Patterico's Pontifications

7/22/2015

Democrats: Masters Of The Skillfully Manipulative Response

Filed under: General — Dana @ 3:23 pm



[guest post by Dana]

In recent years, we have come to know the skillful manipulation of the Democrat response to any national news which might either reflect negatively upon the party or that can be used to their advantage. There is almost never a breaking of party line to condemn that which is universally condemnable. There is simply a pre-programmed circle-the-wagons defense and goal to do whatever it takes to cover any guilt and advance the party. The conscience must be expendable to succeed. And really, in light of what can be gained, is a Faustian bargain really that big of a deal?

The power of the Democrats can be disheartening because with a complicit media they are able, to a great degree, to shape voter reaction. In response, conservatives work hard to expose corruption, fraud, and hypocrisy while simultaneously pushing conservative ideals and candidates in the soldiering on for the cause of liberty.

It makes me think of these recent events: In light of the harrowing videos revealing the ghoulishness of Planned Parenthood, Democrats – from the White House down – have automatically condemned them as “edited”. However, Democratic presidential candidates have remained silent about the videos lest they jeopardize their poll numbers and ride on the Planned Parenthood gravy train.

And yet, when the dashcam arrest video of Sandra Bland of Texas (who was later found dead in her jail cell) was released, it raised a firestorm of protest and commentary by Democrats, including the three Democratic candidates, because it was automatically assumed to be accurate, unedited, and uncut:

“My heart breaks at seeing another young African American life lost too soon,” Clinton said in a statement on Wednesday. “Sandra Bland had a bright future ahead of her and it is particularly tragic that she lost her life just as she was to start her new career.”

Clinton added, “From what I’ve seen, the circumstances of this case are incredibly disturbing. I hope and expect that there will be a full investigation into this situation. It is also a tragic reminder of the ongoing systemic issues of race and justice in America that we must address with urgency, and we have to do more than talk—we have to take action.”

Sanders and O’Malley both called for new police reforms in light of the video.

And yet all three of them, along with other high-profile Democrats, refuse to condemn what they see and hear in the Planned Parenthood videos. This in spite of the full-length hour(s) long videos being simultaneously released with the shorter, more troubling sections. The crushing butchery and parts sale of the most defenseless means nothing to them because they fundamentally must believe that the video is edited. There is far too much at stake to allow themselves to believe otherwise. As if they even could. There is not enough unseared conscience to pierce their deadened souls, thus their deafening silence roars so loudly it threatens to drown out the wretched screams of those in the womb being methodically dismembered for profit. It reflects a seared conscience and diminished morality as they are all too willing to compromise humanity and sanctity of life for their own advancement as well as that of the party. Their cynicism knows no bounds, their hypocrisy knows no shame, and their deadened hearts are masked only by their smug sense of righteousness. They are the Nazgûl. Babies in the womb doesn’t stand a chance with this crowd. So easily crushed are they.

Anything and everything to protect oneself and the party. Any and all attempts, no matter how desperate and pathetic, must and will be made to maintain the status quo.

Don’t believe me? You should.

–Dana

58 Responses to “Democrats: Masters Of The Skillfully Manipulative Response”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (86e864)

  2. ? The Sandra Bland videos has raised protests because it was obviously messed with at the Texas Department of Public Safety. Although they’re claiming “technical glitches” and not deliberate editing.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. nk, the Democrats reacted immediately to the video, before it was confirmed or denied that there were any kind of glitches. My take was that they assumed about a video before it was challenged (and that she was innocent) and with the PP videos, they assumed it just had to be edited to favor PP.

    Dana (86e864)

  4. I’m down with the Huracan, but condemn death’s headed insect PP Mengeles, and nearly every Democrat that comes to mind. They are power-mad and will stop at nothing to ensure expanded reach and control of The State.

    Colonel Haiku (73c0b6)

  5. Ms. Bland was detained for the most heinous of crimes:
    Driving While Uppity!

    Somehow, I believe that Gov. Abbott is not going to allow this to be swept under the rug, and that there will be consequences for those that did not follow the law, and/or procedure.

    Personally, I believe the officer involved has a serious case of Short Man Syndrome.

    askeptic (efcf22)

  6. I can’t imagine what the Dems will say next. Apparently the next video from PP will be actual footage of a “harvest” after a “procedure” with racial questions being asked and answered.

    This is going to be…I don’t know what, but very big.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  7. Even the edited version made the local district attorney (have you ever seen a more “flaming Southerner”, BTW?) say that this was not a “model traffic stop”. Bless his heart.

    nk (dbc370)

  8. nk,

    The report I was reading was at the LAT and I’ve used up my monthly freebies and can’t go back and double check. Agh. I’ll try and see if I go in through IE and clear my browser if it will let me access that way. I can only say, if I misconstrued, it would most certainly be due to my frustration and upset over the subject matter at hand. I absolutely stand by my assessment of the Dems and their rush to condemn the PP video as edited and not condemn the revelations. Further, they will do anything and everything to hold the party line.

    Dana (86e864)

  9. Like I posted a couple of hours ago, when the left controls 95% of the media, conservatives don’t stand a chance of getting their message out. Probably going to end up in another Civil War before it’s resolved…and we know whom the gun owners are….

    dee (948147)

  10. Oh, I don’t blame you, Dana. First, all news stories are wrong for the first few days and, second, Waller County and Texas DPS are in full CYA mode and their press releases and press conferences are the low hanging fruit for reporters.

    nk (dbc370)

  11. well it’s the same pattern as sanford, ferguson, north charleston, baltimore, we’re talking enemy action here people,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  12. I think this is more like a combination of “Macon County Jail” and “Deliverance” with an unhappy ending, narciso.

    nk (dbc370)

  13. Three great posts in one day – nice Hat Trick. Thank you Dana.

    The Cruz questioning was amazing. Somehow, he had me thinking that Director Saldana is to be included among Obama’s many victims.

    ThOR (a52560)

  14. i’m refering to the crump/julian machine, that get it out there,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  15. I watched, very closely, the first 15 minutes or so of the dash-cam video (by which time the unfortunate Ms. Bland was in the back of another police cruiser). The video as released by the Texas Department of Public Safety runs to about 53 minutes, and actually begins with the tail-end of the previous traffic stop (and resulting warning) made by the trooper. The next thing that happens is that you see Ms. Bland’s car, on the left, roll through a stop-sign without either stopping or using her turn indicator. The stop-sign is clearly visible as the trooper makes a U-turn to follow her car.

    I don’t know why the trooper only mentioned her making a lane-change without signaling. But there is zero doubt in my mind that he had a completely adequate legal justification for stopping her.

    Before he asked her to put out her cigarette, her voice sounds surly, but she wasn’t abusive or profane, and his manners were perfectly appropriate.

    His request that she put out her cigarette was phrased as exactly that — a request, not a directive or an order. I’m not sure why, when she began protesting that she was in her own car and didn’t want to put out the cigarette, he decided to ask her to step out of her car. It might indeed have been because he foresaw — correctly — that she was becoming argumentative in a way that was likely to extend their conversation, and that he was indeed uncomfortable continuing to stand beside her driver’s-side window, in traffic, as they spoke. Or perhaps her sudden shift from merely surly to actively argumentative made him suddenly wonder whether she was driving under the influence, and he wanted to observe her movements and physical behavior as she exited her car.

    But in any event, there is also zero doubt that having made this traffic stop, the trooper had the legal right to also ask her to exit her car. It was, as he tried to explain between her sudden insults and extreme profanity, a lawful order that she, or any other citizen so stopped, has no legal right to disobey or refuse without thereby violating the law and becoming subject to arrest.

    Was he short-tempered? Would most state troopers, or perhaps even this one, viewing this video hold themselves to a higher standard of patience before escalating to a “command voice” and the giving of peremptory orders, then further escalating into opening the car door and threatening her with a taser? Probably.

    Was she helping matters? Or was she behaving with a spectacular lack of civility? There’s zero doubt in my mind about that either. I have children who were her age; we’re white; I would certainly expect any state or local police officer to arrest them if they refused a lawful order to exit their cars and instead began with an abusive, profane tirade like the one she began.

    The video and, especially, the audio, suggest that she did indeed physically resist his efforts to pull her out of the car, and to cuff her once she was out, but much of that was outside camera view, either inside the car or after she was on the sidewalk outside the camera’s field of view. Certainly her abusive and profane tirade continued.

    A bystander apparently may have filmed some of the apprehension. The trooper can be heard at one point saying, presumably to someone other than Ms. Bland, “You need to leave! You need to leave!” That may have been the bystander, and it may have been in response to concerns that he was close enough to be a legitimate threat to interfere in the arrest, especially since it appeared (from the audio) that Ms. Bland was still struggling and refusing the trooper’s shouts demanding that she stop that and stand still. Insisting that a bystander move far enough away to no longer be a threat of interference is legit; and the trooper didn’t direct insist that the bystander stop shooting video, if indeed that’s what was going on outside the dash cam’s field of view.

    If you’re the one being put under arrest, though, you emphatically do not have the right, as I’ve seen suggested (fallaciously) to ignore the arresting officer’s instruction that you put down your cellphone & camera. The trooper gave Ms. Bland the opportunity to comply with his demand that she do so with her cellphone, and she complied, putting it on her trunk lid (while still cursing and screaming at him) before he cuffed her.

    She was in jail for the weekend, though, after this traffic stop — regardless of whether it was lawfully begun, and regardless of whether she was lawfully subject to arrest. (I think it was, and she was.) The family, and countless sympathizers, are insisting that she couldn’t have committed suicide there, but that she must have been murdered or otherwise have become the victim of jailer/police foul play. The dash cam video obviously doesn’t speak to those questions at all; there are jail videos from motion-activated cameras that may.

    I don’t know what happened to her in her cell. Her death, under any interpretation of these facts, is a tragedy — for her, for her family, and for us all. I’ve read conflicting stories about her mental health and history, but I do note that she did indeed have a history of convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana use, nonpayment of fines and court costs, etc. None of that, of course, could have justified anyone murdering her in her cell; but likewise it wouldn’t have made her someone who’d typically be judged a suicide risk in confinement. So I’m content to let the inquiry into the circumstances of her death play out in their normal course; and if evidence is developed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone other than herself was directly responsible for her death, justice for that ought to be done.

    To suggest that the trooper’s performance during the traffic stop was the proximate cause of her death, though, is ridiculous.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  16. Beldar’s comments on the video and police incident are comprehensive and I completely agree. If people don’t like being pulled for “minor” violations, they have several options: don’t commit those violations, lobby the legislature to change the laws, or move somewhere that doesn’t forbid them. Once lawfully stopped, however, you need to comply with lawful police instructions. Even a body cam might not show the expressions and body language that gave the officer cause for concern.

    But if she had just remained calm and respectful, she would have driven away with a warning ticket, which is what the officer was writing out before she decided to act out.

    – –

    As to the “edited” PP video, the full videos of each conversation were posted online the same days the excerpts were released. Every Democrat and every journalist knows that, or should know that. They need to claim “heavily edited” to imply misleading. The fact is that the full videos are sickeningly full confirmation of the evil seen in the excerpts.

    Estragon (ada867)

  17. To clarify one point: IIRC, there’s not actually a Texas traffic law requiring that always you use your turn indicators every time you change lanes or make a turn. (The law does require that you have working turn indicators, of course.)

    The ticket, if one had been written for her failure to use her blinker, would have been for the offense of “unsafe lane change,” which is a judgment call, part of which might include one’s failure to use a blinker. I’ve more typically seen that citation issued, though, in lane-change collisions; one rarely sees that as a stand-alone citation absent a collision, not because there hasn’t been a violation of the law, but because whether the lane change (by itself) is “unsafe” is very much a judgment call dependent on the facts, including road configurations, speed, other traffic, etc., and so most officers don’t want to invest the time and effort issuing a citation that could so easily (and perhaps effectively) be contested.

    Rolling through an intersection at which a stop sign requires a full stop is not at all the same thing, however. There’s no judgment call. You have to come to a full and complete stop; typically the visual indicator of a full and complete stop is that the vehicle shifts backwards on its suspension; and this video leaves no doubt that her car moved continuously through the stop-sign controlled intersection without coming to a full stop. That was a clear and unequivocal violation of the traffic law. Regardless of whether the trooper mentioned her rolling through the stop sign when he spoke to her later (and I didn’t hear that in the first 15 minutes), I’m persuaded by the dash cam video that she had, indeed, broken the traffic laws, and that it was within his field of view as he drove (since it was also in the dash cam’s field of view) after the previous traffic stop. Accordingly, he was entirely justified in pulling her over and issuing her a citation for that. As part of that, he was also entirely justified in asking her to exit her vehicle.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  18. 17. As to the “edited” PP video, the full videos of each conversation were posted online the same days the excerpts were released. Every Democrat and every journalist knows that, or should know that. They need to claim “heavily edited” to imply misleading. The fact is that the full videos are sickeningly full confirmation of the evil seen in the excerpts.

    Estragon (ada867) — 7/22/2015 @ 5:42 pm

    They know that. They also know that once they put out the party line, that will settle matters for their blind loyalists. As for everyone else, the vast majority will never even seek out any of the videos let alone watch the full version.

    So it becomes a matter of competing soundbites.

    It doesn’t matter if the videos aren’t edited if the Democrats and the LHMFM (but I repeat myself) can effectively edit reality.

    Steve57 (7aa1f2)

  19. Democrats are doing their damnedest to turn our republic into a full-on idiocracy. With a fully complicit, moronic media.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  20. Sigh. Well, my recollection was slightly off; mea culpa. From the Texas Transportation Code:

    Sec. 545.104. SIGNALING TURNS; USE OF TURN SIGNALS. (a) An operator shall use the signal authorized by Section 545.106 to indicate an intention to turn, change lanes, or start from a parked position.

    (b) An operator intending to turn a vehicle right or left shall signal continuously for not less than the last 100 feet of movement of the vehicle before the turn.

    (c ) An operator may not light the signals on only one side of the vehicle on a parked or disabled vehicle or use the signals as a courtesy or “do pass” signal to the operator of another vehicle approaching from the rear.

    My mistake, however, strengthens my premise that the trooper did indeed have a legal basis to initiate the traffic stop.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  21. Ditto, Beldar. Sandra Bland died in jail, not at the traffic stop. Until evidence reveals she died at the hands of others, suicide is a reasonable working hypothesis.

    ropelight (a333f7)

  22. 7. I can’t imagine what the Dems will say next. Apparently the next video from PP will be actual footage of a “harvest” after a “procedure” with racial questions being asked and answered.

    This is going to be…I don’t know what, but very big.

    Patricia (5fc097) — 7/22/2015 @ 4:02 pm

    PP revealed that to Congress in the same letter in which they stated they will not produce Dr. Nucateela for a scheduled briefing.

    So grab some popcorn.

    Steve57 (7aa1f2)

  23. In my own defense, I did accurately describe the law on lane changes as it existed from early in the 20th Century through 1995. See, e.g., Torres v. State, 2003 WL 68056 (Tex. App.–El Paso 2003, no pet.)(unpublished opinion):

    [W]e find that Vargas Torres’s reliance on the case of Hall v. State, 488 S.W.2d 788 (Tex. Crim. App. 1973) is misplaced. That case was decided under an older traffic regulation, which provided that an operator should not turn without giving an appropriate signal “in the event any other traffic may be affected by such movement.” See Hall, 488 S.W.2d at 789 n. 1 (quoting Art. 6701d, Sec. 68(a), Vernon’s Ann. R.C.S. (repealed 1995) (current version at TEX. TRANSP. CODE ANN. § 545.104)). It is a violation of the current regulation to make a turn without signaling, regardless of whether the turn was made safely or affected other traffic. See Markey v. State, 996 S.W.2d 226, 229 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1999, no pet.).

    So I’m only 20 years behind on the details of the changes to the traffic laws enacted by the Texas Legislature. There’s a good reason I’ve stuck to civil cases for longer than that. 🙂 But I ought to have looked it up before posting here.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  24. Would it be helpful to put up a new post with Bland’s arrest video and Beldar’s analysis at #16 as a base and move the discussion there?

    Dana (86e864)

  25. corporate third way liberal democrats have to keep the coalition together for the democratic partys big tent which includes pro life bob casey to the street democrats who say lets give all right to lifers post natal abortions and then sell their body parts.

    d.l.c. (e2f2cb)

  26. FOX’s Megyn Kelly reported that Sandra Bland acknowledged a previous suicide attempt after she lost a baby. Additionally, she had multiple arrests for DUI, pot, and failure to pay court ordered fines.

    ropelight (a333f7)

  27. Was this prior suicide report from Megyn by way of the sheriff by way of one of the jailers, ropelight? That’s what I saw on teh interwebz.

    nk (dbc370)

  28. I believe it was on a signed questionnaire she filled out as part of the jail intake process.

    ropelight (a333f7)

  29. Yeah, that makes more sense. They ask new prisoners about their health history including attempts to hurt themselves or others. Like I said above, initial news reports are only accidentally accurate.

    nk (dbc370)

  30. Some may remember that I suffered a loss when my girlfriend committed suicide. So if ropelight’s information id correct, then it is extremely probable that Sandra committed suicide in her cell if she had the means. I base this on the fact that my girlfriend’s “trigger” was a run-in with the police concerning a similar matter.

    felipe (56556d)

  31. Regarding whether the trooper was too impatient or had an inadequate basis to ask her to step out of her car: From the Texas Department of Public Safety website, from last week:

    News Release

    July 16, 2015
    Updated: DPS Statement Regarding Texas Ranger Investigation

    AUSTIN – The Department of Public Safety (DPS) values and strives to demonstrate our commitment to protecting the public through our actions based on fairness, respect and courteously serving those we contact.

    In the preliminary review of the traffic stop that occurred in Prairie View on July 10, 2015, involving Sandra Bland, we have identified violations of the department’s procedures regarding traffic stops and the department’s courtesy policy.

    Pending the outcome of the Texas Ranger and FBI investigation into this incident, the employee involved has been assigned administrative duties. At the conclusion of this investigation, any violations of protocols will be addressed.

    The District Attorney and DPS have also requested that the FBI conduct a forensic analysis of the videos related to this case. The video footage will be shared with the public as soon as possible.

    I don’t know the specifics of the DPS traffic stop procedures or courtesy policy that were violated. But those procedure or policy violations would not necessarily, or even probably, mean that the traffic stop itself was unlawful. Nor, and even more to the point, do I think it all likely that there could have been a direct causal relationship between any such violations and whatever happened in her cell three days later. (In legal terms, the arrest was a “but-for” cause (sometimes called “cause-in-fact,” i.e., part of the entire sequence of events), but probably not close enough in proximity or foreseeability to be a “proximate cause.” There are a million “but-for” causes for any event; in this one, her moving to Texas would be a “but-for” cause too.)

    And I don’t know what she disclosed in connection with her booking for her arrest, or whether there was a basis for the jailers to have had her under a special suicide watch. As I said earlier, I’m happy to see that investigation play out.

    But in the meantime, I don’t think it’s useful or responsible for anyone to be throwing around words like “murder,” nor making unsupported accusations that the traffic stop itself directly caused Ms. Bland’s death. I repeat: Under any interpretation of these facts, her death was a tragedy.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  32. If you ever go to Houston, boy, you better walk right,
    And you better not squabble and you better not fight.
    Benson Crocker will arrest you, Jimmy Boone will take you down.
    You can bet your bottom dollar that you’re penitentiary bound.

    More lyrics http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/leadbelly/midnight_special-lyrics-478995.html#ixzz3gg206d7O

    nk (dbc370)

  33. The video of her from March, embedded here, in which she refers to being depressed and suffering from “PTSD,” is genuinely heartbreaking. It presents a very different impression than that given by her shouted profanity and abuse in the dash cam video.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  34. @ Dana (#25): I’ve been browsing the net for the last couple of hours. Several other sources have commented on the running of the stop sign, and I don’t think my analysis above (#16) is particularly unique or otherwise worthy of re-posting as a separate post. (I’m also still blushing about being 20 years behind on Texas law regarding signaling to change lanes.) So I, for one, don’t think a separate post based on my review of the dash cam video, or on my other comments, would be worthwhile. Thanks, though! 🙂

    Beldar (fa637a)

  35. I will few other a couple of other thoughts and questions that have occurred to me tonight, though — which I caution are almost entirely speculative on my part:

    * It’s not clear from the dash cam video exactly when Ms. Bland began trying to video the encounter. It might well have been about the same time as the trooper asked her to put out her cigarette. I don’t think it’s a good idea at all for someone being stopped by a trooper to try to video his own interrogation or arrest; but neither do I think doing so, by itself, ought to be a basis for a trooper escalating a traffic stop in which he’s already decided to issue only a warning to one in which he insists that the driver get out of the car.

    * Later in the dash cam video, the trooper can be heard mentioning to one of the back-up officers (a black female trooper who apparently helped put Ms. Bland in the back of her cruiser for transport after she’d been cuffed) that the entire episode ought to have been recorded on his dash cam, and he says that in what seemed to me to be a relieved tone of voice, rather than a worried one, as though he were confident that the dash cam video would vindicate his actions. But in the heat of the moment, was her pulling out her cellphone to video his questioning while he was on the driver’s side of Ms. Bland’s car a triggering event? Was this escalation a situation, then, in which the actions of one or both of Ms. Bland and the trooper were affected — adversely — by their knowledge that there would be video of the stop and the arrest?

    * Also re videos and video evidence: Although the stop-sign violation is obvious and unmistakable in reviewing the dash cam video, it takes up only a fraction of the video itself, and it’s in the far left of the camera’s field of view. I wonder if the reason the trooper only mentioned the lane-change violation as a reason for stopping her is because he wasn’t sure whether his dash cam had picked up the stop-sign violation, but he was instead very confident that it had indeed picked up the failure-to-signal violation during her lane change? As I said before, I’ve rarely seen or heard of officers (other than in “speed traps” and “revenue enhancement” settings, mostly in small towns) issuing citations for failure to signal if there’s not also a collision or other moving violation. But was uncertainty about the camera’s field and whether it had caught the stop-sign violation something which led the officer to not mention that in speaking with Ms. Bland? She says repeatedly during the arrest, “All this for a turn signal violation?” (or words to that effect, shouted in combination with profanity). If he’d said, “You ran a stop-sign and you also failed, twice, to use your turn signal, when turning that corner and later when changing lanes,” might she have been somewhat less indignant? I suppose we’ll never know.

    * Ms. Bland had also apparently been very active in social media in promoting the #blacklivesmatter meme. It’s apparent from her shouts and insults after the trooper asked her to put out her cigarette that she was, to put it mildly, hypersensitive to the possibility that she was being targeted for unfair treatment because she was black. But she also had unpaid fines and court costs from several prior brushes with the law in Illinois, and one presumes she was aware of that. Might she also have been hypersensitive because she feared there might be outstanding arrest warrants in connection with those defaults, which might have come up when the trooper ran her driver’s license and plates through the computer terminal in his cruiser?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  36. “Lyrics
    Picked up on my phone in Houston
    Everybody answered, everybody answered but they won’t say why
    Then this dancer grabbed me down by the bus stop
    And she said I’m takin’ you with me to the Texas Rose cafe
    I got a fast car, it’s a jaguar, and I’ll get you to the plane on time
    Drinkin’ Lone Star, play guitar, we’ll have a real good time
    I said love can be found in Austin,
    Love can be found in Austin town,
    I replied that I would try, but you see my time is not my own
    ‘Cause when I was just a big time low ball fool
    My friend Leroy came to me
    He said look out your window
    Does the first man you see look just like me?
    I’m sooooore displeased.”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  37. This video version — which is also linked and embedded, with attribution, on Breitbart.com — shows her running the stop sign at 1:17 (out of 52:12). It would have been easily seen by the trooper himself as he passed, even though he was also moving; every experienced driver, not just law officers, are especially alert to moving vehicles at intersections in their peripheral vision, and one generally turns one’s head to bring such a vehicle into the center of one’s field of vision. But he might well have doubted that her running the stop-sign was in the dash cam’s field of view.

    (As the Breitbart post notes, this video was posted to YouTube by the DPS, but taken down and replaced after someone accused the DPS of deceptively editing it; the DPS says its original upload to YouTube was corrupted, which accounted for the glitch at 32:37. But that’s long after Ms. Bland was cuffed and in the back of the other trooper’s cruiser.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  38. Last and least relevant post from me tonight: I know exactly where this happened, because I ride my road bike from, past, and/or around the Prairie View A&M campus regularly. Indeed, during each of the last two falls, I’ve ridden in the Tour de Cure cycling event, which started only a few blocks from where Ms. Bland was arrested. It’s a very nice area, flat with good and fairly new roads with good traffic signage and lane markings. There’s a lot of pedestrian and bike traffic, like there is around most college campuses.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  39. I think Beldar’s comments are helpful and enlightening. If he doesn’t want them included in a separate post, I vote for an Update with links to his comments on the video (#16), turn signals (#21), DPS policies (#31), Sandra Bland’s emotional state (#33), and other thoughts/speculation (#35).

    IMO this incident, which immediately followed a different traffic stop of a Prairie View student to whom the officer issued a warning, suggests to me that:

    1. This may be an area near the college and/or where students live.

    2. The officer was initially pleasant and was only issuing warnings, both in the earlier traffic stop and to Bland. That suggests this wasn’t about tickets, it was about getting drivers to comply with the traffic laws. Notice in the video how other drivers slow down when they pass the DPS vehicle and the stopped vehicles, which is typical in small Texas cities. We notice and are curious when someone gets stopped for a traffic violation, and it has a ripple effect on how everyone drives. Perhaps that was the point, especially if this is a student area.

    3. I think the DPS has uploaded a new video after complaints that the first video was edited. The new video is three minutes shorter. The DPS says a technical glitch in the uploading of the video made the initial video appear to be edited. My guess is this won’t comfort people who tend to view the police with a jaundiced eye.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  40. I think this is the witness video. It has over a million views.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  41. Beldar,

    I wonder if one of the policies or procedures the officer violated may have been telling the witness “You need to leave.” Videotaping officers is a sore subject for many law enforcement offices, but I think most acknowledge it is allowed and that efforts to stop citizens from videotaping if they aren’t interfering with the officers can be a violation of those procedures.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  42. The Surgeon General has been warning us for 60 years: Smoking can kill you.

    nk (dbc370)

  43. DRJ, thanks for the link to the witness video. I’d only seen a brief fragment of it. From the longer version you linked, it’s much more apparent that the person shooting it was quite some distance from the vehicles and from the troopers effecting the arrest (although the zooming in and out makes that a little difficult for me to do more than guestimate). I think you might be right — the DPS’ reference to “violations of the department’s procedures regarding traffic stops and the department’s courtesy policy” might refer only to the trooper’s “You need to leave” instruction, which he repeated once but apparently didn’t otherwise follow up upon; that could have been a violation of both traffic stop procedure and of a courtesy policy. But without knowing those (presumably written) procedures and policies, nor the other specifics of their “preliminary review,” I don’t think one can rule out the possibility that there were other violations of procedure or policy.

    I’m also no video expert at all, but I’ve had first-hand experience with glitches in uploading videos, especially very long video files (e.g., of my own kids’ amateur theater performances), to YouTube, including glitches between the syncing of the sound track and video. Some of the comments I’ve read insist that the sound track late in the glitched video, where the trooper is describing his actions to someone else (probably a supervisor, whose voice can’t be heard), has been “dubbed” because it sounds normal while the video is looping the same car passing by two or three times. But I’ve seen very similar upload glitches on my own videos. In any event, the DPS has released their original video to the FBI for technical analysis, so that ought to be cleared up to everyone’s satisfaction pretty soon.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  44. I also have a feeling the officer pointing his taser at Bland to get her out of the vehicle may not be by the book, but (as you say) we can’t be sure since we don’t know what the rules are.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  45. It’s obvious to me that the reason he ordered her out of the vehicle was because of her response to his “request” that she put out her cigarette. That it was her car and she could smoke in it if she wanted to.

    nk (dbc370)

  46. The King commands when he entreats.

    nk (dbc370)

  47. DRJ, you’re also likely right about the Taser-pointing. And I’m pretty sure the book doesn’t specify that troopers say, “I will light you up!”

    I’ve pinpointed the exact spot where she ran the stop sign and yes, I have indeed ridden through that exact intersection in the 2013 & 2004 Tour de Pink (not Tour de Cure, I was thinking of the wrong charity ride), which started a couple of blocks away.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  48. In my early 20s, I went on the Tour de Pink, but soon found that all cats are grey in the dark.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  49. an interesting detail here,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  50. an interesting detail here,

    narciso (ee1f88) — 7/23/2015 @ 8:39 am

    Leave the link off, or referring to an earlier reply?

    Bill H (2a858c)

  51. Would it be helpful to put up a new post with Bland’s arrest video and Beldar’s analysis at #16 as a base and move the discussion there?

    Dana (86e864) — 7/22/2015 @ 6:20 pm

    Not at all a bad idea.

    Bill H (2a858c)

  52. it was a link to the treehouse, that illustrates a certain irony, in the LUN

    narciso (ee1f88)

  53. the examiner says it was a suicide is what the examiner says

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  54. but it’s texas piggy pigs what are involved so who knows

    it’s like how the experts came out and said chocolate helps you lose weight

    only to find out that was all just a big hornswoggle

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  55. Mr. Feet, my adult daughter & I ride our bikes in that same area. People who run stop-signs and don’t use turn indicators are a danger to us and our families. I’m grateful for the Texas Department of Public Safety for enforcing the traffic laws there.

    I don’t know about the jail conditions in Waller County, but in general I’m grateful to jailers for their efforts, so long as they’re being prudent and careful. Whether they were here or not, remains to be seen.

    I frown on calling these folks “pigs.”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  56. i frown on it too in real life, more or less, but on the internet i like it

    you know why?

    cause of i want them to try harder

    we all need them to raise the bar a LOT Mr. Beldar

    we need these wankers to be genuinely deserving of faith and confidence, genuinely deserving of being given the benefit of the doubt, these law enforcement people, and you know what

    they’re not getting it done

    i can’t defend the general quality of failmerica’s policing or law enforcement or very little else concerning its justice system

    some of it’s attitudinal some of it’s bad hiring and training and some of its the trickle down of skeevy third whirl policies like civil asset forfeiture that they have no control over

    but still

    the status quo is awful awful awful and I don’t think cheerleading is gonna help none as far as meeting the performance objectives goes

    there’s both a crisis of performance and a crisis of confidence

    but piggy pig pig is apt and actually fairly gentle as these sorts of disparagements go

    i like this appellation A LOT cause of it resonates so aptly with how so so so much of the system is geared towards revenue-generating not justice aor the public interest

    piggies get their little snouts in a trough and they go oinkety oink oink

    whether that trough is the wallets of drivers who maybe forgot to signal or the ridiculous gravy train of the piggy pensions to which they feel so so entitled

    but if reforms are made with that lens in mind, I think we’ll be on the right track, and we can all ride our bikes into the future with both élan and a genuine smile for Officer Bob as we pedal past

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  57. *or* the public interest i mean

    happyfeet (a037ad)


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