Police Chief Carmen Best, by resigning this past week, just did Seattle two huge favors.

Having the city’s first Black police chief get driven out, supposedly in the name of furthering Black equality, was an embarrassment for our city. But that’s what city leaders needed at this moment — they needed to get embarrassed, to be chastened or humbled a bit by their own slipshod performances. Thanks to Best, it appears that at least some of them were.

The other favor Best did us is that her departure spotlighted the real ideological split at City Hall on this issue, which is: Are we trying to fix the police, or tear them down?