Dear Mayor Wilson, Seattle City Council, Chief of Police Barnes, and Director Glenn,
We, the undersigned, call on City of Seattle leadership and the Seattle Police Department to provide immediate accountability for the illegal use of excessive force against protesters at Town Hall Seattle on April 19th, 2026.
Community members gathered peacefully outside a StandWithUs event to exercise their First Amendment rights - rights that officers of the law are sworn to protect, not suppress. Instead, SPD officers deployed knee-on-neck restraints against nonviolent protesters. This technique is explicitly banned in Washington State under RCW 10.116.020. It is not crowd control. It is a military-grade restraint technique (one developed and used by the Israeli Military against Palestinian civilians), and it has no place in American law enforcement. This unlawful technique was used here, against people protesting the conduct of that same military, and it is not lost on us.
This is a First Amendment crisis. Our tax dollars fund a police department that showed up not to protect the rights of American citizens, but to suppress them in the name of a foreign government - deploying, in the process, tactics imported from a foreign military. The unlawful killing of George Floyd put the entire country on notice that knee-on-neck restraints are deadly. Washington State responded by banning them outright. SPD's use of this technique is not only a violation of state law - it is a symptom of a department that has never meaningfully reckoned with why that ban exists. The State Auditor's recent report confirms this: only 16% of veteran officers and 14% of new officers have completed their required de-escalation training under Initiative-940, eight years after it became law.
It is insulting and deeply harmful to our community that the city issues a proclamation celebrating Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month and, in the same week, deploys officers to brutalize the very community it claims to honor.
We demand the following:
Immediate public disclosure of the names and badge numbers of every officer who used a knee-on-neck restraint at this event.
Suspension with investigation of all involved officers pending a full, independent review.
A clear, public statement acknowledging that this conduct violated SPD policy and community trust.
Concrete disciplinary action - not retraining, not a written reprimand, but consequences commensurate with the severity of harm inflicted.
A commitment to comprehensive, enforceable reform of use-of-force protocols with real community oversight.
A full audit and public disclosure of any SPD training programs involving Israeli Military or security contractors, and immediate suspension of any such programs pending review.
Seattle has watched, year after year, as promises of police reform dissolve into inaction. The people of this city deserve far better than to be met with illegal violence for exercising their constitutional rights.
Signed,
Signatures
Elected Officials:
Rami Al-Kabra, Bothell City Council
Darya Farivar, State Representative, 46th LD, NE Seattle
Toshiko Hasegawa, Commissioner, Port of Seattle
Jessica Forsythe, Redmond City Council
Teresa Mosqueda, King County Council
Yasmin Trudeau, State Senator, 27th LD
Cindy Ryu, State Representative, 32nd LD
Chipalo Street, State Representative, 37th LD
Osman Salahuddin, State Representative, 48th LD
Organizations:
CAIR Washington
Washington for Peace and Justice
WA Coalition for Police Accountability
Nidal Seattle
Racial Justice and Police Misconduct Center
Muslim Community Association of Spokane
The Washington Muslim Coalition
Seattle Democratic Socialists of America
Muslim Advocates
People of Color Community Coalition
Veterans for Peace, Rachel Corrie Chapter
AhsenYouth
An-Nisa Network
Somali Independent Business Alliance (SIBA)
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
Faith Action Network
Somali Family Safety Task Force
Americans for Refugees and Immigrants
Islamic Center of Olympia
Muslimahs Against Abuse Center
Samawado Women's Health
Muslim Council WA Dems
AL Furqan Foundation of Washington
Voices of tomorrow
WA State Muslim Democratic Caucus
Washington Muslim Alliance
The Cherry Street Village
Muslims For Community Action And Support
Samawado Women’s Health
An-Nisa Network
People of Color Community Coalition
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
Veterans for Peace, SSC
MAPS-AMEN
Washington Muslim Alliance (WAMA)
Vulca's Mediterranean Market
Palestine Information Organization
Justice For Herbert Hightower Jr.
Palestine Action of South Sound
Seattle Families for Palestine
Jewish Voice for Peace - Seattle
BilYad Seattle
Seattle Against War
No Azure for Apartheid
Americans for Refugees and Immigrants
Tasbeet
Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
Our Hope
American Muslim Advancement Council
Seattle Residents:
Mutia Nurhapsari
Arnold S
Marcia Stone
Ellison Shieh
Sarah Girouard
Rachel Kay
Amy Lee
Aram Falsafi
Omid Bagheri Garakani, MPH
Elijah Suarez
Leyla R
Linh X
Elisabetta Valenti
Dr. Charlie Matlack
Adam Levine
Rachel Kay
Khalid Elassaad
Yaz Kader
Chris Hale
Jonathan Rosenblum
Andee Vaughan
Kashif Ali
Akram Ziyard
Sofia Kadmir
Lena J
Colleen
Bridget O'Brien
Brandon Gim
Todd H
lucky jordan
Nilu Jenks
Jessica Trupin
Aidan Carroll
Allie S
Susan Moskwa
Rob Jenks
Lisa Rivera
Jon Morgan
Kerri Brown-Wooster
Sofia Torres
Ariana A
Linda Beavis
Rae Levine
Stefanie Brendler
Kae U
Stacey Wiese
Nida Is
Greta Treistman
Quin Nelson
Alexander Roe
Steph Hagerty
Gabriel K
Kairi E
Tenah Hunt
Jack Hunt
Catherine O'Connor
Shaddy Zeineddine
Karli Carr
Angele Zamarron
Julia Khorsand
Kathleen Skeels
PJ Phillips
Manila Niroii
Abdullah Ali
Elena Thompson
Abdullah Ali
Elena Thompson
Vaniya Agrawal
Denise Sterchi
Thomas Corey
Audie Maven
Zahra Siddiqui
Rhonda Brown
Charity K
Natalie McPherson
Laura Cooley
Anne Hundley
Camille Baldwin-Bonney
Emma Klein
Katya Wilson
Alouise Urness
Solona Sisco
Poppy G
Katie Jendrey
Eden Mulvaney
Martha Baskin
Jacob Janin
Washington State Residents:
Imraan Siddiqi
Karen Stromgren
Sherry Bupp
Bill Dole
Casandra Harrison
Farzan M
Asim Mahmood
Rachel W
Aria Fani
Elena Rumiantseva
Hammad Hashmi
Katherine German
Sarah Hamid
Claudia Kienholz
Laila Saliba
Jessica Heaton
Ayman Aldahleh
Kaitlyn M
Mariana Jones
Lamia Abdalkader
Elliot Gann
Sydney Fone
Guinevere Dinsmore
Hussain Aslam
Vanessa Skantze
Jenna Elwanger
Reham Shehata
Makayla Heaps-Smith
Wayland Hubbart
J. Greenstein
Ariel Brownstein
Angeline Zalben
Lama A
Sherry Shams
Chelsey C
Fauziya Mohamedali
Nada Hasbini
Amber Bruce
Tina McKim
Castill Hightower
Nadia Abu-Zahra
Linda Hagerman
Brooke Budner
Craig Corrie
Rae A.
Ibtihal Aboussad
Feisal K
Marla Murdock
Naren Briar
Fauziya Mohamedali
More ways to support CAIR-WA's efforts to protect the Muslim Community:
