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The CHAZ Has Become America's Fascination
The Stranger describes it as an "anti-capitalist police-free Vatican City inside Capitol Hill." The New York Times deems it "part street festival, part commune." President Donald Trump alludes to it, via tweet, as a bastion for "anarchists" who "must be stooped [sic]."
Seemingly overnight, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone—or, "the CHAZ," as everyone's calling it—has become a local and national fascination. It was only Monday that the Seattle Police Department loaded up trucks and ditched the East Precinct at 12th and Pine, the site of tear gas-clouded confrontations between officers and Black Lives Matter-inspired protesters in the days after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Protesters have since barricaded and transformed a cluster of city blocks into a mostly peaceful enclave of free food, face coverings, resistance art, educational town halls, and even some live music. Seattle Police Department chief Carmen Best says she's heard of armed people patrolling the area and businesses having to pay "protection" fees, but as of this writing, no formal police reports related to either situation have been filed.
At a time when cities are mulling the defunding and, in a few cases, abolition of their police departments, some people might be looking at Seattle's police-free movement with a mix of amusement and genuine curiosity: Is this communal version of the American experiment a blip, or is it a preview of what's to come in other population hubs this summer? For many, however, the questions are more fundamental: How long will the CHAZ (or the People's Republic of Capitol Hill, or Free Cap Hill, depending on your sign preference) stick around? And what are its aims?
Raz Simone, a local rapper, has apparently taken a leading role in declaring a several-block area of a residential Seattle neighborhood to be an independent revolutionary state called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (The CHAZ). Simone and a few friends, armed with several guns and a megaphone, have declared themselves the new police. He came to national attention on Wednesday when a video of him assaulting someone over graffiti came to light online.
[...] The president tweeted Wednesday and Thursday morning that the area has been taken over by a "Terrorist Warlord" and "Domestic Terrorists."
See also: The Future of Capitol Hill's New Autonomous Zone Is Predictable
Businesses Extorted? Armed Checkpoints on Capitol Hill? Yes, and Also Mercer Island Is for Sale
An Exceedingly Chill Day at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday June 12 2020, @07:12PM (10 children)
So your thinking is that a Jewish guy has hired the blacks to destroy America, right? Yeah, that's anti-Semitic neo-Nazi BS that's been around for a very long time.
It's pretty easy to understand why black people support BLM: Any of them, at any time, could be randomly beaten, raped, or murdered by a cop, and if that happens the cop is unlikely to be punished in any way. Now, if you and yours were getting that kind of treatment, how long would you put up with it?
As for anyone who's not black: A lot of them have black friends or family members. Again, how long would you put up with your friends and family being randomly selected for having their life ruined once a week?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @07:35PM (7 children)
Cop brutality doesn't disciminate by skin color. Sometimes, maybe, but generally no. Cop brutality is cop brutality.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/police-shooting-interstate-84-new-york-montgomery-orange-county-investigation/1753912/ [nbcnewyork.com]
Look through the list of cop shootings in 2019. Almost all of them are "xyz armed with a gun," "xyz armed with a knife," and there every skin tone is represented. White. Black. Native American.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/ [washingtonpost.com]
I very much appreciate the Black Lives Matter movement right now, because it's finally forcing Cop Brutality to light. If it's taking the name, "Black Lives Matter," fine. That's what this movement is to me: bringing cop brutality, generally, to light, and getting politicians to respond to it, hopefully generally. Disarm the cops. If guns are needed, call in SWAT.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday June 12 2020, @07:43PM (4 children)
Yes, it does.
As a simple example from a nearby protest: There were mostly black folks in front. The cops decided to attack, got their sticks out, and began to charge towards the crowd. The black folks yelled "SHIELD!", moved back, white protesters moved to the front, and the cops stopped and backed off. Every time the protesters switched who would be the first people they'd be hitting, the cops changed their stance.
That's not to say white people don't get roughed up or even killed by cops sometimes. They absolutely do. But your odds of being the victim of that is considerably lower if you're white, and the cops in question are far more likely to be punished for it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @07:56PM (3 children)
Sounds like a Democrat fantasy. Citation needed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:06PM (2 children)
Sounds like a partisan shitbag to me, you reek nazi scum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:47PM (1 child)
Ooh yes! Persuasive! I'm converted! Convert me, baby!
... wait, what are we thinking this week?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @04:37AM
How bad police brutality is, how badly blacks are targeted for harassment and murder, how stupid, evil, and divisive the POTUS is, and how you have nothing better than shit to stir.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:54PM (1 child)
You're complacent.
It's moved from George Floyd getting killed by a cop to abolish all police to all white people are now at fault and owe all black people everywhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2020, @11:51PM
Hi racist dickbag. Know how I know you're racist? Because you think people protesting for equal treatment is an attack on yourself. Pathetic.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by qzm on Saturday June 13 2020, @04:00AM (1 child)
You know that more than 50% of American cops are black right?
You know that more white Americans are killed by cops than black right?
You know that the (massively) lead cause of black homicide is... blacks, right?
The big fuckup here is that people are protesting for black rights not against police brutality.
Both matter, all rights matter, but the problem here is the way American (other other places) police have been militarised and becomes a power hungry control force.
If THAT was what the protests were about, then there would not be a big societal split over it, and perhaps, just perhaps, positive outcomes for all would happen.
But we wouldnt want that now, would we.
BTW, just to rub in a bit of salt, do you know that approximately 95% of the people shot by police are MALE?
Male Lives Matter, you know... obvious sexism! (yes, I am taking the piss here.. just showing how STUPID the arguments being used are)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2020, @12:53AM
There's a war on working class white men. It started in the Clinton era and job offshoring, has gone through decades of insults about pickup truck driving republicans and so forth and is now show in the complete indifference to police brutality against white people. George Floyd shouldn't have died, and so should not that dude in the hotel hallway. Now, companies which have gutted the economy can regain all the credibility they need, by posting BLM and shutting the office for a day, and meanwhile, we can back to where we need to be -- economically gutting more of those hicks in flyover country.