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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @11:12PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @11:12PM (#1007143)

    Can you state any law that prohibits minorities from enjoying the same rights as the majorities?

    Or anytime President Trump, a Republican, has implied that minorities have less rights than majorities? (And no, "arresting looters" doesn't count. Protests are legal, and many say protesting is a right. But once that protester turns into a looter, he is becomes a criminal, a thug, a gangster, a thief, and a crook, and police have a RIGHT to detain and arrest that person, and society and citizens have a RIGHT to expect the police to control the looting because everyone has a RIGHT not to be robbed. If the looters happen to be mostly black, so be it.)

  • (Score: 2) by legont on Saturday June 13 2020, @03:37AM (1 child)

    by legont (4179) on Saturday June 13 2020, @03:37AM (#1007272)

    Hold on. Citizens do have rights. Police, on the other hand, has an obligation to catch all the looters. Until every one is off the street police can not stop.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @03:49AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @03:49AM (#1007284)

      After the looters, let them come for the rapists. We'll catch all those blacks one way or another.