Ken Berwitz
Today\’s quote – and a shameful, stupid one it is – comes to us from Senator and Presidential aspirant Bernard Sanders.
But first, a refresher course on why he said what he did.
Do you remember Sandra Bland? She was the woman who was stopped by Texas trooper for a minor traffic infraction, and goaded the trooper into a physical confrontation. She wound up in jail…and either killed herself or was murdered in her jail cell (depending on whose side of the story you believe) three days later.
It then turned out that Bland had attempted suicide earlier in the year, and told jail personnel that she was depressed – not suicidal, but depressed (remember, her death occurred days afterwards while she languished in jail).
You can read the Washington Post\’s account of what happened, and see the entire episode on the trooper\’s dashcam, by clicking here.
This is how the Post\’s article starts:
Sandra Blandpreviously attempted suicide after the loss of a baby and was feeling “verydepressed” on the day of her arrest, according to a handwritten jail intakescreening form Texas officials released Wednesday.
Bland – a 28-year-oldAfrican American woman – died in a Waller County jail three days after aTexas trooper pulled her over on July 10 during a routine trafficstop. Officials classified her death as suicide by hanging, but those whoknew the Illinois woman treated that classification with skepticism and as “unfathomable.”
The handwrittensuicide screening form Waller County Sheriff\’s Office released Wednesdayindicated Bland\’s previous suicide attempt in 2015 with pills and her state ofdepression. The handwritten form was completed at 5:32 p.m.
In answer to thequestion about depression “Are you feeling this way now?” Bland answered: “Yes.”
Asked whether she wasconsidering suicide on the day of her arrest, Bland answered: “No.”
So what do we have here? We have a woman who, whether rightly or wrongly (you can see the dashcam video and decide for yourself) went from a warning – not even a ticket – for a failure to signal, to a profanity-laced (hers, not the officer\’s) arrest.
And this same woman, with one unsuccessful suicide attempt (that we know of) in her past, and depressed, winding up dead in her jail cell days later.
Do we know for sure what happened? No.
Can we ever know for sure what happened? Almost certainly no.
Is there a credible reason to believe that she killed herself in jail? Yes – we do not know one way or the other, but given her history and mental state when arrested, it certainly is a possibility…
Ok, now we get to Bernard Sanders – a man who is running for President and is behind in the polls, in large part, because his main opponent, front-runner Hillary Clinton has a huge lead among Black voters.
Clearly, Mr. Sanders needs to do something about boosting his standing among this segment.
Is that the reason he said this about the Texas grand jury\’s decision?
“SandraBland should not have died while in police custody.
There\’s no doubt in mymind that she, like too many African Americans who die in police custody, wouldbe alive today if she were a white woman
“My thoughts are with her family and lovedones tonight. We need to reform a very broken criminal justice system.”
That, folks, is a straight-out accusation that Sandra Bland was murdered, and that the murder was a racial hate crime.
What is Mr. Sanders\’ evidence? He has not offered any. He has only said there is no doubt in his mind that Sandra Bland was murdered in her jail cell.
By whom? He doesn\’t say. No evidence necessary, no cop or prison guard suspected, no nothing. An accusation of that magnitude based on nothing.
This, presumably, is supposed to make Sanders a hero among Black people (who overwhelmingly vote Democrat) – especially the racist, hate-filled #blacklivesmatter crowd, which is likely to see things the same way – and cut into Hillary\’s Clinton\’ s lead….unless Ms. Clinton says the same thing, maybe in an even more insinuating, condemnatory way (I wonder if she\’ll take the bait).
I award Bernard Sanders Quote Of The Day “honors” for making what has to be one of the most desperate, pandering, disgusting comments of this political season. To me, Donald Trump\’s initial comment (which he backed away from) that all Muslims should be barred from entering the United States is the only one worse – but only by a small margin.
Congratulations, Bernard. What a great “victory” for you.
