I find the whole Sandra Bland case sad and strange, and I am gratified the DoJ is investigating it. I wish she had never been arrested in the first place. She and the officer each could have handled this situation better. She could have simply politely cooperated, and he could have given her more room to express herself without escalating the situation.
I'm really disappointed by this equivocation. One is sworn (and paid) to protect and serve the other. I didn't see anything that she did to provoke an arrest until the officer was trying to pull her out of the car and pointing a stun gun at her, but you have legal training so LMK if I'm wrong there.
I agree that her behavior wasn't ideal, but that doesn't seem very relavent. We give officers the authority to use force and arrest people, and in exchange we need to hold them to a much higher standard of behavior.
I absolutely agree. Personally when I am dealing with a traffic stop I make it my job to make the cop as comfortable and sympathetic as possible. Frankly if I had been in Bland's situation and he asked me to put out a cigarette I would just have complied. I can understand being pissed at the cop who pulls you over, but I see no upside to being confrontational with the police.
Yes, I do this too. Mostly because I can't stand to be around police officers and want the encounter to end ASAP. They seem to almost always be snotty, sarcastic assholes.
But neither of us is Sandra Bland, we are not routinely targeted and harassed by law enforcement. I'm interested if you disagree that black people are disproportionatly targeted by police or if you disagree that we should expect that targeting to affect their behavior when they're stopped. If you agree on both counts, I'm not sure how our behavior is relevant here.