Encinia, as Gladwell credulously interprets his subsequent statements, was “terrified” of this young woman, who might after all have been planning to burn him with her cigarette. They were strangers to each other.” Other policemen stop strangers all the time without bullying them and hauling them in, but never mind that now. “Sandra Bland was not someone Brian Encinia knew from the neighborhood or down the street. “Think about how hard it was” for him, he pleads. You will guess that there is a counterintuitive take coming: Gladwell wants us to feel sorry for the cop. Days later Bland was found dead in her cell. The encounter rapidly degenerated as the hostile and suspicious state trooper forced her out of the car, called for backup, and had her arrested. In Texas in 2015, Bland was pulled over for a traffic infraction by a cop named Brian Encinia. Gladwell introduces her by remarking that she was “tall and striking, with a personality to match”, which is just the kind of deft pen-portrait that has earned him a reputation as a brilliant writer for the best magazines. It explains, for example, the fate of a young black woman named Sandra Bland.
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