A leaner version of the bill, called the Sandra Bland Act, enters the homestretch of the Texas Legislature far from the sweeping package of police accountability and anti-racial profiling measures originally filed in March. In the face of opposition from law enforcement groups and Republicans, the bill was drastically slimmed down and now focuses mostly on better jail training and access to mental health care.
“What the bill does in its current state renders Sandy invisible,” Sharon Cooper, Ms. Bland’s sister, said in an interview on Friday night. “It’s frustrating and gut-wrenching.”
Saying she was speaking on behalf of the Bland family, Ms. Cooper said the legislation as it now stood “isolates the very person it seeks to honor” and made compromises at the expense of the family. “It painfully misses the mark for us,” she said.
