The district court erred in dismissing the plaintiff police officers’ defamation complaint against a city council member for her telling a crowd that that a fatal shooting by the police constituted “a blatant murder at the hands of the police,” and calling for the Seattle Police Department to be held accountable “for their . . . individual actions.” It was plausible that reasonable persons would conclude defendant meant her remarks to apply to the police officers involved in the shooting not just to police in general. Also the complaint sufficiently alleged that members of the public, including the policemen’s family and friends so construed the remarks. The remarks were at least ambiguous in respect to whether they referred to police in general or the particular policemen, so the complaint could not be dismissed.