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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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @10:44PM (4 children)
That is fucking stupid.
BLM is not some political game, it is the black community along with probably 90% of white people under 30 and 70% under 40 who are FUCKING PISSED at the racist fascism that CONTINUES to happen. Black people take the overwhelming brunt of it, but it also affects us all.
Shit heels like you who try and spin it as some political game that no one has to take seriously are a major part of why the problem continues to exist.
I can only imagine you are another sock puppet of the ethanol-fueled cunt, or at least ideologically in agreement, so burn in hell you piece of shit unless you can grow beyond your ignorant bigotry.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @11:53PM
Back to your safe place, little snowflake...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @03:57AM
I could very much see BLMs leadership being completely under control of outside forces, but not the movement itself. People on the ground want police violence to stop, people on the news want to talk identity politics and D agendas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @04:58AM
Yeah, this is why the donate link on the Black Lives Matter page [blacklivesmatter.com] goes *literally* straight to an ActBlue front page with all proceeds going to ActBlue charities - AKA democratic candidate fundraising. Donate to BLM and donate to the exact organizations that have created the alleged systemic racism in the hotspots where this is happening. Minneapolis? Yeah 50 straight years of democratic rule there. Let's make it 100 and maybe things will be different!
Useful idiots are a thing because they never realize they're useful idiots.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday June 14 2020, @08:47AM
> BLM is not some political game, it is the black community along with probably 90% of white people under 30 and 70% under 40 who are FUCKING PISSED at the racist fascism that CONTINUES to happen
And strong believers in omeopathy, because that's what BLM is.
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