Talk:Death of Sandra Bland

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 August 2018 and 4 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): WikkiBig6.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:52, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 June 2020

I just wanna say I really don’t understand why her fines are mentioned and the source is some low level news site. Whether false or not, this woman was attacked in broad daylight. I also so don’t understand why it is important we know where the attacker (“officer”) went to university. I want to know why he was shouting at her and literally made her get out of her car at GUNPOINT because of a traffic ticket. He is a monster. He pointed a gun at her and yet he had the nerve to say he felt he was in danger. He is a spineless unworthy weed of the earth. A black woman’s life was taken away for no reason. How many times have one of you white people ever been scared for you life because of a TICKET. come on. She deserves her story to be told very well. She deserves so much more than this. So please do your jobs. RESEARCH. And then maybe you’ll have more useful information and less useless fluff. 2A01:4B00:EC23:D900:EC21:5C77:6C7D:4822 (talk) 20:20, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. If you're here to right great wrongs then you're at the wrong place. RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 22:33, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

Not done? LOL What has outstanding fines got to do with this woman's death? She was a victim. The only reason her transgressions are listed are to mitigate the cop's actions in relation to her death. Through innuendo - oh she wasn't that good a person - the cop's racial profiling was justified and it wasn't wrong to stop her. Honestly!! I am disappointed that Hitler's profile doesn't make it more clear he was a vegetarian artist who loved nature and animals. It might help with all the other stuff history records him doing. Sarcasm aside. Bland is not on trial. The need to mention she had convictions is irrelevant to the traffic stop because the cop was unaware of them at the time of his racial profiling. This info is only there to present an antecedence that diminishes the worth of this woman's life. It almost suggests she got what she deserved because she owed a few thousand dollars in fines. Spineless editors on this site. LOL most of them are white males in their 20s and 30s who live with their parents, so what should we expect? 81.159.166.13 (talk) 16:49, 29 June 2020 (UTC)

@RandomCanadian: @81.159.166.13: @2A01:4B00:EC23:D900:EC21:5C77:6C7D:4822: Wikipedia articles on cases like these are to be based upon newspaper coverage. It's Wikipedia's job to summarize what the news, published books, and academic articles say about the case (within reason, with living people being given more protection as per WP:BLP). I would hope readers understand very well that any of the transgressions listed above (and to be honest they were very minor) to do not in any way justify the people who killed her, but readers do want to see Bland's background and the news did cover it. WhisperToMe (talk) 17:26, 29 June 2020 (UTC)

Hitler's profile? Good to see that Godwin's law still flourishes. WWGB (talk) 03:13, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

• WP:UNDUE weight might be a problem. Bland's police record is described in section 1.1, directly after the lede. This Background section is short, anybody reading from the top of the article finds out right away about Sandra Bland's record. If one is inclined toward the she's no angel rationalization for dismissing these incidents, this article will inadvertently reinforce that. Why are her issues --- most particularly issues that aren't related to traffic stops --- given this prominence? We learn quite a bit about Bland's background in this article, most not in Section 1.1 Background. -- M.boli (talk) 18:38, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

I personally react to Bland's background information in the opposite way. Bland was a BLM activist with a history of interactions with traffic cops which didn't result in being yanked out of the car. Something was wrong with the Encina the cop. But that doesn't obviate the possible undue weight problem. Also, editorially, I note that the IP requesters didn't do their homework. a) Hitler's diet and artistry are indeed mentioned in Wikipedia, there is even a whole article on the art. b) I think Encina didn't draw a gun or threaten Bland with one, it was a tazer. But again, I think they raised an undue weight issue that deserves consideration. It could be solved by finding a less prominent place for the material. -- M.boli (talk) 18:38, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

I wouldn't mind reducing the amount and/or changing the location of the said material. WhisperToMe (talk) 20:29, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

"...a tiny chute..."?

Under the heading "Incarceration and death", the final sentence of the first paragraph begins with "Pyle, who spoke to Bland through a tiny chute..." No explanation is given for what a "chute" is (I presume it's some kind of opening). Can anyone explain? Bricology (talk) 20:16, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

This source says "the two women communicated through the rectangular opening of the jail cell doors." The photos and interview seem to indicate that Pyle and Bland were in opposite cells facing each other across a corridor, and they were speaking to each other through the small grilles/chutes/openings/whatever on their respective cell doors. Muzilon (talk) 10:06, 25 May 2021 (UTC)