Woman found dead in Texas jail was excited about new chapter
Even after one video surfaced showing the 28-year-old talking in March about depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, those who knew her said she would not have killed herself inside a Texas jail cell — not even over the confrontational traffic stop that led to her arrest, which mirrored the ones she railed against online.
On Friday, about 100 protesters marched from the Waller County jail — where authorities say she hanged herself with a plastic bag on Monday — to the courthouse in Hempstead, where several other friends of hers also expressed disbelief.
The death of Bland, who was black, comes amid increased national scrutiny of police after a series of high-profile cases in which blacks have been killed by officers.
In January, Bland began posting a series of cellphone videos to her Facebook page under the title "Sandy Speaks" in which she groused about everything from inattentive parents and police mistreatment of blacks to what she called the "generation of heads down" — all of us with our heads buried in our smartphones.
In Chicago on Thursday, her sisters told reporters nothing in Bland's background pointed to a troubled mental state.
In the past few weeks, Bland applied for a community outreach job at Prairie View A&M with the family and consumer sciences section of its cooperative extension program.
Staffers work with underserved residents on issues that including parenting, money management, nutrition and wellness.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that the state trooper who stopped Bland violated traffic stop procedures and the department's courtesy policy.