Tacoma police trial in Manuel Ellis death holds echoes of 1938 killing columbian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from columbian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Around 3 a.m. on Saturday, March 26, 1938, Seattle police officers Patrick Whalen, Frederick Paschal and W.F. Stevenson responded to the Mt. Fuji Hotel in Pioneer Square. A guest reported
Seattle police had a chance to prove abolitionists wrong. They didn’t.
The department s inability to change over the past year has shown that its problems are hardwired into policing, and reform is not working.
by
Protesters face off with Seattle Police Department in Seattle s Capitol Hill neighborhood, July 25, 2020. (Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut)
Both detractors and defenders of the Seattle Police Department must reckon with this fact: since renewed calls for police accountability began after the murder of George Floyd last year, Seattle cops have been on their best behavior at least, the best that they can manage.
Already under a federal probe that began in 2012 when President Obama’s Department of Justice found the Seattle Police Department repeatedly used force unconstitutionally, Seattle police have been the center of much attention and scrutiny for the past year. In the glare of last summer’s spotlight, Seattle police did not rise to the occasion, but rather reve
Scott fled the car, and when Slager caught up to him, the two struggled over the officer s Taser. Scott broke free from the skirmish. A bystander s cellphone video captured what happened next – an unarmed Black man running away from an officer as a barrage of bullets were fired into his back.
Even that wasn t enough for immediate justice.
Slager was tried on a charge of murder in state court in 2016. A mistrial was declared after the jury could not reach a unanimous decision. Slager pleaded guilty to a single federal civil rights charge, which avoided another trial and left his sentencing to a judge.