Just the way it is, she said.
I stepped outside and waited. About an hour later, Sheriff Smith pulls up in his truck and casually strolls into the building, full cowboy hat and all. I raced back inside to speak with him. Credentials in hand, I again asked the officer to speak with the now-present sheriff. She disappeared into the back room for about three minutes and then returned to say, “no” to an interview.
Sheriff Smith has decided not to speak to anybody else about Sandra Bland.
I smiled and said thank you and left out the door. As I stepped onto the front porch of the jail a couple of more protestors had arrived. Unlike the sheriff they were more than willing to talk.
Here’s the Rev. Hannah Bonner of Houston, Texas’ Saint John’s Church:
“When we heard the news of what had happened to Sandy I was quickly approached by some of her friends that had attended Prairie View A&M with her. They wanted to know if there was anything we can do to help. I began to watch her videos on the Internet and one thing she kept saying was, ‘I can’t do this by myself, I need your help.’ That really touched our hearts.
“Earlier this week, her mother came for the memorial service and she told us that before Sandy left she told her that she knew what her purpose in life was and that it was to end racial and social injustice in the south. To me, that’s clearly what she was doing in her videos and with her life. She was a part of this Black Lives Matter movement. What we’re witnessing across America, this is not a race war; this is an attack on black lives.
“Personally, I don’t believe that she killed herself. The image that I have in my head of her is a woman that was bold and unapologetic for herself and her faith. Even as clergy she has convicted my spirit because she was so much more strong in her faith than I am. It’s disturbing to watch media portray her a certain way as they try to help this county jail tell there twisted story on her arrest. Releasing information that she had marijuana in her system before they released the cause of death is totally wrong.
“I hear what the official news is but it doesn’t add up to what we see or what her family says about her. I think that something truly terrible happened to Sandra Bland.”
I left the Waller County Jail and after about two right turns and one left, I was at the memorial sight for Sandra Bland. It was here that I realized that this woman’s death was completely unnecessary. Whether she was murdered or committed suicide took a back seat to my findings here.
If Bland did kill herself, then the actions of the arresting officers drove her to it. Who wouldn’t be aggravated for being pulled over for not making a turn signal on a college campus in the middle of the summer? The time of year that next to nobody is on the campus. The time of year where the head janitor is arguably the best jump shooter in the gym. The time of year where even the professors blow through stop signs just to say that they did something dangerous this summer.
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