The Reverends Emmett G. Price III and Irene Monroe were back on Boston Public Radio for "All Revved Up." They talked about the arrest and death of Sandra Bland in Hempstead, Texas.
The following questions were paraphrased, and Price and Monroe's answers were edited where noted [...]. The Rev. Emmett G. Price III is a professor of music at Northeastern University, and the author of The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture. The Rev. Irene Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist who writes for Huffington Post and Bay Windows.
What do we know so far about Sandra Bland's arrest, and how it does or doesn't fit into the history of policing and race in the US?
Monroe: One of the things we understand now when we talk about Black Lives Matter is that we also talk about African American women. [...] That could be me or any other African American woman sort of "driving while black" in America. [...] Her crime is what I would describe as "contempt of cop." She wasn't obsequious or subservient enough when he asked her to extinguish her cigarette. For something as minor as a traffic signal, I can't believe how it escalated out of control.
This seems like an epidemic at this point, of people of color receiving questionable treatment at the hands of law enforcement. Is something going to happen now?
Price: I am doubtful, although I pray that it will. Here's the scenario. [...] There's a Part A to this situation, and a Part B. The Part A is the arrest, and she gets arrested because she refuses to put the cigarette out. He pulls her out of the car. And I would suggest he didn't realize that she was almost six feet tall. When he pulls her out of the car she's standing over him. Now you have him moving her to the tree outside of the view of the camcorder, and thank God there was somebody around who actually videotaped the rest of it where he's beating her up! [...] The Part B is what happens in the jail cell. And so there is this notion of the police reports, there is some un-authenticated material there. Some dates are missing. Some video footage is missing.
Monroe: And they didn't do due diligence when she did the intake survey. There are conflicting stories because there is one that says, "Yes, I am suffering with depression, particularly after having lost a child." There's another one later on that says no. So they didn't do suicide watch. [...] If it is not a suicide, then clearly it's a lynching. That's — what else would it be?
Price: She had ten previous encounters with police both in Illinois and Texas, and to date she had $7,579 in outstanding fines from these encounters. She was an activist, she was a blogger, it seemed she began in January 2015. One of her recent blogs said that, "in the news that we've seen as of late, you could stand there, surrender to cops and still be killed."
Monroe: And who knew that she was gonna be the casualty of this? [...] Where can black bodies safely reside? I'm caught someplace between what I call MLK's "dream" and Obama's "optimism" about America. But where does a black body live safely in this context?
She was in jail for three nights, and bail was set at $5,000. A lot of people would feel defeated in a situation like that.
Price: You'd lose your hope, there's no question about that. I don't think most average, everyday citizens are prepared to go to jail, for whatever reason. And then to go in for not taking a cigarette out of your mouth — $5,000 bail? Are you kidding me?
Monroe: Back in the day we had something called the "green book." The green book was something that African American people bought because you weren't supposed to be in these towns — they were called "sundown towns" — meaning that you should not drive by there, you should not look for accommodation. I'm beginning to think that we need to implement the green book again. [...] She's down there by herself — although this is her alma mater, the town — she really had no one to come to her defense.
And all this as a result of a state trooper who may have lost control of the situation.
Monroe: You could see at that moment. His ego was bruised and he's certainly operating out of a certain stereotype about black women. That blows it up even that much more. Then when she actually gets out of the car, and she towers over him — this is a man whose ego is totally deflated.
Price: Now that you have the dash cams that are in full play and they have to release them to media and whatnot, you still don't see equality in terms of the different people that are facing these offenses. They're still African American males and females.
