Sister: Weakened 'Sandra Bland Act' in Texas 'gut-wrenching'
Source: Associated Press
Paul J. Weber, Associated Press
Updated 3:04 am, Saturday, May 13, 2017
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The sister of Sandra Bland, a black woman found dead in a Texas jail following a confrontational traffic stop with a white state trooper, says it is "gut-wrenching" that lawmakers stripped police reforms from a bill named after her sibling and are now pushing a weakened compromise that "painfully misses the mark."
Bland's death in 2015 was a national flashpoint in the Black Lives Matter movement the 28-year-old Chicago woman was stopped near Houston for not signaling a lane change, forcibly pulled from her car and found dead in jail days later.
A leaner "Sandra Bland Act" enters the home stretch of the Texas Legislature far from the sweeping package of police accountability and anti-racial profiling measures originally filed in March. In the face of opposition from law enforcement groups and Republicans, the bill was drastically slimmed down and now mostly focuses on better jail trailing and mental health care access.
"What the bill does in its current state renders Sandy invisible," said Sharon Cooper, Bland's older sister, in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday night. "It's frustrating and gut-wrenching."
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Sister-Weakened-Sandra-Bland-Act-in-Texas-11143464.php
cstanleytech
(26,286 posts)how the Republicans have shifted their party into a true Repugnant party.
Nitram
(22,794 posts)They've jumped the shark. Yet Americans still vote for them.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)At least it's something and should make jailers at least stop to consider the mental health of people being jailed, esp considering it's a Republican legislature.
This guy was a bad egg. You can't legislate that away, anyway. A bad egg doesn't follow rules.
Hopefully more Democratic leaning people will vote at the mid-terms.
iluvtennis
(19,852 posts)mwooldri
(10,303 posts)Colour me surprised.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)6 days after she was slammed to the ground by the Pig, the wound still had leaf embedded in it. No one even treated her physical wounds. Police use arrest & jail as punishment.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)furtheradu
(1,865 posts)Truly "gut-wrenching and frustrating".
For Sandra & her Family