Talking to Strangers

Talking to Strangers — Malcolm Gladwell

On July 10, 2015, Sandra Bland drove out of a Prairie View, Texas side street with a new life packed into her car. She was 28, tall, charismatic, and had just moved back from Chicago. Her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, had offered her a new position. She was planning to pursue a master's in political science. On her YouTube channel, "Sandy Speaks," she posted motivational videos, opening each one with the same line: "Good morning, beautiful kings and queens!"

On the road, a police cruiser lit up behind her. She had failed to signal a lane change.

Brian Encinia was a 30-year-old trooper with short dark hair. The first minutes were routine. Documents, a few questions. Bland lit a cigarette.

"Put it out," Encinia said.

"I'm in my own car. Why do I have to put it out?"

From that moment, everything changed. Encinia's voice hardened. "Step out of the vehicle." Bland didn't move. "You don't have the right." Encinia reached through the window. "I will yank you out of here." Bland: "Don't touch me. I'm not under arrest." Encinia drew his Taser, pointed it at her. "I will light you up. Get out, now." Bland stepped out. She repeated one sentence, over and over: "For a failure to signal? You're doing all of this for a failure to signal?"

Three days later, Sandra Bland was dead. She had hanged herself in her jail cell.

Malcolm Gladwell has been turning that sentence over in his mind for years. Not because the case was unusual, but because between 2014 and 2015 the world was full of similar cases. Michael Brown in Ferguson. Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Philando Castile outside Minneapolis. Eric Garner in New York. Walter Scott in South Carolina. The same pattern, again and again: a routine traffic stop, a few minutes, someone dead.