Due process: Mayor wrong to assume officers’ guilt

With a mixture of horror, sadness and fear, I watched the short amateur video of Manuel Ellis being taken into Tacoma police custody.

Horror at the apparent violence of the encounter, sadness that another family has lost their loved one and fear that my own city will be rocked with the fallout from this unfortunate act.

This is a time that tests leadership in its ability to both show respect for the tragedy that has already unfolded and to prevent further harm, if possible.

Mayor Victoria Woodards’ impassioned demand for the dismissal of the four officers involved does not reasonably meet either standard.

How is assuming that the police responded “criminally,” in her words, without any investigation, different than assuming a person of color is guilty because they are behaving suspiciously?

I admit the video would seem to show overly aggressive response by the officers. But we are, or at least have been, a country that demands due process.

If the investigation holds that they acted improperly, punish them to the full extent of the law. But we don’t prove our support for the historic mistreatment of blacks by doing the same to police.

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Due process: Mayor wrong to assume officers’ guilt."