Cop Threatens to Use Taser on Sandra Bland in New Dash-Cam Video

By Danielle C. Belton, theRoot

New dashboard-camera footage has been released showing Sandra Bland’s ill-fated police stop July 10. In the video she is shown arguing with a Texas state trooper over being stopped, an argument that escalates when the officer becomes upset that Bland is not putting out her cigarette. The officer forces Bland from her car after threatening to “light” her up with a Taser.

Three days after the arrest, Bland, 28, was found dead in police custody in Prairie View, Texas. Police claim that Bland committed suicide by “self-inflicted asphyxiation” with a plastic bag, but her family and friends have been adamant that the Illinois woman would not have harmed herself.

The video, released by the Texas Department of Public Safety on YouTube, is nearly an hour long. It shows a previous stop by the same officer at the beginning and then, around the 2:12 mark, the officer pulls over Bland, telling her through her passenger window that she failed to signal a lane change. He takes her license and then, at 8 minutes and 36 seconds into the video, returns to the car, telling Bland that she seems irritated. Bland answers that she is irritated because the officer was following her and pulled her over. She says she’s waiting for him to “do his job” and give her a ticket…

An argument ensues when the officer instructs Bland to put out her cigarette and she refuses. The officer then orders Bland to get out of her car.

As the officer tries to force Bland from the car, she repeatedly shouts for the officer not to touch her while asking why she is being apprehended. The officer then removes something from his belt—what’s assumed to be a Taser—and shouts at Bland, “I will light you up now.”

Under threat of being tased, Bland exits the car. He puts handcuffs on her, now out of sight of the dashboard camera. Off-camera, you can hear Bland crying and pleading, now on the ground, as another officer arrives…

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