Effort for anti-discrimination initiative targets much more than police chokeholds

Manuel Ellis’ death as he was being restrained by Tacoma Police in March was months before George Floyd’s death, but video evidence that emerged later showed it was eerily similar to Floyd’s death, down to his “I can’t breathe” plea moments before he died.

Police say he was behaving erratic and started the confrontation, but at least one witness said police initiated the confrontation. The investigation was supposed to be handled independently under the state’s new police accountability law I-940, but it later came to light that that wasn’t happening, prompting the family and their attorney to demand an independent investigation by the state, which remains ongoing.

Ellis’ family has already filed a tort claim as a precursor to a lawsuit against Tacoma. Now, they are throwing their support behind I-1300, an initiative to the Legislature that goes after police use of chokeholds and neck restraints.

“This act would make it a human right, a civil right to not be choked to death by police officers. This act will address excessive force,” said James Bible, the Ellis family’s attorney.

“Hopefully this act will save someone’s life in the future,” Bible added.

I-1300 would make discriminatory use of chokeholds and neck restraints by police a civil rights violation.

“That’s huge. Because once we make it a civil right for every citizen in Washington state to be protected from a police chokehold killing them, there’s a domino effect that occurs,” said former State Rep. Jesse Wineberry, who co-authored the initiative.

“The next step is that insurance companies of those police departments say to those police departments ‘hey, wait a minute since this is now a civil right take it out of your tool kit,” Wineberry explained, adding that would lead to new training of officers so departments could attain their necessary insurance.

A message from Ellis’ family

For the Ellis family, it is about making sure no other family has to experience what they have.

“Thanksgiving (is) coming up soon and this was his favorite holiday so we just miss him so much and we’re so upset that he can no longer be here anymore, but (also) that he was killed that way,” said Ellis’ brother Matthew Ellis at a press conference announcing the initiative this week. “One of my last memories of my brother was seeing him getting tased and getting chokehold, going to be having a knee on his neck. So this is very hard for my family. And I just hope that you all understand how important this law is.”

“This anti-Discrimination act is extremely important because of the protections that are in there for the BIPOC community,” Ellis sister, Monet Carter-Mixon said. “We can’t stop what happened to our brother, (but) right now, if this was to happen again, especially to a person that is underrepresented, it would go unnoticed. More than likely, people don’t pay attention to things that are happening in our communities. I just urge every Washingtonian to sign this initiative, just for the simple fact that with the measures that are in place here we could get justice if something like this has to happen again, to another Washingtonian, especially a Washingtonian that is a part of the BIPOC or the LGBTQIA community.”

“And if it goes to the ballot for a vote, I urge everybody to vote yes on it because we need better systems in place here in Washington so that way police officers can be held accountable for discriminating against people of these underrepresented communities,” she added before sharing this message for the Washington State Patrol and Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

“I’m urging the Washington State Patrol and the Attorney General to not only hurry up this investigation, but to also bring charges against these officers. They were completely negligent with how they handled my brother while he was fighting for air to breathe, and after there was no dignity at all. They let my brother die in the street,” Carter-Mixon said.

Investigation complete

On Friday, half of that wish came to pass as Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the State Patrol had completed its independent investigation into Ellis’ death and referred the case to him for any charging decision.

“To assist in this important decision, I appointed an internal review team in my office that includes prosecutors, a representative of my Civil Rights Division, and two retired judges,” Ferguson said in a statement. “My office is in the process of reaching out directly to the Ellis family to schedule a meeting. The law imposes no deadline or timeline for this review. We will keep the public informed through appropriate updates.”

Meantime, there is much more included in I-1300 than the Ellis case and changing the behavior of police when it comes to use of force.

1-1300 targets discrimination

It also would require the Employment Security Department to stop the “discriminatory exclusion of Black and Native American communities in the state’s monthly unemployment reports,” according to the 22 page legislation.

“The discriminatory exclusion of these communities’ jobless rates must be corrected to enable the public and private sectors to direct desperately needed resources to the unemployed in these communities. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has found there are systemic inequities in our society which must be cured for all children to have a fighting chance to reach their full potential, regardless of their race, ethnicity, income, or gender. This initiative finally addresses these long-ignored systemic racism, sexism, and other discriminatory inequities in Washington State,” it states.

I-1300 also targets discrimination in public health, specifically as it relates to COVID-19, noting the racial disparities as the pandemic has made its way across Washington.

“COVID-19 has really affected Black and Brown populations, and we really need this act to be able to ensure that the essential workers who are primarily made up of the Latin X community, who are agricultural workers, they’re in the cleaning industry, healthcare industry, that Black and Brown lives do not get placed at the back of the line. We need an act that ensures equity in the distribution of the vaccines,” said Lynn French, citizen initiative sponsor.

“This type of discrimination has been happening for years and it is time to stop,” added French. “My people are dying at the highest rates and I will not stand idle and watch them die like this.”

Access to COVID-19 vaccine

The proposal requires the state to provide free COVID vaccinations to all Washingtonians who need them once it becomes available.

“Specifically for early phase vaccinations, the state shall not discriminate against frontline health care workers, frontline food and transportation workers or school employees, high risk elderly seniors, women, and people of color who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 according to Washington state department of health race and ethnicity data,” the initiative states.

It’s not about putting members of the BIPOC community at the front of the line though, either, according to Wineberry, who explained taxpayers foot the bill for Operation Warp Speed and the research and development of it, so it should be free for all taxpayers, not just the insured ones.

“There’s about half a million people in Washington state that don’t have health insurance, and most of them are members of the LatinX and Native American communities and the African American communities,” Wineberry said. “We’re saying that those are the folks that are likely to be kicked out of line or put in the back of the line and they need to be kept in line because no one should have to pay for a vaccine that not only helps them live, but helps reduce the spread of the coronavirus disease to others.”

Effects of I-1000

The attorney and one time state lawmaker was one of the co-authors of last year’s I-1000, which sought to restore affirmative action in Washington state. Voters banned I-1000 when they approved Tim Eyman’s I-200 years earlier.

I-1000 was approved by the Legislature last year but was narrowly defeated in November with Referendum 88 when critics, mostly Asian students in Washington on visas, worried it would negatively impact them and create more inequality. There were also concerns it would strip preferential treatment allowed for veterans.

“I-1000’s affirmative action component did not make clear that affirmative action is voluntary,” Wineberry said. “It did not make clear that affirmative action was in no way going to be a barrier for international students who are seeking to get their education at our state colleges and universities, and it was somewhat ambiguous about veterans.”

But Wineberry says they have fixed the language surrounding those issues and now have many of the I-1000 critics supporting I-1300, specifically the section that will restore affirmative action in the state.

“We worked with the veterans to get language that protects their benefits as well as expand affirmative action,” Wineberry said. “We’ve worked with people who are immigrants from China and the Asian community to craft language that still leaves the door open with affirmative action for immigrants from China who were here on their academic visas.”

I-1000 redefined preferential treatment, but that is not what I-1300 does.

“I-1300 is much better and smarter than I-1000. It simply adopts the existing definition of preferential treatment ruled into Washington law in 2003 by the Washington State Supreme Court landmark case, Parents Involved in Community Schools vs. Seattle School District,” explained Wineberry.

Here is that definition:

“Preferential treatment” means government action which uses solely race or gender to select a less qualified applicant over a more qualified applicant.”

To hopefully avoid future issues, it also defines “qualified” to make clear a person cannot be selected for a public job, contract or education based solely on their race.

“Qualified” means an individual or entity has met the published academic, professional, or technical qualifications for admission to an institution of higher education; employment with a state agency; or the awarding of a public contracting opportunity.”

On top of that, it also makes clear that affirmative action is voluntary and that anyone who does not need it or want it does not have to accept or apply for it.

Single subject rule

Wineberry says I-1300 may seem like it would violate the single subject rule for initiatives as I-976 did, according to the recent state Supreme Court decision and $30 car tabs, but he believes it will not be the case.

“Under Washington state law, it basically says that any bill or initiative must deal with issues that have a rational relationship to a single subject and that subject shall be stated in the title of the initiative, and our title is discrimination,” explained Wineberry. “All of the issues whether it be banning discrimination in employment, in education, and contracting, banning discrimination in the allocation and distribution of forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines, or banning the discriminatory use of deadly force by our police, they are all related to the title of our initiative, which is prohibiting and remedying discrimination.”

But Wineberry says that does not mean there won’t be court challenges.

“This does not mean our opponents will not file a legal challenge to the attorney general’s ballot title or ultimately file a lawsuit to strike down the entire Manuel Ellis Washington Anti-Discrimination Act, should it become state law,” Wineberry said. “In fact, as we witnessed with Tim Eyman’s repeated court challenges of I-1000, racist, right-wing legal challenges are inevitable. We are certainly prepared for them.”

The bill also has the equivalent of an emergency clause which would make it referendum-proof, as it is an initiative to the Legislature.

If Wineberry and I-1300 can collect the necessary 300,000 signatures by December 31, the Legislature would have three options:

. Pass it as is
. Reject it and send it to the ballot
. Amend it and send it to the ballot alongside the original and let voters decide

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