Press

For Immediate Release: July 22, 2015

Contact:
Andrea Alford, 703-477-1075,andrea@fitzgibbonmedia.com
Molly Haigh, 907-750-1999, molly@fitzgibbonmedia.com

New Footage of Sandra Bland’s Arrest Reinforces National Women’s Group to Demand DOJ Intervention
With Widespread Questions of Police Tampering with Dashcam Footage, UltraViolet Members are Escalating Calls to the DOJ to Investigate

Washington, DC– As new, possibly edited, footage was released this morning of concerning and violent police behavior during the arrest of Sandra Bland, national women’s group UltraViolet is escalating pressure on Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Department of Justice to launch a full investigation. With widespread concerns that police tampered with or edited footage, thousands of UltraViolet members are calling the DOJ directly to demand intervention.

“We cannot allow Sandra Bland’s possible murder at the hands of police to be swept under the rug,” said Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of UltraViolet. “New footage emerging this morning of police aggression towards Bland makes intervention by the Department of Justice more urgent than ever. We cannot allow the police to investigate themselves. The lives of black women matter and we demand a full investigation by Attorney General Lynch, and the DOJ Civil Rights Division into Sandra’s death and bias in the Waller County Police.”

More than 40,000 UltraViolet members have called for an investigation, see the petition here: http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/sandra_bland/?t=1&referring_akid=2141.896840.KRfRvt

The group is planning to escalate their campaign for justice in the coming weeks until a full investigation is completed and anyone responsible for Sandra’s death is held accountable.

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UltraViolet is an online community of over 700,000 women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media. Find out more at WeAreUltraViolet.org.