The afternoon sun illuminates the Legislative Building, left, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash, Oct. 9, 2018. The Washington state House has overwhelmingly approved legislation that would ban police from hog-tying suspects, a restraint technique that has long drawn concern due to the risk of suffocation. The vote on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024 came nearly four years after Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died in Tacoma, Washington, facedown with his hands and feet cuffed together behind him. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
"I feel like by this bill passing, for me Madam Speaker, we’re starting to amend that relationship between law enforcement and the community," she said.
The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended against the practice since at least 1995 to avoid deaths in custody. The attorney general’s office in Washington recommended against using hog-tying in its model use-of-force policy released in 2022. At least four local agencies continue to permit it, according to policies they submitted to the attorney general’s office that year.
Ellis was walking home in March 2020 when he passed a patrol car with Tacoma police officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, who are white. There are conflicting accounts of what happened next, but Ellis was ultimately shocked, beaten and officers wrapped a hobble restraint device around his legs and linked it to his handcuffs behind his back, according to a probable cause statement filed by the Washington attorney general’s office.
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A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by lack of oxygen. Collins, Burbank and a third officer, Timothy Rankine, were charged with murder or manslaughter. Defense attorneys argued Ellis’ death was caused by methamphetamine intoxication and a heart condition, and a jury acquitted them in December.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/washington-state-house-passes-ban-hog-tying-police-landslide