This letter seems like a fair and rational opening gambit. I hope the mayor and chief respond to it in good faith and we see progress immediately.

Ouch!

I suspect Mayor Durkan. Chief Best, and the SPD will indeed comply with this request. To be fair, the looting and destruction of two Saturdays ago contributed to the overreaction. A question remains: who actually caused the looting and destruction? Antifa? Local activists? "Outsiders"? Police-sponsored agents provocateurs? A combination? People trying to undermine the police, the activists, Durkan, the SPD? Everyone seems to differ on this. Also, will Durkan and Best keep their jobs? I suspect, by a smidgen, yes. Barely. If they comply--and now, fully, and apologetically. Sawant's doubling down against Durkan might help more than hurt Durkan, as Sawant is not popular on the council. Durkan is flexible and not without insecurities about being liked. She'll yield. We'll see what happens... and here's hoping for peaceful, injury-free protests and local small-business recovery.

@4 But consider: what if a most thorough and elaborate investigation to root out and identify "The Bad Protesters" doesn't do a damned thing to prevent the police from continuing to kill defenseless black people?

@3 I think we can safely assume an implied metric of "number of defenseless black people killed by Seattle police department employees."

Do you have an objection to that?