Disconcerting Images from One Who Has Refuted Allegation Against Police

As readers of my numerous newspapers articles and those who have listened to me on radio shows know I have routinely refuted spurious allegations made against police. During 2014 on shows such as Bill Bennett, Larry Elder, and Seth Leibsohn, to Dom Giordano in 2006, going to back to the Dennis Praeger show in 2001.

I disproved the false or erroneous allegations made by so-called civil rights groups, progressive Democrats, the liberal mainstream media, and most recently the libertarians of Cato and Reason. I exposed their lies and debunked their myths about racist police shootings, car stops, use of force etc.

Incidents that were beyond question, like the case of Walter Scott, were never controversial because it was quite obvious what the officer did in shooting a fleeing unarmed man was illegal.

But now there is the case of Sandra Bland. I find it disconcerting. Quite apart from the jail cell hanging, I do not see any reason for her to have been in that jail cell in the first place.

Now, I know the video shown on tv of the Bland car stop is heavily edited. But there are comments made by the State Trooper, edited or not, that do not make sense.

He tells her she seems agitated. OK so what? Most people are for being stopped by police.

He tells her to put out her cigarette. Since when is that a lawful police order for someone sitting in her own car?

Then he forcefully yanks her from the car. This woman bad mouthed him a little. But nothing that was egregious. Trooper Brian Encinia turned what should have been a routine traffic stop with either a warning or a citation being issued into an arrest.

Somebody will have to explain to me why this happened. Moreover, someone will have to explain to me why this was not thrown out by the magistrate.

Three years ago I was stopped by an Alabama State Trooper after crossing the state line, on I 10, from Mississippi. I looked every bit the middle aged, white tourist I was. I was vacationing in New Orleans with my wife. She was at a conference. So I drove to meet best selling novelist W.E.B. Griffin at his home in Alabama.

I drove a Louisiana rental car. I was wearing a souvenir New Orleans golf shirt, a souvenir New Orleans P.D. baseball cap. My camcorder was on the passenger seat.

When the trooper approached the car he asked if I knew why he stopped me. I replied no and asked how fast I was driving. He responded 56 mph. I started laughing. I said, "You have got to be kidding me."

He did not like this and asked me to get out of the car. I complied and stepped out the car. He searched me and the car - including the trunk.

He said he stopped because I swerved. ( I do not recall doing so. But I was not going to argue the point.)

I did not tell him I was a former police officer until after he issued me a warning. I was more interested as a writer/ journalist in what he was doing. After I told him I used to be a police officer in Philadelphia he relaxed. We chatted a little and we parted on friendly terms.

But I can see how someone could feel insulted. But I also know you do what the ACLU advises - cooperate until you get your day in court.

But Sandra Bland was not really uncooperative. She was a little testy, but not so much that she should have been dragged out of the car.

If Trooper Encinia cannot take a little badmouting he should be a librarian.

I do not know what happened in the cell but, from what I can tell so far, Ms. Bland should never have been there in the first place.

These are disconcerting images.