Late Thursday afternoon, Senator Royce West sent a letter to the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety asking for the trooper's dash cam video to be made public. In an interview with local news channel WFAA-News8, Senator West said the obvious: this makes absolutely no sense. "Not too many people get put in jail for failure to signal a lane change, so there's gotta be more to it than that." "We have a lady that was starting a new career, a new chapter in her life and that chapter now ends up in death." Senator Royce West's Twitter Handle is: @SenRoyceWest As significant...and far more troubling are statements from the Waller County DA, Elton Mathis that a) he didn’t “have any information that would make [him] think [Bland’s death] was anything other than just a suicide.” Of course you DON'T have any information when you haven't begun ANY investigation!! You have to actually LOOK for something if you ever hope to FIND it. b) 'There was no camera in her cell but surveillance video from outside showed no one entering her area.' Really? You mean the surveillance video that the sheriff's dept. HANDED you. There was no self-indicting evidence on the video that THEY gave you? Shocking. Did you engage in the proper forensic testing to make sure that surveillance video wasn't edited or in some other way manipulated or tampered with? Do you have the resources to do such forensic testing? How can you as the official law enforcement authority over this matter make such conclusive, dispositive statements without the needed time and investigatory efforts? c) After dredging up personal facebook video-diary posts by Ms. Bland where she said she was "a little depressed like many people" (note: this diary post was part of a series called #SandySpeaks where Ms. Bland spoke personally, candidly and confessionally to her audience of followers) ...this DA....had the nerve...the audacity to take this out-of-context moment and then label this woman as possibly having "a mental illness!?!?" I find that purely despicable. DA Elton Mathis then went on to say "That is, of course, extremely relevant -- that she may have been suffering from some sort of mental illness." No, Mr. Mathis. The video that is is "extremely relevant" is the video of her arrest taken by a pedestrian bystander that YOUR state troopers tried to suppress by intimidating the videographer on camera! The video that shows this lady stopped for failing to signal THROWN TO THE GROUND and crying and screaming that these troopers had smashed her head into the ground and that she couldn't HEAR! That she couldn't feel her arms because they had twisted them so sharply behind her back! THAT is the relevant online video, Mr. Mathis. Anyone else that agrees...PLEASE let DA Elton Mathis know! His twitter handle is: @WallerCountyDA His website is: http://www.co.waller.tx.us or http://www.co.waller.tx.us/default.aspx?Waller_County/District.Attorney His phone number & address is: Elton Mathis 645 12th Street Hempstead, TX 77445 Phone: 979-826-7718 Fax: 979-826-7722 Don't let this outrage stand. DA Mathis is EXCUSING a crime before it can be investigated, tried and prosecuted!