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Sandra Bland
Gladwell begins and ends Talking to Strangers with an analysis of Encinia’s 2015 encounter with Sandra Bland, a young Black woman. Encinia pulled over Bland for failure to signal before changing lanes. The routine traffic stop began unremarkably, with both parties behaving cordially. However, the tone shifted when Encinia returned to Bland’s car after checking her license and registration and found that she had become visibly irritated by the situation. In reality, Bland’s irritation was more likely a reasonable reaction to the frustrating situation of receiving a ticket for a minor traffic violation. However, Encinia’s police training would have taught him to view Bland’s behavior as suspicious and threatening, so he was immediately on guard upon his return to Bland’s vehicle. When Bland lit a cigarette in an attempt to relax, Encinia further misinterpreted Bland’s behavior, perceiving the lit cigarette as an additional threat. As such, he ordered her to put it out. When she refused, Encinia escalated the situation by ordering Bland to exit her vehicle and physically grabbing at her and threatening additional physical harm if she continued to refuse. The situation continued to escalate, and Encinia ultimately ordered Bland’s arrest. Three days later, Bland died by suicide in her jail cell. For Gladwell, the encounter between Encinia and Bland illustrates the devastating consequences that can occur when a society is inadequately equipped to make sense of strangers.
Brian Encinia Quotes in Talking to Strangers
The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Brian Encinia or refer to Brian Encinia. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
When we don’t know someone, or can’t communicate with them, or don’t have the time to understand them properly, we believe we can make sense of them through their behavior and demeanor.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
Like suicide, crime is tied to very specific places and contexts. Weisburd’s experiences in the 72nd Precinct and in Minneapolis are not idiosyncratic. They capture something close to a fundamental truth about human behavior. And that means that when you confront the stranger, you have to ask yourself where and when you’re confronting the stranger—because those two things powerfully influence your interpretation of who the stranger is.
Chapter 11
Quotes
There is something about the idea of coupling—of the notion that a stranger’s behavior is tightly connected to place and context—that eludes us. It leads us to misunderstand some of our greatest poets, to be indifferent to the suicidal, and to send police officers on senseless errands. So what happens when a police officer carries that fundamental misconception—and then you add to that the problems of default to truth and transparency? You get Sandra Bland.
Chapter 12
Quotes
To Encinia’s mind, Bland’s demeanor fits the profile of a potentially dangerous criminal. She’s agitated, jumpy, irritable, confrontational, volatile. He thinks she’s hiding something. This is dangerously flawed thinking at the best of times. Human beings are not transparent. But when is this kind of thinking most dangerous? When the people we observe are mismatched: when they do not behave the way we expect them to behave.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Brian Encinia’s goal was to go beyond the ticket. He had highly tuned curiosity ticklers. He knew all about the visual pat-down and the concealed interrogation. And when the situation looked as if it might slip out of his control, he stepped in, firmly. If something went awry that day on the street with Sandra Bland, it wasn’t because Brian Encinia didn’t do what he was trained to do. It was the opposite. It was because he did exactly what he was trained to do.
Get the entire Talking to Strangers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Brian Encinia Quotes in Talking to Strangers
The Talking to Strangers quotes below are all either spoken by Brian Encinia or refer to Brian Encinia. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
When we don’t know someone, or can’t communicate with them, or don’t have the time to understand them properly, we believe we can make sense of them through their behavior and demeanor.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
Like suicide, crime is tied to very specific places and contexts. Weisburd’s experiences in the 72nd Precinct and in Minneapolis are not idiosyncratic. They capture something close to a fundamental truth about human behavior. And that means that when you confront the stranger, you have to ask yourself where and when you’re confronting the stranger—because those two things powerfully influence your interpretation of who the stranger is.
Chapter 11
Quotes
There is something about the idea of coupling—of the notion that a stranger’s behavior is tightly connected to place and context—that eludes us. It leads us to misunderstand some of our greatest poets, to be indifferent to the suicidal, and to send police officers on senseless errands. So what happens when a police officer carries that fundamental misconception—and then you add to that the problems of default to truth and transparency? You get Sandra Bland.
Chapter 12
Quotes
To Encinia’s mind, Bland’s demeanor fits the profile of a potentially dangerous criminal. She’s agitated, jumpy, irritable, confrontational, volatile. He thinks she’s hiding something. This is dangerously flawed thinking at the best of times. Human beings are not transparent. But when is this kind of thinking most dangerous? When the people we observe are mismatched: when they do not behave the way we expect them to behave.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Brian Encinia’s goal was to go beyond the ticket. He had highly tuned curiosity ticklers. He knew all about the visual pat-down and the concealed interrogation. And when the situation looked as if it might slip out of his control, he stepped in, firmly. If something went awry that day on the street with Sandra Bland, it wasn’t because Brian Encinia didn’t do what he was trained to do. It was the opposite. It was because he did exactly what he was trained to do.
