This blogaround brought to you by rice.
Recommended Reading:
Jenn: [Content Note: Racism; internment] Wesley Clark Calls for Modern Day Incarceration Camps Styled After Those Used During WWII
Mia: [CN: Racism; white supremacy] 4 Things We Should All Teach Kids About Racism Right Now
Parker: [CN: Outing; hetero- and ciscentrism] It's About Ethics in Journalism
Rafi: [CN: Racism; misogynoir] Trivial Racism Is Still Racism and Still Must Be Checked
Mannion: [CN: Class warfare] The Donald Makes It Clear
Peter: [CN: Slut-shaming; reproductive policing; spoilers for Trainwreck] Judd-ging Amy: The Slut-Shaming, Heteronormative Morality of Trainwreck
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
The Wednesday Blogaround
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Police brutality] The Texas Department of Public Safety says that the dashcam footage of Sandra Bland's arrest was not edited but that the glitches are due to "technical issues." Okay. "[DPS spokesperson Tom Vinger] said some of the video during a conversation between the trooper and his sergeant after the arrest of Bland was 'affected in the upload and is being addressed,' and that DPS was working to repost it." Sure.
[CN: War on agency; hostility to consent. NB: Not only women need access to abortion.] The New York Times editors weigh in on the undercover videos being used to try to discredit Planned Parenthood and pull no punches, right from the headline: "The Campaign of Deception Against Planned Parenthood." They conclude, bluntly: "The Center for Medical Progress video campaign is a dishonest attempt to make legal, voluntary, and potentially lifesaving tissue donations appear nefarious and illegal. Lawmakers responding by promoting their own anti-choice agenda are rewarding deception and putting women's health and their constitutionally protected rights at risk." Boom.
In other reproductive rights news: Check out this interview with Erin Matson and Pam Merritt (aka Shark Fu) about Reproaction, their new reproductive justice advocacy organization. About which, by the way, I am SO EXCITED!
[CN: AME Shooting; racist violence] According to anonymous law enforcement sources, Dylann Roof is expected to be "indicted on federal hate crimes charges as soon as Wednesday afternoon. ...The federal charges come as Roof faces nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons charge, counts on which South Carolina prosecutors could choose to seek the death penalty. Roof cannot be charged with hate crimes in state court, however—South Carolina is among just five states, including the southern states of Georgia and Arkansas, that have no hate crimes laws."
[CN: Homophobia] All the mirthless laughter: "Two more Alabama counties have said they will resume issuing marriage licenses to all couple seeking them, including same-sex couples, admitting that all legal options to defy the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage have been exhausted." That news again: "Losers finally admit defeat. Sad trombone noises."
[CN: Multiple bigotries] This is a really excellent, if profoundly troubling, piece about how Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker resides firmly in the pocket of ALEC, the odious American Legislative Exchange Council. We really cannot let this guy and his heinous puppet-masters anywhere near the Oval Office.
[CN: Misogyny] Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton visits a small business in Detroit and fields questions from the press (despite how she allegedly refuses to talk to the press), and she's asked about "how the Trans Pacific Partnership might affect Detroit workers," to which she replies, "First of all I'm going to wait to see what's in it. I've said that. And I'm going to judge whether or not it creates good jobs, whether it protects the jobs we have, and whether it's good for our national security. And I've made clear some of the specifics that I think need to be in there. When I was Secretary of State, we worked with both the auto companies and the UAW to make some changes in the South Korean trade deal. The jury is still out, but we listened and responded because we inherited a deal that neither the companies nor the workers were particularly excited about. So I saw first hand how we can bring people together and try to improve the opportunity for American companies and American unions and American workers to get a better deal." And this reporter comments: "Nice dodge." I MEAN.
[CN: War] Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, whom I'm supposed to love because FREEDOM (but no abortion) and LIBERTY (but more jails) and LESS WAR, advocates "military action against Iran to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon, even though he says it would only delay Iran getting a bomb." He seems terrific. And highly principled!
[CN: Rape culture] Judd Apatow calls Bill Cosby "one of the most awful people that you've ever heard of" and says Cosby's serial assault is "the worst thing that's ever happened in show business." You know what, Judd Apatow? I seriously do not want to hear a fucking thing about Cosby from the producer of Superbad, the entire premise of which is two losers fixing to get ladies drunk to "have sex with" them, not to mention the producer, director, and/or writer on a number of other projects that contain scenes of rape, rape culture tropes, and rape jokes. Fuck off, hypocrite.
[CN: Sexual abuse] The Duggars are unbelievable: According to "a source who has worked closely with" the family, they are all broken up that TLC has canceled their show. The Duggars, says the source, are "heartbroken that they've now lost that platform. "The Duggars want to return to TV because they truly believe it was part of God's plan for them to spread the word about their faith. ...I think Jim Bob and Michelle honestly did expect people to just move on from this. Their thinking is, they put this behind them ages ago, so why wouldn't the rest of the world?" Rage seethe boil.
Wowowowowow: "For the first time, astronomers in Europe have observed star-forming gas clouds in the early universe—the building blocks of the first galaxies. The faint glow of ionized carbon was spotted by the European Southern Observatory's ALMA telescope, located in Chile. ...'This is the most distant detection ever of this kind of emission from a 'normal' galaxy, seen less than one billion years after the Big Bang,' Andrea Ferrara, an astronomer with Italy's Scuola Normale Superiore and co-author of a new study on the findings, said in a press release. 'It gives us the opportunity to watch the build-up of the first galaxies,' Ferrara explained. 'For the first time we are seeing early galaxies not merely as tiny blobs, but as objects with internal structure!'"
Here's another terrific story about a rescued dog saving his guardian's life. "What's even more amazing is the fact that John Boy had been adopted and returned to a shelter three times before he was adopted by his forever family." Blub.
And finally! This kitty likes being lulled to sleep with a toothbrush gently massaging his head. Hey, who doesn't?
Daily Dose of Cute
Queen of Fuzz.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Make-Up Thread
Here is your semi-regular make-up thread, to discuss all things make-up.
Do you have a make-up product you'd recommend? Are you looking for the perfect foundation which has remained frustratingly elusive? Need or want to offer make-up tips? Searching for hypoallergenic products? Want to grouse about how you hate make-up? Want to gush about how you love it?
Whatever you like—have at it!
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Hey, remember the '80s? Specifically, remember the half-pink and half-turquoise eye shadow look of the '80s? It was all the rage at my middle school!
So I decided to recreate that today, using ColourPop's (regrettably named) "Slave2Pink" and Urban Decay's "Shattered." Just a little mascara and some pink off-brand lipgloss I bought at Big Lots for $2 (lol) to complete my retro look!
As an aside, I have no idea what I'm doing with my hair. I can't decide if I'm growing it out, or if I'm gonna chop it super-short again. So, in the meantime, I'm sporting what I'm calling the "Tig Notaro."
What's up with you?
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Please note, as always, that advice should be not be offered to an individual person unless they solicit it. Further: This thread is open to everyone—women, men, genderqueer folks. People who are make-up experts, and people who are make-up newbies. Also, because there is a lot of racist language used in discussions of make-up, and in make-up names, please be aware to avoid turns of phrase that are alienating to women of color, like "nude" or "flesh tone" when referring to a peachy or beige color. I realize some recommended products may have names that use these words, so please be considerate about content noting for white supremacist (and/or Orientalist) product naming.
Rick Santorum: Terrible Forever
[Content Note: Heterocentrism; homophobia; Christian Supremacy.]
Former Senator, current sweatervest aficionado, and 1/16th of the Republican Nightmare Presidential Contingent Rick Santorum is a world-renowned homophobic and Christian Supremacist shitlord, and here is another perfect example of how he developed his sterling reputation for being the fucking worst:
I know in the schools in Massachusetts, in the grade school, they teach these books and plays that say, 'Suzy has two moms.' It's okay to put a book that says, 'Suzy has two moms,' but you can't put a book in there about moms and dads and marriage and tell people how important it is to be married before you have children. Then you're moralizing. It's okay to say, 'Suzy has two moms,' or 'Johnny has two dads,' but you can't say marriage is an important part of having a stable and healthy economy…GOOD GRIEF THIS GUY.
First of all, there are no books about anything being "an important part of having a stable and healthy economy" in grade school, sir. What are you even talking about?
Secondly, these two things are not like the other: "Suzy has two moms" is a fact. A fact that communicates to children who might only be aware of different-sex parents that same-sex parents exist, and that communicates to children who have same-sex parents that their families are visible and valued. On the other hand, "Suzy has a mom and a dad who got married before Suzy was born and that is important because Jesus" is not a fact. It is a moral position.
So, yes, Rick Santorum: Facts are not moralizing. And moralizing is moralizing. Funny how that works.
Sandra Bland Case: Dashcam Footage Released
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death.]
Yesterday, I noted that the dashcam footage of Sandra Bland's arrest was soon to be released, and it was released last night. [CN: Video autoplays at link.] It is very difficult to watch. Two important observations:
1. The dashcam video, which includes audio, does not show Bland being "combative" by any reasonable definition of the word. It shows State Trooper Brian Encinia barking orders at Bland, first to extinguish her cigarette, which she refuses to do, telling him that she has a right to smoke in her car, then to get out of her vehicle, which she also refuses to do, telling him that he has no right to order her out of her vehicle when she's not under arrest.
Encinia gets increasingly angry and begins threatening to drag Bland out of her car. He opens her car door and reaches in for her and continues to shout at her as she tries to establish exactly why he is telling her that she needs to get out of her vehicle. Eventually, Bland gets out, and she makes clear to him that she thinks it's bullshit and continues to ask why the hell this is necessary when she was pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. The officer shouts at her that she's not complying, and she angrily tells him, "I'm not complying because you just pulled me out of my car!" He cuffs her, shouts at her to stop moving and sit down, and she says, "Ooh, I can't wait 'til we go to Court."
Bland is contemptuous; Encinia is increasingly rageful. He tells her she's not allowed to hold her phone. He forces her to put her phone down on the trunk of her car. He tells her to turn around so she can be cuffed, and refuses to answer why she's being placed under arrest. He is screaming at her to stop moving and yelling at her that this is all her fault, because originally he was just going to give her a warning. (Then why didn't he just give it to her and let her go on her way?!) Eventually, he slams her to the ground, and she cries out. A female officer arrives.
Bland can be heard crying out about her head being slammed on the ground, and she says, "I have epilepsy, you motherfucker," to which Encinia replies, "Good." The female officer tells her, "You should have thought about that before you started resisting."
Encinia tells Bland, "You wait right here," to which she replies, "I can't go nowhere with a knee on my back DUH." She mocks the officers for feeling tough for hurting a woman over a lane change ticket. She verbally protests, but she is not "combative." (And only after the officer has been unreasonable.) I need you understand that Bland is a feisty, tough, defiant woman. This is a woman who intends to survive, and on her terms.
2. The dashcam video has clearly been edited. Here, for example, is one segment in which a tow truck driver can be seen walking toward Encinia's cruiser, while he is heard describing events to another officer. And then the scene of the tow truck driver just loops, although the audio is different.
Video Description: A tow truck drive in a black jacket with reflective stripes can be seen reaching into his truck for something, then walking in the direction of the cruiser, past Bland's parked car, and then offscren to the right. The video then blinks and the same exact scene repeats, though the audio does not, although it seems as though the audio has been edited in some way, too.He is patently lying about what happened. Bland was not complaining about getting a ticket. She was asking why she needed to put out her cigarette and get out of her vehicle over a ticket. And Encinia was not being thwarted as he tried to explain "why" to her, but was, in fact, refusing to explain why to her.
Over the repeated scene, Encinia can be heard saying: "—and, you know, and just explained to her what was going on, because I couldn't even—I couldn't even get to do what I was telling her. She just started going, 'This is an emeffing—you give me an emeffing ticket for lane change!' and she just started going—" Pause as he listens to an inaudible voice. "I just stepped back from the car. I was like, 'Are you done, ma'am? I need to tell you why what I'm giving you.' And it just kept on going." Pause as he listens. "I mean, I don't have serious bodily injury." He chuckles. "You know, but I—but I was kicked." Pause. "Assault is if—" An inaudible voice is heard on the other end of the line. "Assault is if a person commits offense intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to another—"
Much of their altercation happens offscreen, and they are heard and not seen, so I can't say with certainty that Bland didn't kick him (although I will tell you that my opinion is that it's extremely unlikely, especially since he was shouting about every other move she was making; I can't imagine he wouldn't have mentioned her kicking him if she really had), but clearly he's already setting up his defense here. She started it; she assaulted him.
That is flatly not what happened.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker FlyingCube: "What is something that you wished you liked more?"
Breakfast food. I hate eggs, I can take or leave most breakfast meats, and I'm not a huge fan of pancakes, waffles, French toast, crepes, etc. It would make going out to breakfast, which is something I enjoy doing, a lot more fun if I liked a bigger selection of traditional breakfast foods!
"I Am Tia Oso"
[Content Note: Racism; misogynoir; violence; police brutality.]
A must-read by Tia Oso: "I Am the Black Woman Who Interrupted the Netroots Presidential Town Hall, and This Is Why."
I'm not even going to excerpt it. Just go read the whole thing.
Background here.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Privacy violation.]
"I think Rick Perry probably is smarter than Lindsey Graham."—Gold Toilet Aficionado Donald Trump, in a tremendously awful campaign speech today, during which he also publicly shared Senator Graham's cell phone number, in retaliation for Graham calling him a "jackass."
There is nothing funny about Trump publicly disclosing Graham's private number, but there is nothing not funny about Trump insulting Graham by saying that even Rick Perry is smarter than he is. RICK PERRY BONUS SLAM.
Remember how this was going to be the serious, grown-up, civil, not full of bullshit drama Republican primary? HA HA WHOOOOOOPS!
Pass the popcorn.
Shaker Gourmet
Whatcha been cooking up in your kitchen lately, Shakers?
Share your favorite recipes, solicit good recipes, share recipes you've recently tried, want to try, are trying to perfect, whatever! Whether they're your own creation, or something you found elsewhere, share away.
Also welcome: Recipes you've seen recently that you'd love to try, but haven't yet!
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I've previously mentioned my love of my little $30 Hamilton Beach steamer, which makes dinner so easy. And I've also mentioned that I tend to eat lots of salads in the summer, because neither Iain nor I love hot meals in hot weather.
One of my favorite things to cook in summer is a piece of salmon in the steamer, which gives salmon such a nice flavor and such an amazingly creamy texture. When it's done, I just lightly salt and pepper it, and serve it over a cold salad of fresh spinach leaves, tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, and white balsamic vinegar. Yummmmmmm.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dudley staring at me last night because I was eating popcorn. And he wanted some. Even though he doesn't like popcorn. Basically he wanted me to be eating something else that he likes and then give him some of it. His life is terrible. Obviously.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today...
Breaking Clown Car News! [Insert circus music here!] Republican Governor of Ohio John Kasich has officially announced his candidacy for the US presidency, bringing the total number of major GOP candidates to 16! "I have the skills, and I have the experience. I have the experience and the testing—the testing that prepares you for the most important job in the world." He also has the speaking—the speaking of the words that mean things in language. Kasich is also yet another white dude in this race who has a "short fuse" and a "hair-trigger temper," i.e. an anger management problem. So that's awesome! Welcome to the race, Kasich. Can't wait to hear you scream about all your terrific ideas!
In other presidential race news, Hillary Clinton has introduced some proposals that are "aimed at a corporate culture that has fixated on the short term over longer-term investments in things like employee compensation," a fixation which "is a real problem for the economy." Last week, she debuted "a profit-sharing proposal that would give companies a 15 percent tax credit for sharing some of those earnings with employees. Then this week, she is expected to propose changing taxes on capital gains, which are currently subject to a 23.8 percent rate that is lower than the rate for most ordinary income, so that rates would be higher for short-term investments and lower for longer ones." This doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it actually is!
Also: Clinton did a Facebook Q&A, and Lauren Gambino has a good write-up of it at the Guardian, if you're interested. (Her response to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's "gender card" dig is pretty great.)
Meanwhile: Bernie Sanders is going all-in a $15 federal minimum wage. There are multiple schools of thought about this on the progressive side of the aisle: Some progressives support the across-the-board $15 minimum wage hike; some progressives support a minimum wage increase that's tied to a percentage of local cost of living (because $15/hour doesn't mean the same thing in NYC as it does in Smalltownville, Indiana). I am in the latter faction, because I think it should be more than $15 in a lot of places, and also because there are lots of small business owners in much of Middle America (especially small business owners who are white women or people of color who started with a minority business loan) who can't afford a $15/hour minimum wage, but could afford a locally livable wage less than that. But other people, like Sanders, support the flat minimum wage increase. And I will say this: At least we're talking about raising the minimum wage!
[Content Note: Abortion; tissue sales; hostility to consent] The Center for Medical Progress (fuck that name and fuck them) has released a second "undercover" video "of an official at a Planned Parenthood affiliate discussing the costs associated with harvesting fetal tissue for medical research." Still not illegal, unethical, or unusual. Meanwhile, RH Reality Check has published a comprehensive infographic detailing the connections between anti-choice radicals and Congressional leaders, who conspire to orchestrate these attacks on Planned Parenthood.
[CN: Homophobia] In good news: "Democrats in Congress plan to introduce a sweeping measure this week that would extend civil rights protections to LGBT Americans. The Equality Act—which is a revamped version of the failed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA—would prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in seven areas: credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service, and public accommodations." In bad news: It's probably not going to go anywhere, because the Republican Congressional majority is comprised of a bunch of bigoted dipshits.
[CN: Misogyny] I have allllll the questions about this study whose authors concluded, based on researching videogame play, that "low-status males that have the most to lose due to a hierarchical reconfiguration are [misogynists because they're losers while] high-status males with the least to fear were more positive [toward women]." Sure. This seems widely applicable to wider society. That's why highly powerful CEOs are renowned for their decency toward women. *that face*
This photo of Earth taken from one million miles away is absolutely breathtaking.
And finally! "Baby Horse Born with Horse-Shaped Marking." I repeat: BABY HORSE BORN WITH HORSE-SHAPED MARKING!
The Guarded Posture I Reflexively Strike
[Content Note: Misogyny.]
I was speaking to Iain about some of the responses I'd gotten to the Ladies' Man piece. We were sitting on our deck, as the sun set and the air hung heavy with a clearing rain, having a drink and a smoke. I was talking about the idea of feeling safe with straight cis men, how rare that is for me—and for many of the women I know.
I was telling Iain about the pushback I get when I say that I don't feel safe around most straight cis men, how I'm called a man-hater and a misandrist and a "profiler." How it's assumed I mean that I'm afraid of physical harm. How I'm told that nobody wants to rape me.
When I talk broadly about wanting to feel safe with men, I'm not even talking about physical or sexual assault. (When I am talking about that, I make it abundantly clear.) What I'm talking about is wanting the safety of being able to be myself, without having my identity used against me.
What I'm talking about is how I can't walk into a room and leave my womanhood behind, and thus any man who wants to trade on his male privilege and use misogynistic stereotypes against me has a ready-made weapon for harming me.
What I'm talking about is how I cannot magically discern which men are going to do this to me; I don't know until they reveal themselves, and by then it is too late—I am no longer safe.
What I'm talking about is how I know from a lifetime of experience that the men who choose not to harm me in this way are way more rare than the men who do.
Women who live at the intersections of other marginalized identities walk into a room with every attendant vulnerability which can be exploited by any man (or other woman) who chooses to exploit them.
I walk into a room not just as a woman, but as a fat woman and an ugly woman, carrying with me all the marginalizing narratives specifically about fat and ugly women. Here is Dustin Hoffman, breaking down into tears, as he recounts the numbers of women to whom he paid no attention, whose humanity and value he didn't even acknowledge, because they weren't attractive.
I walk into a room as a woman with a publicly disclosed mental illness, and as a woman who may walk in with an awkward gait, depending on what my back is doing that day. I bring with me the marginalizing narratives about crazy women and "broken" women.
I walk into a room as a survivor. As feminist. As atheist.
These things can be, and have been, used against me, too. By men, especially, who connect them inevitably to my womanhood.
Some of these things are visible, the moment I walk into any room. Some of them I have some measure of control over disclosing or concealing, depending on whether I intuit they'll be used against me.
When I say I want to be safe, what I mean is that I want to be able to be my whole self, without the fear that revealing my whole self will invite abuse.
I said to Iain, "It's about safety. Surely you see that. Surely you have seen how I don't feel safe with most men."
Iain nodded. He had surely seen it. "Your whole demeanor changes," he says. "Even your posture changes. Your body language is different. Your humor becomes more barbed. You're more—" He searched for the right word.
"Guarded," I offer.
"Yeah, guarded," he said.
"It's a self-defense mechanism," I said. "Born out of necessity, learned over a lifetime. You've seen why I need it. You've seen the interactions, over and over, that render it necessary."
"I have," he said. "I know." He said this with compassion and validation. He had seen it. He knows.
He understands how elusive this safety is for me, and why it is that when I am introduced to straight cis men unknown to me, or when I am in the presence of straight cis men who have already conveyed to me, through comments or "jokes" (so many jokes; such great jokes) or talking over me or talking down to me or ruthlessly insulting me or shaming me or auditing me or physically intimidating me or engaging in any one of an endless number of shitty behaviors, that they view me as less than, and want to make damn sure that I know that is how they see me.
I cannot afford the emotional cost of good faith, not anymore. My posture changes; my humor becomes more barbed; I am wary, as I size up whether there is even a chance that I might be safe.
This is the guarded posture I reflexively strike. The ladies' men in my life know damn well why I need to strike it, and they don't take for granted when I let down my shoulders and with it my defenses.
They see it as a gift, not a target.
It is always, always, the men who make themselves just trustworthy enough so that I relax, only to treat my unfixed jaw like a bull treats a bolt of red fabric, who then shame me for being guarded and ask terrific questions about why I gotta be such a bitch.
To which I can only reply with gales of mirthless laughter.
Which doesn't sound anything at all like the loud, raucous, reverberating laughter that escapes from my throat among friends, in spaces where I feel safe.
Trump Is the Hero Trump's Been Waiting For
[Content Note: Abuse.]
As you may have heard, Gold Toilet Aficionado Donald Trump's latest fuckery is attacking Republican Senator John McCain for not being a war hero because he was a prisoner of war who was "captured," which Trump doesn't find heroic.
(McCain was flying a bombing mission during the Vietnam War when he was shot down over Hanoi; he was severely injured, his injuries untreated, and subjected to further physical torture and years of solitary confinement. He was held for five and a half years before being released with permanent physical disabilities.)
Only Trump can be so aggressively execrable that I can muster compassion for my arch-nemesis McCain and find myself in momentary agreement with Senator Lindsey Graham, who called Trump a "jackass" and added: "I am really pissed."
But! This is also a perfect example of how Donald Trump is the uncensored id of his disgusting party: Sure, what he's saying is contemptible, but his fellow Republicans are really only mad about it because he turned on one of their own.
They were all pretty damn okay with this exact strategy when it was being used against then-Democratic presidential candidate and current Secretary of State John Kerry during the '04 election.
Honestly, John Kerry should get a medal for not commandeering C-SPAN to laugh mirthlessly into the camera for eleventy years at the GOP's sudden vigorous defense of war heroes.
I can't wait until one of them accuses Trump of swiftboating McCain, without a trace of irony.
Anyway.
I said my agreement with Lindsey Graham was fleeting. Here's what else he said: "He's becoming a jackass at a time when we need to have a serious debate about the future of the party and the country. This is a line he's crossed, and this is the beginning of the end of Donald Trump."
He talks about Trump as though Trump stands outside of his party's mainstream; as though Trump's bombastic grotesquery is incompatible with Republican Party principles, rather than a gilded billion-dollar caricature of their distilled essence.
If this is the end of Donald Trump, then it's the end of the Republican Party. Because he is the Republican Party—more than any other of its craven candidates, who desperately pretend to be something else.
Sandra Bland Case: Update
[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; death; self-harm.]
Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old black woman who was found dead in a jail cell in Texas last week after being arrested following a confrontation with police during a traffic stop, is still officially suspected to have hanged herself with a trash bag, but Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis says that her death "is being treated like a murder investigation. I want fingerprints run. I want...DNA tests run on the trash bag."
He also called for "any other valid scientific testing that we have so we can say with certainty what happened in her cell."There is also a petition here whose signers share that belief.
"There are too many questions that still need to be resolved," Mathis added.
The case is being run by the Texas Rangers and is being supervised by the FBI, Mathis said. But local church pastors say they and Bland's relatives believe the case should be investigated by Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Department of Justice.
Bland's family has also called for an independent autopsy, which is being done. They are also questioning the dashcam footage, which may be released this week, which her family and local advocates say shows Bland being dragged from her vehicle—a contention disputed by police.
Mathis, the DA who says he will treat the investigation as though it were a murder, also says the dashcam footage shows that "it was not a model traffic stop and it was not a model person that was stopped." He says that Bland was "very combative" with the officer, but the dashcam footage "may not clarify what happened because much of the activity takes place in Bland's car, of which there was a limited view."
"Combative" sure doesn't mean to police what it means to me, if someone can be "combative" from inside their car. No less so "combative" that they must be pulled out of their car and thrown to the ground and have their head smashed on the pavement and a knee pressed into their backs.
Anything less than total compliance is apparently "combative." Which is a pretty unreasonable expectation of people who know that people who look like them have a disproportionately high risk of dying in police custody. You can't make interacting with police a life or death situation, and then expect people not to be afraid of police and ready to fight for their lives, and then translate any self-defense as "combativeness" used to justify the very harm they felt obliged to protest.
This cycle is totally fucked, and the "Good Cops" of "Not All Cops," wherever the fuck they are, need to start speaking out about how it is police who are fomenting this cycle of mistrust and abuse, and thus police who need to stop it. Police are the ones with the power and the responsibility here. And police need to start being accountable for violent escalations, because what human being isn't going to be "combative" when they quite reasonably believe their life might be on the line?
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker vincaminor: "What's your favourite thing to do on a rainy day?"
Sit on my covered deck and watch the rain. The bigger the storm, the more I enjoy sitting outside and watching it!
That's only if it's a warm day, however. If it's a cold rainy day, there's nothing better than sitting inside curled up with a book.
