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posted by martyb on Friday June 12 2020, @05:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the Chez-CHAZ? dept.

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?

Meet Raz Simone, The So-Called "Terrorist Warlord" Rapper Who Briefly Ran Seattle's "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone"

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


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Friday June 12 2020, @08:49PM (5 children)

    by looorg (578) on Friday June 12 2020, @08:49PM (#1007072)

    How do you know what I thought about that event? Stop putting words in my mouth to fit your agenda.

    But since you brought it up -- when can we expect the feds and the police to come in and clear the CHAZ? Otherwise why can only the "mostly" unarmed (insert whatever they are) occupy land in the middle of a metropolitan city without LEO coming in and restoring order? Is that just reserved for white people that likes guns out in the boonies?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:04PM (#1007076)

    when can we expect the feds and the police to come in and clear the CHAZ?

    Well, based on the statements of the duly elected mayor [twitter.com], I'd say "never."

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:05PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:05PM (#1007078)

    How do you know what I thought about that event?

    So. What *did* you think about the armed insurrectionists taking over Federal land?

    Please. Do tell.

    • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:42PM (#1007091)

      Sounds like another episode in the long-running dumbasses vs assholes soap opera.

      Copenhagen is a food group, right?

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Friday June 12 2020, @11:01PM (1 child)

      by hemocyanin (186) on Friday June 12 2020, @11:01PM (#1007136) Journal

      I'm not him, but my thought was that it was quixotic, moronic, and lame. That said, there are some differences to note between Malheur and Capital Hill:

      -- The Malheur occupation maybe displaced a few workers but my understanding was that the buildings were unoccupied, certainly not used for permanent habitation.
      -- CHAZ is impacting approximately 500 residents. In these days of cancel culture and mobs, I would expect them to not say anything negative about the occupiers lest they be branded "literal nazis" just because they want to get their mail delivered and trash removed.

      -- The Malheur occupation ended in a death which many on the woke left cheered but appears to be an instance of trigger happy cops starting shit.
      -- The violence out of CHAZ is internal and though not so severe as that at Malheur, assaults and domestic violence are not exactly minor either.

      -- Malheur aint exactly nowhere, but you can see it from there.
      -- CHAZ is in WA's largest city.

      So, on the continuum of actions, from helpful to horrendous, Malheur is somewhere past the midpoint on the way to horrendous, and CHAZ is quite a bit farther past it.

      We can also look at a different commune the rioters set up as a "sanctuary" -- It's like a tornado went through. https://twitter.com/maxnesterak/status/1271186315476860928 [twitter.com]

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:02AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:02AM (#1007312)

        "I would expect them to not say anything negative about the occupiers lest they be branded "literal nazis" just because they want to get their mail delivered and trash removed."

        I guess you don't realize you are outing yourself as an idiot. Best of luck with your continuing idiocy and your belief that you're a liberal. CHAZ is a weird and possibly troubling development, but your approach to them is simply out of touch. Maybe you were a liberal boomer, however now you're just a moderate conservative.

        Not racist, not filled with hate, but definitely stuck in the past and prioritizing the wrong things.