15 minutes? Sheeeyat. I have never gotten a response in under an hour.

The Seattle Police Chief has made me look like a fool. I'm going to ask Aunt Clara to put a spell on her!

Best probably won't. I don't know about Durkan. The council is turning on her. Inslee and Ferguson probably aren't too happy either. The money behind the council supports BLM and doesn't like that Durkan and Best turned Seattle into a police warzone unseen since the Civil Rights movement. First Durkan gets caught lying about police covering their badges. Then again about using tear gas. Now Best admits she lied about armed locals extorting CHAZ business owners (Sounds like something right out of the mouth of the SPD PR department...that still Sgt. Jamison?). I don't see how else this can end.

Durkan at risk of standing on the wrong side of this movement, especially now that the money is on the opposite side of her. If she fires Best and accepts defunding maybe she can bring it back, but as is this ain't great. And it'll get worst if the SPD go in Soweto style busting heats and kicking teeth. Voters don't like that kinda thing, even if it's not in their own neighborhood (which more and more it is).

Even if the council can't force her to resign, her name will be tied to it the same way we think of other similar leaders like Bull Conner unless she pulls an about face. She can't possibily think she'll win another election after this. Even Republicans are sympathetic to the protests and annoyed with the police response. The money is on the other side. The grassroots are on the other side. The polls are on the other side. Who's going to vote for her? Her main backers now are the cops themselves. Practically all living in rural Snohomish County. Who else? The cops Trump supporting altright Blue Lives Matter allies? They're also in Snohomish County?

Getting out ahead of all you lazy-taters and demanding that whoever replaces these elected officials should be immediately forced to resign! That's right, whoever replaces the mayor should immediately resign for their grotesque inability to govern equitably and with due regards to the precepts of their office! and relegate, oh let'see... Charles Mudede to the office. He'll tell us what to do! (unless he doesn't; at which point he should resign!)

I almost never agree with you, Nathalie, but you are spot on when you write, "It all, frankly, stinks." Yes, I agree 100% that it does. And apart from the lies and dissemination of hearsay, deeper issues lurk around Jenny Durkan, in particular. First: who DID actually give the orders to abandon the East Precinct building? Best claims it wasn't her, and Durkan seems to dodge responsibility, too. Second, is Durkan little more than a soulless pragmatist afraid of losing her job and "progressive" identity? I mean, now she seems to imply CHAZ is rather like the Capitol Hill Block Party--a cool, edgy arts space for admirable progressive activists and Sawant supporters. Well, then why the strong "keep the fortress" stance this past weekend? Why not simply give them the space beforehand? And, if Jenny still opposes the CHAZ, why not state this and make plans for retaking it for city use and under Seattle's full jurisdiction? It's like every hour Durkan shifts and squirms and rationalizes and ingratiates. And now Trump rumbles threats and insults, which belie his dubious motives. It all, frankly, stinks. And this doesn't let the City Council off the hook, either. Far too much incendiary sanctimony and village scold moralism from them, and far too much self-promotion and petty jealousy masked by "I'm doing this for others" attitudinizing from Sawant, in particular. And where are the masks, the social distancing? Sawant night after night: no mask. CHAZ and the protests: no social distancing. We'll likely an upswing in COVID-19 cases because of this recklessness; it's no good in right-wingers in Olympia, and it's no good in left-wingers at the Seattle barricades. Practice what you preach, right and left. Your mutual hatred does not transcend COVID-19 concerns. I've tried to defend and see what is good in Jenny Durkan. It is getting more and more difficult to do so. And so many other folks who put petty agendas before common interest--and yet all of them babbling about giving and caring and community and the compassionate Seattle way. It all, frankly, stinks. Seattle, 2020: an updated version of Bonfire of the Vanities.

Welp, female leaders always gonna be controversial, I guess. This will probably result in generations of dudes running the city again when the dust settles.

No, kids, there will be no quick, feel-good measures for you to all high-five (at an appropriate social distance, of course). Ending systemic white, male, and authoritarian privilege will take a long time and much work, and you can best begin by listening, not talking. Mayors come and go; the SPD continues to regard all demonstrations in downtown and Pike-Pine as completely illegitimate, and attacks such demonstrations with total impunity. It was true when I marched at WTO, and it remained true this week.

@4: A couple of opportunistic politicians trying to deflect blame from themselves to the mayor does not imply "the council is turning on her." Durkan became mayor by beating a well-funded opponent quite easily, so I strongly suggest you not count her out just yet.

The Council is a viper’s nest. I wouldn’t count on them to look out for anyone’s best interest.

Speaking of media lies about the riots that started this all.

It was not young black men rioting and setting five cop cars on fire.

It was a white woman. From Tacoma.

Racism and false stereotypes blind both the media and the police.

@10/11 - Well said and well said.

@12 Is Jenny Durkan from Tacoma?

Holy shit! Let's leave Brad Pitt out of this.

@19: Actually, I'll go even further: holy SHIT! Let's leave Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, and Brad Pitt out of this.

Best can't control her police officers, who fired chemical weapons on medics dragging away victims for medical attention. Best should resign.

Durkan ordered Best not to fire chemical weapons on protesters in the first place, but Best ignored Durkan's direct mayoral order, so she should resign, too.

The rest of the keystone kop routine seems uninteresting and irrelevant to the larger problems of failed leadership at hand, here.