Texas trooper had no right to ask Sandra Bland to put out her cigarette
There was nothing "lawful" about Trooper Encinia's order
Asking a woman sitting inside of her vehicle to put out her cigarette during a traffic stop is not a reasonable request for an officer to make and Sandra Bland knew it.
“You mind putting out your cigarette, please?,” Officer Brian Encinia asked.
“I’m in my car. Why do I have to put out my cigarette?” Bland replied.
“Well, you can step on out now,” Officer Encinia replies.
We know what happened next, based on a dashcam video released by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Bland was violently pulled out of her vehicle, thrown to the ground after she refused to obey Encinia’s “lawful order” and jailed at Waller County Jail, where she was found dead three days later under suspicious circumstances.
But let’s address this cigarette issue. Did Officer Encinia have a right to ask her to put it out? Eric Sanders, a former NYPD officer and civil rights attorney, told AlterNet flatly, “No.”
“What law was he enforcing?,” Sanders, who spent nearly 13 years years with the NYPD, asked. “Is there a law against her smoking a cigarette in her own car? The police only have power through the Constitution, so can you explain to me what was the legal basis for that command? The government can only tell you, as a citizen, to do something that has legal authority. Without legal authority, they have nothing. So tell me what did she do?”
Eric Guster, a civil rights attorney in Birmingham, Ala., says officers can ask drivers to comply with reasonable commands. For example, a cop can ask a driver to turn off the ignition to his or her vehicle because not doing so can endanger the officer’s safety. If a car has a lot of people in it, that officer can ask everyone to raise their hands so he or she can see them. The officer can also ask someone to turn on his or her car lights if the inside of the vehicle is dark.
After reviewing the video, Guster says Officer Encinia’s request was far from reasonable.