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Officer Acquitted In Death Of Manuel Ellis Hired By Neighboring Sheriff's Office
A former Tacoma, Washington, officer acquitted of murder in the 2020 homicide of Manuel Ellis – a Black man who was shocked, beaten and restrained face down on a sidewalk as he pleaded for breath – has been hired by a neighboring sheriff's office.
The Thurston county sheriff's office, based in Olympia, Washington, announced on its Facebook page on Monday that it had hired the former Tacoma officer Christopher Burbank as a patrol deputy, despite an ongoing federal investigation into the 2020 death.
Burbank and two other officers – Timothy Rankine and Matthew Collins – were each cleared of criminal charges by a Pierce county jury last December. Rankine had been charged with manslaughter, while Collins and Burbank had been charged with manslaughter and second-degree murder.
Their attorneys argued that Ellis died from a lethal amount of methamphetamine as well as a heart condition, not from the officers' actions. The Pierce county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and said it had been caused by a lack of oxygen during the physical restraint.
Ellis's family was shocked and saddened by the hire, said attorney Matthew Ericksen. The US attorney's office in Seattle is still reviewing the case, which could bring prosecutions for federal civil rights violations, and a wrongful death lawsuit is pending.
A memorial at the intersection where Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died in Tacoma police custody on 3 March 2020. Photograph: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images"There is strong evidence in the Ellis case, including but not limited to the cell phone videos, that should be very concerning to any reasonable person," Ericksen said in an email on Tuesday. "It is not in dispute that Mr Burbank tased an unarmed person 3 times. Mr Burbank even used his taser while Manny was being choked out by another officer."
Like many law enforcement agencies nationwide, the Thurston county sheriff's office has struggled with understaffing; the Facebook post announcing the hire noted that Burbank would "provide immediate relief in our patrol division".
Sheriff Derek Sanders said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that Burbank underwent a two-month background check, including a polygraph. Sanders stressed that his office has strived to improve its crisis response by incorporating mental health co-responders, adding that dashboard and body-worn cameras help provide transparency.
"While acknowledging the distressing nature of the events in Tacoma four years ago, we want to emphasize that Deputy Burbank has been cleared of any wrongdoing both by Tacoma PD, Pierce County Prosecutor's Office and a jury trial," Sanders said.
Ellis, 33, was walking home with doughnuts from a 7-Eleven in Tacoma, about 30 miles (50km) south of Seattle, on 3 March 2020, when he passed a patrol car stopped at a red light, with Collins and Burbank inside.
The officers claimed they saw Ellis try to open the door of a passing car at the intersection and that he became aggressive when they tried to question him about it. Collins testified that Ellis demonstrated "superhuman strength" by lifting Collins off the ground and throwing him through the air.
But three witnesses testified they saw no such thing. After what appeared to be a brief conversation between Ellis and the officers – who are both white – Burbank, in the passenger seat, threw open his door, knocking Ellis down, they said. Rankine, who arrived after Ellis was already handcuffed face down, knelt on his upper back.
The witnesses – one of whom yelled for the officers to stop attacking Ellis – and a doorbell surveillance camera captured video of parts of the encounter. The video showed Ellis with his hands up in a surrender position as Burbank shot a Taser at his chest and Collins wrapped an arm around his neck from behind.
His death came nearly three months before George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis police would spark an international outcry against police brutality.
The Tacoma police department found that the officers had not violated its use-of-force policy as it was then written – it has subsequently been updated – and the three officers were each paid $500,000 to resign.
Pierce county, which is home to Tacoma, settled its portion of a federal wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family for $4m. The case against the city is still pending.
The trial was the first under a five-year-old state law designed to make it easier to prosecute police accused of wrongfully using deadly force.
Burbank's hiring is the latest case of an officer fired or criminally prosecuted for a high-profile death to get rehired in a new law enforcement position. An officer acquitted in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain in Colorado got his job back last year along with $200,000 in backpay. The former Cleveland officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice was hired by a Pennsylvania police force in 2022, but resigned amid public outcry.
Cities With Black Women Police Chiefs Had Less Street Violence During 2020's Black Lives Matter Protests
Black Lives Matter protests in cities with Black women police chiefs experienced significantly lower levels of violence – from both police and protesters – than cities with police chiefs of other racial backgrounds and gender, according to our newly published paper.
After George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement surged. Advocating for social justice, the movement galvanized over 11,000 protest events across thousands of cities in all 50 states. Most demonstrations were peaceful, but others were not, and city police chiefs had the job of dealing with street violence. In some communities, they engaged in dialogue with protesters; in others, they responded with force.
Our research included analyzing 11,540 protests that occurred between May 25 and Aug. 29, 2020, in 3,338 cities, spanning 1,481 counties and all 50 states. To ensure robustness and eliminate bias, we measured violence based on an independent categorization of violence, protest event descriptions, numbers of arrests and severity of the charges. We also researched the gender and racial background of the local police chief.
Our analysis, published in the Journal of Management, found that protests in cities with police departments led by Black women tended to be relatively peaceful.
Consider, for instance, Black female Chief Catrina Thompson in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who chose dialogue over force. She conveyed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter cause and affirmed that peaceful protests could spur change without destroying the city.
By contrast, a protest in Lincoln, Nebraska, in late May 2020 saw a group of protesters break store windows and threaten police officers, which resulted in police officers – in a department led by white male Chief Jeff Bliemeister – firing pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets.
This and other research has found that through their personal and professional experience as they rise through the ranks of a traditionally male, white profession, Black women tend to develop a strong understanding of racial dynamics and use their knowledge to devise flexible strategies.
Of course, not all Black women lead in exactly the same ways, but they tend to share similar experiences that can help foster peaceful outcomes in times of social unrest.
Why it mattersAmid a backdrop of widespread protests and calls for social justice, public safety depends on peaceful interactions between police and demonstrators.
The study highlights the significance of having diverse leadership voices and the importance of recognizing and elevating individual identities. Despite a rise in the appointment of Black police chiefs over the past decade, Black women continue to be underrepresented in law enforcement leadership positions. This research highlights the value to society of including diverse perspectives and leadership approaches informed by the intersections of people's identities.
What still isn't knownDespite these insights, several questions remain unanswered. We do not yet know the specific way in which the leadership of Black women police chiefs translates into lower violence levels. We suggest the mechanism is a complex result of their communication strategies, community engagement practices and decision-making processes – but we do not know which has the most influence.
Our study also raises questions about how these findings about Black women at a time of Black protest might be applied to other civic leaders' handling of demonstrations from different types of social movements.
What's nextThe study paves the way for more in-depth research into how intersecting identities – such as gender and race – affect leadership approaches and outcomes across various professions, not just law enforcement.
Ongoing research efforts – our own and others' – are directed at better understanding how people's identities inform their leadership styles and how they handle conflict. Future studies are also needed to explore how organizations and communities can better support Black women and promote them into leadership roles, ensuring their perspectives and skills benefit society as a whole.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Kayla Stajkovic, University of California, Davis and Alex Stajkovic, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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The Devil Lost In Details: Tasmanian Devil Cancer Transmission Is NOT Slowing
Bad news if you're a Tasmanian devil: Devil Facial Cancer is still spreading through the population and threatening its future
Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) in Taranna, Tasmania, Australia. (Credit: JJ Harrison / CC ... [+] BY-SA 3.0)
JJ Harrison via a Creative Commons licenseThree scientists and veterinarians based at the University of Cambridge report new evidence that contradicts results published in 2020 suggesting that tumor transmission in Tasmanian devils was slowing (ref). The three scientists repeated a study published by a previous team, based at Washington State University, and discovered they made errors which led to an incorrect prognosis for the future of the Endangered Tasmanian devil.
The Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, is a small, very smelly and extremely loud marsupial that was formerly present all across Australia until they became extinct there around 3,500 years ago, probably due to hunting by dingos.
The Tasmanian devil is now only found on the small island of Tasmania, as its name implies, which is free of dingos. These nocturnal black marsupials make their living mainly by scavenging rather than by hunting, preferring to dine on roadkill or left-over carrion. Their keen sense of smell makes them highly adept at finding carrion and decaying meat in the darkness.
Tasmanian devils are not picky eaters, and will happily devour any dead animal that they sniff out, including insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Their powerful jaws and specialized tooth structure allows them to consume bones, fur and exoskeleton.
Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) eating carrion at the Melbourne Zoo. (Credit: ... [+] Charlieatyourservice / CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)
Charlieatyourservice via a Creative Commons licenseTasmanian devils have a very short lifespan. In the wild, a healthy, disease-free devil can live up to 5-6 years, whereas captive individuals may live as long as 8 years.
Tasmanian devils, which are officially listed as Endangered (population declining) by the IUCN Red List, are threatened primarily by a transmissible cancer known as Tasmanian devil facial tumour 1 (DFT1), which creates visible symptoms — rapidly enlarging tumors on their faces — known as devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). Due to their location on the devils' faces, these tumors often lead to starvation. DFT1 has decimated more than 60% of the entire population.
Contrary to what most people think they know about cancer, transmissible cancers are actually contagious, a feature that captured my attention as a microbiology undergrad before I worked in cancer research for two years. These cancers are spread from one individual to the next by the transfer of living cancer cells. As you might expect, transmissible cancers are very rare in nature. Amongst mammals, only three transmissible cancers have been identified thus far, two affecting Tasmanian devils and one affecting dogs.
Cancer itself is the result of uncontrolled cell growth that leads to the formation of tumors. This runaway growth is triggered by mutations to one or more genes associated with the control of cell division or of cell death so affected cells either end up dividing madly or becoming immortal. Genetic alterations that lead to cancer can occur through environmental factors — smoking, sun or chemical exposures, just to name a few — or through inheritance of a faulty gene.
As I previously implied, cancer is almost never contagious, so Tasmanian devil transmissible cancers are intensely interesting to many cancer researchers and conservation biologists alike. In the case of Tasmanian devils, cancerous cells are transferred during fights that involve bites to the face and neck — a common behavior in devils since they often fight over mates and food.
Previous research (ref) identified a single DFT1 'founder devil' in the 1980s, and used genomic data from DFT1 tumors to produce a family tree that followed this transmissible cancer's lineage back to its origin (Figure 2). Then, using phylodynamics models, which is a way to map the ancestral genetic history of pathogens, the 2020 study estimated the cancer's epidemiological parameters and predicted its future trajectory.
F I G U R E 2 : Internal inconsistency in phylogenetic tree topologies among DFT1 tumours presented ... [+] by Patton et al. Forty-eight DFT1 tumours from Patton et al. Are displayed on two phylogenetic trees, with lines connecting the equivalent tumour on each tree. Left, maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree, as presented by Patton et al., constructed using substitution mutations. Right, maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree inferred using 148 copy number variants (CNVs); small black dots represent 32 phylogenetically informative CNVs (internal branches) and 13 CNVs common to all DFT1s (trunk branch); branch lengths are proportional to number of CNVs. Each tumour's colour refers to its genotype-assigned DFT1 clade. Three tumours were excluded from both trees as they had insufficient sequencing coverage, after accounting for tumour purity, for CNV inference. (doi:10.1098/rsos.231875)
doi:10.1098/rsos.231875Since its appearance, DFT1 has spread throughout almost the entire Tasmanian devil population, and rapid reductions in devil population density driven by DFT1 led to the species being listed as Endangered in 2008. The rate of population decline has decreased with time, according to the 2020 modelling studies, which predicted that the cancer would persist in the devil population at low density, but would not increase.
This process is known as becoming endemic.
However, in replicating the 2020 study, the Cambridge group conducted more extensive genotyping of DFT1 cancer cells to estimate its spread. Contrary to the 2020 study, the Cambridge group found no evidence that DFT1 spread through the devil population was slowing. They suggested that the researchers on the 2020 study made this error because they did not read enough of the DFT1 sequences to gain an accurate picture of the disease spread and this led them to an incorrect conclusion.
Thus, the Cambridge team are certain that DFT1/DFTD is still emergent — spreading — and for this reason, it continues to represent a significant threat to the continued existence of the Tasmanian devil.
Maximilian R. Stammnitz, Kevin Gori and Elizabeth P. Murchison (2024). No evidence that a transmissible cancer has shifted from emergence to endemism in Tasmanian devils, Royal Society Open Sciencedoi:10.1098/rsos.231875
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