For anyone who doesn't know, CHAZ is the "Capital Hill Autonomous Zone" protesters have set up in Seattle. I think it's kind of a bold move, potentially by both sides, so I decided to find out as much as I could and It's been pretty interesting, so if you've got some thoughts on this rather than memes and insults, let's get into it.
I'm too lazy to cite all this shit, so my sources are fox news, cnn, a lot of small time independent journos, msnbc seems pretty quiet about this, including youtube and print, and a weed cookie.
So seems like it started off as a spot where cops vs protesters had been pretty sporty for a while, nightly teargassings and rubber bullets and what-not. The mayor declared a moratorium on the use of pepper spray, the police chief ordered it anyway, and the teargassings went on. The mayor, Durkan, got the shits and ordered her to stand down, so they left their precinct (under public protest by the chief) and the protesters moved in.
Now, fox has been on the anarchy and lawlessness in Seattle bit, and as much as I hate to give him any kind of credit, Tucker Carlson has actually made some funny segments about it. But they just keep showing the same couple of images that may or may not be in Seattle and may or may not be recent, so now that I had the fox news take I decided to see what was actually happening.
There was also reports of businesses being extorted, but Seattle police have since retracted that statement, saying there have been no formal reports.
I tried to find evidence of how local peoples lives are being affected, like, are there people locked in or out of their homes? But couldn't find any reports of that. I did see a claim that restaurants are doing a roaring trade because of all the people there.
So as far as I can tell, things were getting out of hand in part because of the chief's behavior, the mayor ordered her to back off to de-escalate, cops moved out, protesters in, nobody's a prisoner, nobody's locked in or out (the police have been back to visit their building several times), nobody's being extorted.
There's a couple of different stories going around about lists of demands. The most convincing one I've seen is that they want the police building to be turned into a community services center, possibly with a smaller police unit still operating from the same building. Sounds pretty reasonable to me. The mayor has been inside CHAZ talking to protesters and discussing what they want. I have to admit, I kinda like the mayor. Fake news CNN interviewed her (how fake news can you get CNN? Talking directly to one of the most significant actors and stakeholders involved).
I've changed my position on this since I looked into it a bit more. My first thought was this is a really fucking bad idea, you'll do more harm than good, and if it goes on long enough people will turn on you, and I felt that they should look for the quickest way out, like announce, "ok, that was our protest, we've shown you how much we can disrupt, now make some change." But then what reason would they possibly have to believe that anything would change if they just trusted their leaders to do it?
If everyone is safe, everyone can go about their lives, and they've decided that a community center is what they want and they're going to stay there until they get it, then I say go for it dudes, and I reckon if you do it right America will support you.
I'm too lazy to cite all this shit, so my sources are fox news, cnn, a lot of small time independent journos, msnbc seems pretty quiet about this, including youtube and print, and a weed cookie.
So seems like it started off as a spot where cops vs protesters had been pretty sporty for a while, nightly teargassings and rubber bullets and what-not. The mayor declared a moratorium on the use of pepper spray, the police chief ordered it anyway, and the teargassings went on. The mayor, Durkan, got the shits and ordered her to stand down, so they left their precinct (under public protest by the chief) and the protesters moved in.
Now, fox has been on the anarchy and lawlessness in Seattle bit, and as much as I hate to give him any kind of credit, Tucker Carlson has actually made some funny segments about it. But they just keep showing the same couple of images that may or may not be in Seattle and may or may not be recent, so now that I had the fox news take I decided to see what was actually happening.
There was also reports of businesses being extorted, but Seattle police have since retracted that statement, saying there have been no formal reports.
I tried to find evidence of how local peoples lives are being affected, like, are there people locked in or out of their homes? But couldn't find any reports of that. I did see a claim that restaurants are doing a roaring trade because of all the people there.
So as far as I can tell, things were getting out of hand in part because of the chief's behavior, the mayor ordered her to back off to de-escalate, cops moved out, protesters in, nobody's a prisoner, nobody's locked in or out (the police have been back to visit their building several times), nobody's being extorted.
There's a couple of different stories going around about lists of demands. The most convincing one I've seen is that they want the police building to be turned into a community services center, possibly with a smaller police unit still operating from the same building. Sounds pretty reasonable to me. The mayor has been inside CHAZ talking to protesters and discussing what they want. I have to admit, I kinda like the mayor. Fake news CNN interviewed her (how fake news can you get CNN? Talking directly to one of the most significant actors and stakeholders involved).
I've changed my position on this since I looked into it a bit more. My first thought was this is a really fucking bad idea, you'll do more harm than good, and if it goes on long enough people will turn on you, and I felt that they should look for the quickest way out, like announce, "ok, that was our protest, we've shown you how much we can disrupt, now make some change." But then what reason would they possibly have to believe that anything would change if they just trusted their leaders to do it?
If everyone is safe, everyone can go about their lives, and they've decided that a community center is what they want and they're going to stay there until they get it, then I say go for it dudes, and I reckon if you do it right America will support you.
