Wow! What a night. Ok folks. This is not a game. Or Social Media 'hacktivism.' This is REAL LIFE. Our people are being slaughtered. and folk on the ground (and online) are putting blood, sweat, tears and their money where there words are! So not satisfied with the minimal mainstream media coverage of the murder (and subsequent cover-up) of Sandra Bland, 3 Dallas based grassroots activists took it upon themselves and their dime to drive down directly to the Waller County Jail and try and get some answers. They were: Sunshine Sullivan (@LOLatWhiteFear on Twitter) Stephen Benavides (@S_Benavides1 on Twitter) and Shaniqua "Ogino" (@WickedBeaute on Twitter) They drove down and live-streamed the entire thing on UStream. (Please see their channel linked below.) Well not only did they manage to talk to actual current inmates, former inmates...obtain the actual plastic trash bags used within the jail (to see if an adult human being could reasonably 'hang' him or herself with the type of bags used in the facility as the county is claiming Ms. Bland allegedly did)...they scored the biggest media GET of the night by landing an actual person-to-person interview with the Sheriff of the Warren County Jail (Yes, THAT Sheriff!) Glen Smith - the man who was fired from his last post due to allegations of racism and is now running this post where his officers are accused of assaulting and causing the subsequent death of Sandra Bland and then covering it up. You have to see it for yourself...and you owe it to yourself to do so...to believe it. This was classic (and very effective) grassroots investigative journalism at its finest! Mainstream news outlets should truly be ashamed. But that's not even the main story! After completing their work...the trio was exhausted and decided to drive back home to Dallas. Along the way they were stopped (or rather targeted) by state troopers in Madisonville, Texas. These troopers were aware of who the trio were since they had already created quite a buzz in town by their bold questioning of everyone they saw at the Waller County facility. This was all caught on video live stream and when Stephen Benavides questioned the officers, they took umbrage and ARRESTED him for 'disorderly conduct' with a $500.00 bail! So there they were...a third of the group now locked up in jail...deep in enemy territory (confederate flags flying & open hostility at every turn)...low on funds (they had spent all their own money to get down their to get answers for Sandra Bland!)...and gas. They were in a spot. and very stressed out. Well Sunshine Sullivan (who I'll call the leader of the group since that's how she appeared to me, lol) put out a call live on Ustream (which she had to turn off since her cellphone battery was dying) and then on twitter for the grassroots to spring into action. Not just talk the talk but walk the walk. An experienced veteran of grassroots activism, Sunshine immediately created the hashtag #FREESTEPHEN and put out her own number for people to connect with her and come up with a plan to get Stephen's bail money. They were in the middle of nowhere in hostile ground. Nothing was open. and they were literally parked in an unknown parking lot on a road with no visible street name. and there were no street lights. This happened late in the evening, I probably discovered it close to around midnight. I was little concerned because at first I wasn't seeing much of a response. There were some retweets - but no one was actually doing anything concrete. Well little did I know that the LADIES were already taking charge behind the scenes. I'll say it now: In EVERY movement - when the rubber hits the road - and the heavy lifting has to be done - whether it was the Montgomery Boycotts or Ida B. Wells or Fannie Lou Hamer or Angela Davis - it has always been the WOMEN to spring into real action FIRST. Fact. To put their money where their mouth is and ACT and not talk. And so it was that there was a mini-cipher brewing of Six Ladies who, over the course of the next five hours - (literally folk were up to 5-6am in the morning handling all this) got together over twitter and rapidly assembled phone conferences to make sure these three activists on the front line were good. And I want to call special attention to them...cause to be honest...while a few guys sent a retweet here or there...I didn't see ONE GUY actually step up and say "Where can I send the money?" "What do you need? I'm here!" ALL SIX of these ladies DID! They were strangers. Getting online. Calling the Madisonville jail. Calling each other. Calling local food marts. Calling Western Union. If you actually go back and read the timelines of all these ladies, you'll get a good laugh but it will warm your heart. It was joyful confusion but very focused - as it always is in these movements. The ladies were: @SSArtMom (stand4racialjustice on Twitter) @Sophia_Lamar1 (Sophia Lamar on Twitter) @Dodi70 (Doretha Gill on Twitter) @Anasuyalam (Hallalujah Anasuya on Twitter) @Jeannie_Hartley (Jeannie Hartley on Twitter) @TheVikChick (Vicki Walden on Twitter) They ALL came through after a few hours of confused attempts to group-tweet and make ad hoc phone conferences and get proper Western Union, then Moneygram, then Paypal information, etc - these STRANGERS showed what being real is all about. The ongoing problem though was that nothing was open and the two remaining activists were in a parking lot where they knew NO ONE and every police officer in town was hostile towards them. That's when @SSArtMom came punching through like Mike Tyson. She got on separate conference calls with the ladies and walked them through what to do and put up all the money (on her own dime) to make sure they got a safe hotel for the night and put up the remaining bulk of the funds necessary to get bail for Stephen. She thoroughly poo-poo'd any and all attention/pats on the back - but I want to thank her and ALL the other ladies for coming through from California, Colorado, Las Vegas and as far as Germany to make sure these three Sandra Bland activists were OK! Thank you Ladies!