Edit: Hot Takes:
- The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle is the “apex” or “crest” of the protest “wave” that is now hitting America. It is a qualitative evolution from the destructive riots and flaccid sign-waving that have made up most of the protests so far.
- As a historical phenomenon, the CHAZ shows that Occupy Wall Street didn’t die in 2011, but in fact the left-wing forces that have propelled class warfare to the forefront of American politics are stronger than ever. The CHAZ is larger than Occupy, more organized than Occupy, and is emerging in a context of much larger national unrest than Occupy.
- This is the direction all protests should take. Stop whining and begging at the heels of Congress, arm yourselves and autonomize your block today!
- This is the most practical exercise of the Second Amendment by leftists since the Black Panther Party started cop patrols.
Summary
Protesters who have been battling with police in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle have successfully forced the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to evacuate the East Precinct station, located in Capitol Hill. This followed several days of violent police confrontation during protests which covered Capitol Hill in tear gas, despite a citywide ban on police use of chemical weapons. This caused wide public backlash against the SPD.
Then, during a tense standoff between protesters and police on Sunday, a lone-wolf pro-cop terrorist tried to flank the protesters with a car-ramming attack, during which he shot a Black protester in the middle of Capitol Hill's rainbow Pride crosswalk with a handgun using an extended clip. The entire city was appalled. The following day, SPD announced they would begin withdrawing from Capitol Hill, along with evacuating and abandoning the East Precinct police station, where several protests had been staged.
Now there are no police in Capitol Hill, and the barriers left behind by the riot control squads have been commandeered by armed protesters and turned into barricades for the self-organized 'Capitiol Hill Autonomous Zone', the new de facto government of the roughly four-by-four block territory. Also known as 'CHAZ', the only question now is what will happen in this cop-free autonomous zone, and how long will this neighborhood will be able to stand in defiance.
Media and Articles about the CHAZ
GIF: Seattle Police battle with Capitol Hill protesters before the CHAZ was established
GIF: Capitol Hill protesters stop a pro-cop car-ramming attack, but not before the terrorist shoots a Black man
A look inside Seattle’s newly-formed ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’
June 10, 2020 https://mynorthwest.com/1934076/seattle ... mous-zone/
On Monday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that police at the city’s East Precinct would be leaving the area and reopening streets that had been blocked off for almost two weeks. It didn’t take long before what’s become known as the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” began to take shape.
Barriers originally set up by police have been repurposed to set up the borders of the zone. What used to be the Seattle Police Department on the corner of 12th and Pine now reads “Seattle People Department.”
KIRO Radio’s Hanna Scott and Nicole Jennings spent time in the “CHAZ” Tuesday, watching for hours as a hundred or so people began setting up tents, putting up signs, and preparing to set up camp as part of their ongoing protest against police brutality.
“It was a really energetic day — it was very peaceful,” Hanna reported. “Really a whole different vibe than I’d seen the other nights I’ve been there, a very peaceful experience, almost like a street fair honestly.”
Reporting early in the afternoon Tuesday, Nicole also described free food and medical aid available for demonstrators on every corner. Some food and supplies were also distributed to the homeless population in the surrounding area. The group even reportedly organized its own garbage collection Wednesday morning.
“Their position is that they can take care of themselves,” Hanna said.
The group also recently published a lengthy 30-point list of demands for Seattle City Council and the Mayor’s Office. Some go far beyond what councilmembers like Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant have proposed in recent days, including a call to “abolish the Seattle Police Department and the attached Criminal Justice Apparatus.”
Other demands on the list are more wide-ranging, including rent control, restoration of city arts funding, and free college across Washington state.
Speakers throughout the day addressed smaller-scale changes as well, including one who stressed the importance of investing in black-owned businesses.
It’s unclear how long the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone will be allowed to remain in the area around 12th and Pine, or even how long police plan to stay out of the East Precinct. In the meantime, though, the crowd appears hunkered down for the long run.
Food, medics, free rides home: Seattle protests see rush of volunteer support
June 9, 2020 https://crosscut.com/2020/06/food-medic ... er-support
“We have a specialized skill set that we can provide to the public. We cannot trust the police to act in a way that has our best interests at heart,” Manila explains. Nearby, fellow street medics wearing construction or bike helmets emblazoned with red tape run back and forth with boxes of paper towels and other supplies. “As a health care professional,” he says, “I took an oath to have people’s best interest at heart at a physiological and mental level.”
A few such medical volunteers were prominently visible Sunday night, when a man with a gun drove into the crowd of protesters and shot another man in the arm. Street medics and others rushed to help the injured man and walked him to an ambulance. In recent days, volunteer protests medics have also taken care of flash bang, pepper spray and other injuries.
The ethics of a street medic are simple, Manila says: “Everyone is deserving of care.”
First aid isn’t the only grassroots service popping up amid the protests. There’s a growing network of what many are calling “mutual aid,” a system of providing supplies, sustenance and organizing powers long practiced among marginalized communities and in social movements.
At marches, rallies and protests, it is now common to see people with large backpacks handing out water, snacks and masks. This past weekend, at the “We Want to Live: March for Black Lives and to End Violence," where thousands of participants walked from Othello Park to Rainier Beach, volunteers handed out Ziploc bags full of oranges, cookies, chips, masks, earplugs, Band-Aids and fruit snacks. As the sun broke through the clouds, marchers were sustained by giveaways from food tents (including Pagliacci pizza and Ezell’s chicken) and water bottles from trunks of cars stationed near the route.
On Capitol Hill, cardboard signs affixed to the walls above aid stands direct protesters to personal Venmo accounts for monetary donations, QR codes to sign petitions demanding justice for Breonna Taylor (who was killed by Louisville police in March) and a state-wide petition to hold police officers accountable for police brutality. Some signs bear phone numbers of volunteers offering free rides home. Above a stack of free water bottles on a sidewalk, a sign says, “Free anti-racist fuel.”
One stand is run by a group of volunteers calling themselves “Pink Umbrella Aid” (referring to the pink umbrella snatched from a protester's hands before police unloaded pepper spray, flash bangs and tear gas on the crowd a week ago). They’ve repurposed the outdoor bar of a nearby restaurant as a display case. It’s like an outdoor shop except everything is free: rows of boxes of fruit snacks, salted peanuts, Gatorade, bread, saline solution and safety goggles for tear gas protection, masks to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, earplugs, gauze, body wipes, nitrile gloves, umbrellas, tampons and even sunscreen (SPF 50).
“Everybody has a role in social justice, whether you are on the front lines, whether you are working behind your computer, or you’re making food to get people fed, watered and hydrated,” De La Rosa adds. “To create a safe environment and validating that we are not here for nothing: We are here for equality and social justice. Black lives matter. We are here to protect each other.”
‘Welcome to Free Capitol Hill’ — Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone forms around emptied East Precinct
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020 ... -precinct/
Previously: After mayor’s speech on deescalation, police making strongest show of force yet at ‘standoff’ at 11th and Pine
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020 ... -and-pine/
