Texas officials released a new video footage of the controversial arrest of black female activist Sandra Bland, who died in a Texas jail under contested circumstances days later, after an earlier video came under scrutiny.
The Texas Department of Public Safety released new police dashcam footage on Wednesday containing the heated arrest of the 26-year-old activist, and denied allegations that a previous video published a day earlier was deliberately edited.
"Yesterday's video was not edited. The entire video was uploaded Tuesday to include the audio and video of the conversation the trooper had by telephone with his sergeant, which occurred after the arrest. Some of the video was affected in the upload. That technical issue has now been resolved," Tom Vinger, the press secretary for the Texas department said in a press release Wednesday.
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The new video is about three minutes shorter than the original footage released a day earlier, which came under much scrutiny for containing glitches, loops and other technical issues.
Questions surrounding the older video were first raised by journalist Ben Norton on his blog on Tuesday soon after the release. He said that “it appears that someone cut footage out and looped part of the video in order to correspond with the recorded audio of Texas state trooper Brian Encinia speaking.”
This was later confirmed on Twitter by “Selma” director Ava DuVernay as well as the Los Angeles Times.
I edit footage for a living. But anyone can see that this official video has been cut. Read/watch. Why? #SandraBland http://t.co/2JXy9Zc4Y3
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC)
July 22, 2015
The video shows an escalating confrontation between Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia and Bland. After Bland refuses to follow the orders of the police officer to step out of her car, officer Encinia threatens he will “drag you out of there,” and “I will light you up! Get out! Now!”
The video also shows Bland accusing the police of slamming her head to the ground and saying “I can’t even hear.”
"I will light you up" Not because you physically threatened me. But because you threatened my whiteness, maleness & authority. #SandraBland
— zellie (@zellieimani)
July 22, 2015
Bland was later found dead in a Texas jail cell on July 13, and while police originally claimed her death was a “suicide,” friends, family, activists, and social media angrily protested the official narrative, expressing grave concern over whether Bland was a victim of police brutality. On Monday, the district attorney in Texas announced that Bland’s death would be investigated thoroughly as a murder, after a public outcry.