Police Mock Death of Manny Ellis. Get Paid $500,000.

"All three, Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy Rankine, entered into voluntary resignation agreements with the city, Pauli said. The city of Tacoma will pay each officer $500,000 and the agreements state that the each officer "separates in good standing." (King 5 News, January 17, 2024)

"Three Washington state police officers who were cleared of criminal charges in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis — a Black man who was shocked, beaten and restrained facedown on a sidewalk as he pleaded for breath — will each receive $500,000 to leave the Tacoma Police Department, according to documents released Tuesday." (Associated Press, Seattle January 16, 2024)

Matthew Ericksen, an attorney for Ellis' family, called it “perverse” and said the officers were “effectively being rewarded” for his death. He noted that the officers had already been paid about $1.5 million total while being on leave for nearly four years.

Contributing to this perverse decision is the fact some police officers are making a joke out of the death of Manny Ellis, saying things like "kill some scumbag, get a paid vacation, collect a big check, go back to work at a new department". This attitude and the complete failure to correct (if not open support for) this kind of joke or comment by police leadership breeds a culture of corruption and violence in the department, and creates a further threat of police violence in our community.