SEATTLE – Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), chair of the Council’s Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee, released the following statement in response to the resignation announcement by Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best: When Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced her pending retirement earlier this week, she joined more than half a dozen police […]

On May 22, 2017, the Seattle City Council passed “police accountability” legislation. Below are my comments explaining what in the legislation is positive, and how it falls far short of what is needed to provide real police accountability in Seattle.  I would like to thank the Community Police Commission for their dedication to police accountability, […]

  Garfield High School teacher and social justice activist, Jesse Hagopian, announced at a press conference on January 28th that he is filing a lawsuit against the City of Seattle and the Seattle Police Department (SPD) after being pepper sprayed as he walked down the street. The incident, which was captured on video, occurred after […]

On Monday, January 12th at 9:30 am at City Hall, Chief O’Toole and other leading officials from the Seattle Police Department will answer questions from Councilmembers about the SPD‘s policing of the Black Lives Matter protests over the last several weeks. It is important that civil rights activists and social justice advocates come to this […]

Transcript of Speech as Delivered I want to say in advance that my comments will not be very brief, because I want to express the opinions of the working people of this city. I appreciate all the work that has gone into this police chief search. I appreciate Councilmembers Harrell and Burgess, all the members […]