Saturday July 13th 2019 is officially Sandra Bland Day in Austin. Mayor Steve Adler made that proclamation and called Sandra Bland was an activist for racial justice, whose wrongful death was a call to action across the United States to change the way the criminal justice system produces unequal outcomes. Saturday marks the 4th anniversary of Bland’s death.
Here’s the actuall proclomation:
Be it known that
Whereas,
Sandra Annette Bland died on July 13th, 2015 at the age of 28, while in police custody in Waller County Jail in Hempstead, Texas; and
Whereas,
Sandra Bland’s wrongful death was affirmed as such by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 2016; and
Whereas,
The Texas legislature passed the “Sandra Bland Act” in 2017 that requires county jails to divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment and requires that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths; and
Whereas,
Sandra Bland was an activist for racial justice, whose wrongful death was a call to action across the United States to change the way the criminal justice system produces unequal outcomes;
Now, Therefore,
I, Steve Adler, Mayor of the City of Austin, Texas,
do hereby proclaim
July 13th, 2019
as
Sandra Bland Day
in Austin.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the City
of Austin to be affixed this 13th Day of
July in the Year Two Thousand Nineteen
(Photo:Shutterstock/Roschetzky Photography)
