So how does that make YOU feel?

In this blogpost “The Death of Sandra Bland,” Erica Grieder gives her opinion on the incident involving a black woman and a DPS trooper in a traffic stop. Grieder is a senior editor at Texas Monthly and has had works in the New York Times, the Spectator, the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and the New Republic. She is appearing on Burkablog, a popular left leaning blog created by Paul Burka who is also a senior editor of the Texas Monthly. The audience for this blog is Texans due to its place in Texas Monthly’s Burkablog, and liberals due to the ideology of Burkablog.

There is no room to challenge the credibility of this author since both the owner of the blog and the author to the blogpost itself are senior editors for the Texas Monthly. However, with that being said, I expect a better argument in this article. Sandra Bland was pulled over by DPS officer Encinia for not using a turn signal to switch lanes. After being pulled over for such an irrelevant punishment, Bland was irritable with Encinia and this led to her arrest. Encenia forcibly removed Bland from her vehicle and arrests her. She goes to jail and is found in her cell three days later hung from her neck with a trash bag. 

This is a situation that makes people feel something. Anyone that hears this story has a say and has heard of the trouble between people (specifically black people) and police brutality in the US. Because of that, it is disappointing that instead of formulating her own opinion, Grieder states other people’s opinions and says “I agree” on this blogpost. It’s a blogpost for pete’s sake! Blogposts are full of differing opinions and arguments. The opinions provided that Grieder agrees with are valid opinions with valid arguments that I agree with. But, because a senior editor to a profound Texas news source uses this blog to support others’ opinions rather than have one herself or expand the conversation, this post is untapped potential.