AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Department of Public Safety says it will fire the trooper indicted for perjury related to his traffic stop and arrest of Sandra Bland, a black woman who died three days later in jail.
The department said in a statement Wednesday that it would “begin termination proceedings” against Brian Encinia.
Encinia was indicted earlier Wednesday for allegedly lying in an affidavit about the July traffic stop in which he arrested Bland.
Dashcam video shows the traffic stop quickly became confrontational, with Encinia holding a stun gun and yelling, “I will light you up!” after Bland refused to get out of her car.
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She lost her life, he lost his job. Seems legit.
Fired? NOW this is a tragedy.
Just a gun slinging bully who somehow got a badge he NEVER should have been entrusted with. One of the worst moments was when he tricked and bullied her into extinguish her cigarette, deliberately misleading her into believing he had the right to require such. Such an abuse under color of law!
Found it on YouTube: “Do you mind putting out your cigarette, please?” Syntactically just a polite question, but the intent is to deceive the driver into believing it is a lawful instruction and she has already done something very wrong. Routine goon squad tactic, gauged to exacerbate the situation, and humiliate/antagonize a law-abiding motorist. While sinisterly maintaining his angle to later falsely claim it was just an innocent question.