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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, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @07:31PM (7 children)
Right. And that's a surprise because?
The GOP has become the party of white supremacists.
Are all Republicans white supremacists? No.
That said, if you're going to make common cause (and the leader of your party employing a white supremacist [independent.co.uk] definitely counts as making common cause) with such people, that makes you at least appear to be complicit.
If you're a Republican and not a hateful, racist bigot, why do you support such folks?
I'd point out that while allowing folks to express their views, as repugnant as they might be, is a time-honored tradition which should be applauded and supported.
However, bringing such folks into paid, influential positions in your political machinery and using their rhetoric to obtain/maintain power isn't simply allowing them their free speech rights -- it's implicitly supporting that point of view.
As such, it's absolutely no surprise that folks who are fighting racist behaviors don't support the major political party that *welcomes* those who advocate such policies.
And that, in a nutshell, is why BLM folks aren't supporting the GOP. That's not so hard to understand, is it?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:06PM (1 child)
Not a republican, but knowledgeable about electoral mathematics.
The current electoral system in the USA heavily favours two large, broad-based parties. What they call big tents.
Aside from a few fringe groups, and the utterly disaffected or disenfranchised, everyone is going to fit somewhere into these two big tents.
Racists of various stripes will fit into one or the other. It used to be the democrats, then the republicans, now some of each. Various forms of economic insanity crawl under the tentflaps of each.
Or did you want to hear a colonoscopy result of the democrats? I'm sure that would entertain somebody.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:15PM
Yes. I do. I'm all about transparency, especially WRT elected officials, regardless of party affiliation.
I was actually pretty heartened to see that Steve King was defeated in his primary [axios.com]. That's some progress.
You'll note that I did *not* say that all Republicans were racists. In fact, I said just the opposite.
I said that it was unsurprising that BLM folks overwhelmingly support the Ds and explained why I thought so.
Do you disagree with that assessment? If so, why?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday June 13 2020, @12:45AM (3 children)
The Democrats have re-taken the crown as the racists in chief. All these police killings, all the segregation, all of it is happening in deep, deep blue cities where nary a Republican is to be found, and it has been that way for 50 years. Sure, the Democrats will sing up and down all day long about how much they CARE about minorities, how SORRY they are for their privilege, and then they turn around and pass an ordinance or re-zoning that strips minorities of all they need materially to find their footing and advance. They think that as long as they say it with double extra feeling that they'll fool the minorities into continuing to vote for them.
Very sadly, they have been right.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @01:46AM (1 child)
"deep blue cities where nary a Republican is to be found"
You need to get out more
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 15 2020, @05:35AM
I have lived in Brooklyn for 20 years. Where do you think I need to "get out more" to?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @03:10AM
Rudy Guiliani and Michael Bloomberg would disagree.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @04:49AM
Hello? All of these places where this nonsense are happening are, for the most part, democratic strongholds. Minneapolis has had 50 years of uninterrupted democratic rule. All of this "systemic racism"? Yeah, it's been happening exclusively under democratic rule. The democrats are just using blacks for political gain as has been the case since the parties earliest days.