track of the people we've had to bury because of police misconduct.  Sandra Bland and her family are the newest members of the club no one wants to join.  I can hear the peanut gallery now deriding me and others for jumping to conclusions, not waiting for the facts, or being anti-police.  Then, when that predictably fails to sway our opinion, they'll bring up some obscure case of either police brutality against a white man or mention the atrocities in Chicago as if they cared about the people beyond using it as an anti black talking point.  

Shut up.  I'm tired of you.  All of you who ignore proven patterns of bias, who shove respectability politics down everyone's throat, except when it's people who aren't black acting like savages.  This vibrant woman with a family who loved her and found her voice speaking out about the very thing she ended up being a victim of (#SandySpeaks) will never be able to call her sister's names again.  There is a family that has a hole that will never heal.  Too often we forget that these aren't just statistics on a page or a talking point to be trotted out at our leisure.  Sandra Bland had a family who loved her and will miss her more than any of us who only know her story 2nd hand.  I pray they have the financial means and the legal smarts to pressure this proven racist  of a sheriff to admit what happened in detail and hold those responsible accountable.  Especially because this isn't the first time someone has committed suicide in a Waller County jail cell.  The bottom line is the Waller County Sherriff's Dept., even at this early stage of the investigation, are either incompetent or complicit in Ms. Bland's death.  It's only a light wind right now, but if answers that make sense aren't forthcoming soon, this little rural town may soon have a Hurricane Sandy of its very own.

I'm Saying Her Name.  (#SayHerName). Stand with her family and say it with me.