On Mon., U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and nine city, county and state elected officials of color who represent the Seattle community sent a letter to Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best that urged them to enact meaningful and transformative changes to the very nature of policing throughout the city.

“We write as elected officials of color who represent various parts of the City of Seattle and are deeply committed to honoring the lives of the many Black brothers, sisters and siblings who have been killed by police violence and are currently experiencing the triple threats of a global pandemic, pervasive anti-Blackness and police violence,” wrote Seattle’s elected officials of color who serve at the local, county and state level.

The letter—led by Congresswoman Jayapal and Seattle City Council President Lorena González—is also signed by State Senators Joe Nguyen, Rebecca Saldaña and Bob Hasegawa, State Representative Cindy Ryu, King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay and Seattle City Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda, Tammy Morales and Kshama Sawant.

The letter comes just hours after Representative Jayapal helped to introduce the Justice in Policing Act, federal legislation that would implement long overdue police accountability and reform measures by establishing a federal police misconduct registry, making lynching a federal hate crime, ending qualified immunity, requiring reporting of all incidents of use of force to the Justice Department, banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants for drug cases, restricting the transfer of military equipment to local police and increasing accountability, oversight and transparency.

Representative Jayapal will discuss this legislation, the letter and other key updates at a 6:00 p.m. PT constituent town hall on Weds., June 10.

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