The dashcam video shows Texas state Trooper Brian Encinia pulling Bland over July 10 for allegedly failing to use her turn signal. What started as normal conversation gets testy after Encinia asks her to put out her cigarette.
"I am in my car. I don't have to put out my cigarette," Bland says.
"You can step on out now," Encinia replies.
Bland refuses to get out of her car, and the trooper opens her door and starts trying to pull her out of the vehicle.
What happens after that has ignited a debate about what the officer could have done versus what he should have done.
'For a failure to signal?'
In the video, Encinia tells Bland she is under arrest. She repeatedly asks why, but the trooper does not answer, other than to say, "I am giving you a lawful order."
They argue, then Encinia pulls what appears to be his Taser and points it at Bland.
He screams: "Get out of the car! I will light you up! Get out! Now!"
Bland then exits the car of her own accord, saying: "Wow, really, for a failure to signal? You're doing all of this for a failure to signal?"
Much of what happens next is not seen on camera, but the officer can be heard saying Bland is not compliant.
"When you pull away from me, you're resisting arrest," Encinia says.
A clearly upset Bland can be heard saying: "You're a real man now. You just slammed me, knocked my head in the ground. I got epilepsy you mother******."
"Good," he replies.
A female officer tells Bland she should have thought about that before she started resisting.
Technically, a driver can get arrested in Texas for simply failing to use a turn signal.
In the video, Encinia tells Bland he intended to give her a warning -- until she failed to comply with orders and repeatedly cursed at the trooper.
The Texas Department of Public Safety released almost an hour of dashcam video. But in parts of the footage, the video is looped while the officer's audio continues uninterrupted.
For example, there are moments when a car or a tow truck driver appears in the frame, suddenly disappears and then appears once again.
But the video of the traffic stop was not edited, according to Texas Department of Public Safety public information officer Tom Vinger. "There was a technical issue during posting later in the video, and we are working to correct," Vinger said Wednesday. But anyone who watches the video can plainly see that it has been altered.
This is my theory. Sandra Bland was murdered, and it was made to look like a suicide. She was probably choked to death and the easiest way to simulate choking is hanging.
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