Chaz (or Chop): a Summer of Love, Antifastan, Lord of the Flies, or Animal Farm?

[Bill Ryan]

There have been several posts on different threads mentioning CHAZ (now renamed as CHOP), here, here, here, here, and here.

If this isn't going to be an ephemeral thing (but of course, it may well be!), it may warrant its own thread to discuss the various interesting issues presented.

[AutumnW]

"Reports from CHAZ, described by The Stranger as “exceedingly chill,” make it sound like a mix of Occupy Wall Street and a college independent cooperative dorm. The cordoned-off area includes apartments, businesses, and the precinct, with protesters free to gather away from any police. According to news reports and accounts from observers, there is a “No Cop Co-Op” with free food, vegan pizza, LaCroix (and White Claw), a hot dog stand (not free), a medical center, a Mutual Aid Books table, a garden, and a giant Black Lives Matter mural."

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020...mous-zone.html

Reports of a roving black warlord are quite simply false and would NEVER be allowed by the mayor.

I co-own commercial property a few blocks from the area and haven't heard word one from my partners about any kind of chaos of the nature being promulgated by social media and those with a conflict of interest--or just an "if it bleeds it leads" yellow journalism bent.

[O Donna]

Perhaps an oversimplification but I find similarities between CHAZ/ CHOP and a group of people building their version of a childhood fort/ tree-house.



(Hypothetically) A government will be set up in CHAZ/ CHOP and given time to rippen, collapse of it's own weight.

[Dorjezigzag]

In the Communist utopia of CHAZ( or now chop in reference to the french revolution), things are going entirely as expected!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=aEWjQOnrZRg

[The Moss Trooper]

An interesting connect-the-dots from Jim Stone:

http://82.221.129.208/.vj8.html

In the dropped instruction pamphlet from Antifa (below the top picture), it states they use 328BG's for communication. What is that? It's a burner phone made by LG that is serviced exclusively by Tracfone. So look at what they are asking for on this list: TRACFONE MINUTES CARDS:

Attachment 43811

And then read the 4th page down on this document, to see what they communicate on. This is an official ANTIFA document that got dropped and someone found:

Attachment 43812

First of all, it proves Soros, who runs "friends of Democracy" is associated with Antifa, because the second document was dropped by Antifa.

Second:, they are not using Sprint, ATT or anything else, they are using THE ONE, THE ONLY, TRACFONE. That they are asking for TRACFONE MINUTES CARDS and not another carrier proves THEY ALL have tracfone, if this was an organic movement there would be other pre-paid carriers mixed in, but no, it's Tracfone and they are irrevocably busted. It has to be Soros.

Third: It proves that Soros either expects them to "live in the wild" to some degree, thus necessitating their need to ask for phone cards, OR that they are too cheap to pay for the phone cards with their pay Soros is giving them. It is also possible they can't get the cards in the zone they are in. It's only a six block area. Poor planning. Someone has to bring these items to them.

Any way you cut it, the fact that they are EXCLUSIVELY asking for Tracfone strongly indicates they are part of the "friends of democracy" front run by JONATHAN, not George Soros (so George can say his hands are clean while his kid handles the dirty work). It means very little to claim to not be running it when Jonathan is an apprentice!

The Fourth thing this does is add double confirmation that the instructions linking "Friends of Democracy" to Antifa are legit. It was called a hoax. But when right on it it states they use Tracfone exclusively because a phone only serviced by Tracfone is on the Friends of Democracy document, and it is so exclusively used by them that they call it out by model number, AND THEN the only airtime requested in CHAZ is Tracfone, well, that's a multiple hanging. BUSTED.

[shaberon]

It may also be facing overdoses and banditry, as did the recent one in Portland.


I will admit that when I was younger, I would have been fascinated by this stuff, and probably would have done everything I could to nurture its worst sorts of activities.

It does seem similar to things that are known to have happened, like the difference between Young Italy and the Redshirts. Usually the youth groups seem more programmed and more radical, whereas the latter are a mix of all walks of life and usually does have a faction based from specific issues, and also has that kind of popular support that might lead to stability and unification.

"Young", in this sense, is mostly under thirty. Adult in appearance, maybe, but usually not the people who sustain agriculture and infrastructure. Civilization is made of agricultural surplus and a means of getting it to market, not a fight over the market.

Washington state as a whole may not care about a few blocks of downtown. If these people messed with something important, like docks or power plants, it would be different. Instead, aren't they coming forward to claim they represent "me"?

What happens in Syria, for instance, is that the militias get control of enough engineers that they shut down power and water plants to extort cities. They do the same thing for oil and cement and so forth. The thing we can give them credit for is at least they represent one thing, themself/their law.

Years later, they are nearly impossible to dislodge. This thing can hardly get its feet on the ground without having emergencies.

Elsewhere, removal of Confederate monuments tells me, well, these must be Federalists, the Empire is coming. They just did one in Virginia and hit a guy in the head with a whole statue.

One view on Bacon's Rebellion says:

By 1620 or so, a system of unfree labor became the dominant labor system in Virginia. The system was essentially slavery, some “bond-laborers” had time-limited contracts, but most servitude was open to interpretation by custom. A majority of these bond-laborers were Europeans.

The archival evidence is clear, as well, that the role of African and African Americans was “indeterminate.” From 1619 to the years following Bacon’s Rebellion, the status of black people was contested in the courts and in the fields. Africans held a variety of social and economic positions: some were limited term slaves, some free, some endured lifetime bondage, while others were property holders, even including a few slave owners.

It was not until after Bacon’s Rebellion, or the second phase of Bacon’s Rebellion to be precise, that law and society created a new custom of racism, and for that to happen, the white race had to be invented. What was the trigger?

“[I]n Virginia, 128 years before William Lloyd Garrison was born, laboring class African-Americans and European-Americans fought side by side for the abolition of slavery. In so doing, they provided the supreme proof that the white race did not then exist.”

The Rebellion occupied the capital of Jamestown and pointed the way toward freedom for everyone, by contesting the rule of the oligarchs who had grown rich on slave labor and land stolen from the natives.



So considering this was Jamestown, the effective racism of the time was English over Irish and German, nobody thought of themselves as a collective white people. The main issue at hand was within English supremacy of oligarchy over commons. This remains the case today, and, the youth movement seems to be bristling with emotions about it, while unfortunately playing into the hands of one or other of the oligarchies. This is why I would say they are not Anarchists, since the goal of anarchy is not insurrection or the removal of government, but the removal of oligarchy, i. e. of a priviliged ruling class such as hereditary monarchs, or immortal pillars of wealth such as legally-enshrined corporations.

[justntime2learn]

This 6 minute video provides a glimpse into the intimidation of local news reporters. One lady is told to quit talking and she obeys. WT*

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ay5h5dq14mM

[bobme]

I have never heard of chaz before now. Enlighten me please.

[Mike]

Posted by The Moss Trooper (here)
An interesting connect-the-dots from Jim Stone:

http://82.221.129.208/.vj8.html

In the dropped instruction pamphlet from Antifa (below the top picture), it states they use 328BG's for communication. What is that? It's a burner phone made by LG that is serviced exclusively by Tracfone. So look at what they are asking for on this list: TRACFONE MINUTES CARDS:

Attachment 43811

And then read the 4th page down on this document, to see what they communicate on. This is an official ANTIFA document that got dropped and someone found:

Attachment 43812

First of all, it proves Soros, who runs "friends of Democracy" is associated with Antifa, because the second document was dropped by Antifa.

Second:, they are not using Sprint, ATT or anything else, they are using THE ONE, THE ONLY, TRACFONE. That they are asking for TRACFONE MINUTES CARDS and not another carrier proves THEY ALL have tracfone, if this was an organic movement there would be other pre-paid carriers mixed in, but no, it's Tracfone and they are irrevocably busted. It has to be Soros.

Third: It proves that Soros either expects them to "live in the wild" to some degree, thus necessitating their need to ask for phone cards, OR that they are too cheap to pay for the phone cards with their pay Soros is giving them. It is also possible they can't get the cards in the zone they are in. It's only a six block area. Poor planning. Someone has to bring these items to them.

Any way you cut it, the fact that they are EXCLUSIVELY asking for Tracfone strongly indicates they are part of the "friends of democracy" front run by JONATHAN, not George Soros (so George can say his hands are clean while his kid handles the dirty work). It means very little to claim to not be running it when Jonathan is an apprentice!

The Fourth thing this does is add double confirmation that the instructions linking "Friends of Democracy" to Antifa are legit. It was called a hoax. But when right on it it states they use Tracfone exclusively because a phone only serviced by Tracfone is on the Friends of Democracy document, and it is so exclusively used by them that they call it out by model number, AND THEN the only airtime requested in CHAZ is Tracfone, well, that's a multiple hanging. BUSTED.

that list of things the "Chaz" citizens requested made me chuckle

i couldn't help but be reminded of the leo dicaprio movie, 'the beach'. the whole movie revolves around his search and eventual discovery of a secluded group of communist utopians living at least what appears to be an idyllic life far away from society (somewhere in thailand i think).

they pride themselves on their self sufficiency but slowly discover, and eventually totally relent to, their reliance on the outside world. this reliance cannot be denied.. and the movie, to me, seems to be a comment on not only this but on how things like malevolence and jealousy and cruelty will exist wherever humans exist..even in outwardly idyllic and beautiful places. the beautiful island they live on serves mostly as an ironic backdrop to the inevitable destruction that occurs. the ultimate lesson: the creation of utopias often results in something far worse than whatever it is the utopians were trying to escape from in the first place...and they eventually crawl back to it. more deeply it's about communism vs capitalism, both imperfect systems but one clearly more imperfect than the other.

anyway, at one point in the movie, richard, played by dicaprio, is selected to go into town on behalf on the group; one by one they line up and request things like tampons, cigarettes, batteries, soda pop, toilet paper, soap, etc etc. it's a deeply symbolic scene.

perfect metaphor for Chaz

[Universoul]

This seems like something you would do as a child. Take a tent and maybe a bag of chips and say, "Hey mom and dad I'm gonna live in the woods!"

They're autonomous? So they provide their own electricity, food, water? They have built their own infrastructure? Even if money weren't an issue, how would they get basic conveniences like electricity? I'm not against protests or having a good cause yet naivety and wishful thinking are dangerous.

It's not going to end well because when there are crowds of naive people there are predators or psychopaths not far behind. If there's no "warlords" yet there will be. I don't see how devolving society to a tribal feudal state is progress. Sure our world is corrupt. There are corrupt cops, politicians, anyone you can think of who has institutional power over other humans.

The path forward isn't to tear it all down and throw it all out though. The idea is first to be grateful for the amount of peace and freedom we have in the modern world, which our ancestors didn't have whether black OR white or whatnot. Then as we focus on what is good about our world and civilization, include that when we envision what we want to create moving forward.

These "progressives" don't seem to have much gratitude or appreciation for what they have. That's so important to having any sort of constructive life, let alone creating a better world. It's absurd how negative they are yet believe they're fighting oppression and corruption. The worst red flag is how the establishment is supporting them from virtue signalling politicians to companies. There would be tanks on the street rolling over their barricades if they were truly stirring the pot and not reinforcing the agendas.

[Mike]

Posted by Universoul (here)
This seems like something you would do as a child. Take a tent and maybe a bag of chips and say, "Hey mom and dad I'm gonna live in the woods!"

They're autonomous? So they provide their own electricity, food, water? They have built their own infrastructure? Even if money weren't an issue, how would they get basic conveniences like electricity on their own? I'm not against protests or having a good cause yet naivety and wishful thinking are dangerous.

It's not going to end well because when there are crowds of naive people there are predators or psychopaths not far behind. If there's no "warlords" yet there will be. I don't see how devolving society to a tribal feudal state is progress. Sure our world is corrupt. There are corrupt cops, politicians, anyone you can think of who has institutional power over other humans.

The path forward isn't to tear it all down and throw it all out though. The idea is first to be grateful for the amount of peace and freedom we have in the modern world, which our ancestors didn't have whether black OR white or whatnot. Then as we focus on what is good about our world and civilization, include that when we envision what we want to create moving forward.

These "progressives" and "leftists" don't seem to have much gratitude or appreciation for what they have. That's so important to having any sort of constructive life, let alone creating a better world. It's absurd how negative they are yet believe they're fighting oppression and corruption. The worst red flag is how the establishment is supporting them from virtue signalling politicians to companies. There would be tanks on the street rolling over their barricades if they were truly stirring the pot and not reinforcing the agendas.

great post.

there is a complete and utter lack of gratitude out there, particularly among the social justice types. and what they're now finding out is all those small things they just took for granted because they were always provided.

humanity - black and white and whatever - has toiled for hundreds of years so we can all enjoy the amenities we have now. it's never been easier to be alive...for anybody! rewind just a 100 years from now and we'd all be utterly f#cked! 2 days of that type of life and we'd all be begging and pleading to return to our terribly "oppressed" future again.

our society is far from perfect. but it offers so many wonderful things that we simply take for granted now. suffering is relative, like everything else. you have to take a long view on it, and compare today to the not to distant past to realize, yes, we have some hurdles but what we have here now is really worth nurturing and maintaining. we can improve it, and should always strive to, but to blow it up is downright pathological.

life, no matter when or where, will always provide a baseline level of suffering. for everyone. what our social justice protesters are doing is confusing that baseline suffering with a heavily exaggerated sense of oppression.

[AutumnW]

Autonomous means they are policing themselves. Don't drink the alt right kool-aid. It's an imperfect set up designed to allow people to protest without being tear gassed.

[O Donna]

All for the removal of corruption but like so many well-intended social movements, it already looks like bad actors are posed to co-opt the movement and take it in a direction protesters would not have supported if they knew where it was headed.

Is the thought, “this time will be different”?

[shaberon]

Posted by bobme (here)
I have never heard of chaz before now. Enlighten me please.

We don't know or can't tell?

It is a group that has stormed a Seattle police precinct and occupied a few blocks around it as their "own police", or something.

Comparatively, South Carolina once educated its population for thirty years on states' rights prior to seceding. It was a complete culture based on the issue of a state being able to reject a federal law. This went so badly that most southern state constitutions have been re-written to say "may not secede".

Is it not federal law, sponsored by racist smears on blacks and hispanics, that criminalizes cannabis users?

Is this not a major and unnecessary driver of the "prison industry"?

Any state who turns their back on this regime, and, anyone who goes along with saying it is unhelpful, must have at least something in common with the Confederates.

Post-Confederacy, modern democracy has been found as early as in J. L. Talmon's 1952 book The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy to be a cheap costume on top-down resource control.

It seems likely that Yugoslavia and most of the color revolutions are its domain, and, exactly what this has to do with Seattle or anything else, is hard to say. Although some of the Panthers also believe this is backed by totalitarian democrats and completely different from what they were doing.

[Universoul]

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Universoul (here)
This seems like something you would do as a child. Take a tent and maybe a bag of chips and say, "Hey mom and dad I'm gonna live in the woods!"

They're autonomous? So they provide their own electricity, food, water? They have built their own infrastructure? Even if money weren't an issue, how would they get basic conveniences like electricity on their own? I'm not against protests or having a good cause yet naivety and wishful thinking are dangerous.

It's not going to end well because when there are crowds of naive people there are predators or psychopaths not far behind. If there's no "warlords" yet there will be. I don't see how devolving society to a tribal feudal state is progress. Sure our world is corrupt. There are corrupt cops, politicians, anyone you can think of who has institutional power over other humans.

The path forward isn't to tear it all down and throw it all out though. The idea is first to be grateful for the amount of peace and freedom we have in the modern world, which our ancestors didn't have whether black OR white or whatnot. Then as we focus on what is good about our world and civilization, include that when we envision what we want to create moving forward.

These "progressives" and "leftists" don't seem to have much gratitude or appreciation for what they have. That's so important to having any sort of constructive life, let alone creating a better world. It's absurd how negative they are yet believe they're fighting oppression and corruption. The worst red flag is how the establishment is supporting them from virtue signalling politicians to companies. There would be tanks on the street rolling over their barricades if they were truly stirring the pot and not reinforcing the agendas.

great post.

there is a complete and utter lack of gratitude out there, particularly among the social justice types. and what they're now finding out is all those small things they just took for granted because they were always provided.

humanity - black and white and whatever - has toiled for hundreds of years so we can all enjoy the amenities we have now. it's never been easier to be alive...for anybody! rewind just a 100 years from now and we'd all be utterly f#cked! 2 days of that type of life and we'd all be begging and pleading to return to our terribly "oppressed" future again.

our society is far from perfect. but it offers so many wonderful things that we simply take for granted now. suffering is relative, like everything else. you have to take a long view on it, and compare today to the not to distant past to realize, yes, we have some hurdles but what we have here now is really worth nurturing and maintaining. we can improve it, and should always strive to, but to blow it up is downright pathological.

Thanks. I've always believed gratitude is important in everyday life and also spiritual expansion. It's such a fundamental ingredient. Speaking of, I try to keep a respectful eye on the past and my ancestors even as I look ahead. If you take linear time out of the equation then the virtues and soul our ancestors had is the same virtue and soul we'll have tomorrow. Like one gigantic continuum, we feed into it, it feeds into us. It just *is*, and so are we.

life, no matter when or where, will always provide a baseline level of suffering. for everyone. what our social justice protesters are doing is confusing that baseline suffering with a heavily exaggerated sense of oppression.

That's a perfect way to describe it. So even if they get their demands, the suffering won't stop. It'll always be there until they learn to accept the struggles of this incarnate experience and make their peace. As you said some people equate baseline suffering to oppression. It's like some, by unconscious choice or conditioning, are invested in their egos and fighting their own sobriety and soul awakenings.

[Bluegreen]

Thank you so much. I live in the #Chaz and we cannot get out of here fast enough.
The message has been hijacked completely.

Theresa Denofre
@Filitaliana
Replying to
@WayneDupreeShow

https://twitter.com/Filitaliana/stat...14554263269376

[Bill Ryan]

An interesting and detailed report published by the New York Post:

• https://nypost.com/2020/06/20/my-ter...utonomous-zone

My terrifying five-day stay inside Seattle’s cop-free CHAZ


Armed protesters with rifles in hand in front of abandoned Seattle Police Station
Source: http://projectavalon.net/Armed_prote...ce_station.mp4

On June 8, Seattle police frantically loaded what they could from the East Precinct into trucks and cars. Within hours, they boarded up and abandoned the station. That night, left-wing protesters from Black Lives Matter and Antifa declared ownership of the six-block neighborhood in the middle of the Pacific Northwest’s largest city. They named their new territory the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” or CHAZ. No laws or rules applied here except for one: “No cops allowed.”

During five undercover days and nights in the zone, I witnessed a continuing experiment in anarchy, chaos and brute-force criminality. In order to avoid being exposed as a journalist — several reporters have been barred or expelled — I slept and showered outside the zone. (Those inside have no showers but they do have portable bathrooms.) I took meals, and most of my water breaks, elsewhere because I was reluctant to remove my mask and risk being recognized. Every day I entered the zone twice through its semi-porous borders — once in the early afternoon, and again after sundown, staying until the wee hours.

Crime has surged inside and outside the zone.

On Saturday morning, a shooting erupted that left at least one person dead and another injured near a border checkpoint. Police were reportedly met with resistance when they tried to get to the victims, who apparently were then taken in private cars to the hospital. Cops made it into the zone to gather shell casings and evidence, some reports said, as police in riot gear stood at the border.

On Thursday, police arrested Robert James after he left the CHAZ. He is accused of sexually assaulting a deaf woman who was lured inside a tent. The same day, former city council candidate Isaiah Willoughby was arrested on suspicion of starting the arson attack on the East Precinct on June 12.

Police Chief Carmen Best has stated that police response times to 911 calls in the surrounding area have “more than tripled” because the force is down a station.

“Emergency calls, which often means somebody’s being assaulted, sometimes it’s a rape, sometimes it’s a robbery, but something bad is happening if it’s a top priority call, and we’re not able to get there,” she has said.

Various “Occupy”-type protests have occurred across the US since the original occupation near Wall Street in 2011. But the CHAZ is nothing like the mostly peaceful tent city in privately owned Zuccotti Park that was corralled and closely monitored by the NYPD.

CHAZ occupants, ranging from several hundred to 10,000, depending on the day, with many openly armed, control all of the Capitol Hill neighborhood near downtown. The neighborhood is the heart of Seattle’s gay and counter-culture district, and is densely filled with businesses and apartment buildings. The CHAZ now claims all of it.

Before the takeover, violent clashes between rioters and police defending the East Precinct resulted in dozens of officers injured by rocks and other projectiles. Protesters and rioters complained of police brutality, leading Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Best to ban cops from using tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bangs for 30 days.

The CHAZ is having reverberating effects elsewhere. In the early hours of Thursday, Antifa and other left-wing protesters established an “autonomous zone” in downtown Portland, Ore. They stole city and business property to build a wall. At least one protester was seen carrying a rifle. The area was later cleared by police, but far-left activists are determined to try again. Protesters in Nashville and other cities have attempted to recreate their own “autonomous zones” modeled after the CHAZ, but have so far been stopped by law enforcement.

In Seattle, as soon as police evacuated from the station nearly two weeks ago, masked protesters stole city property — barricades, fencing and more — to create makeshift barriers. These barriers became the official border checkpoints in and out of the CHAZ. They were later fortified with additional layers of security: more blockades and 24-hour guards. A large team of volunteers assembled to designate themselves “security” for the CHAZ. Many of them wear patches signaling they’re part of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club, a far-left militia-type organization named after the radical abolitionist. Last year, one of the group’s members carried out an armed attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, Wash. Police said Willem van Spronsen tried to ignite the 500-gallon propane tank attached to the facility. He was killed by police.


Raz Simone (center), a prominent figure in the Capitol Hill neighborhood

Despite the group’s link to violent extremism, its armed members were celebrated in the CHAZ for “protecting” the new denizens. The head of the CHAZ’s security is a short female named “Creature.” She and the rest of her team communicate with walkie-talkie devices and earpieces. Some of them openly carry rifles, handguns, batons or knives. Their operating base is in the open-air eating section of the Rancho Bravo Tacos Mexican restaurant. Signs posted all over their base declare: “NO PHOTOS. NO VIDEOS.” Another sign lists Venmo names for donations.

Though the CHAZ claims to have no rules, it quickly developed a complex code of conduct that varied from zone to zone and even the time of the day. For example, those in the garden area, who are mostly white, need to make sure they do not “recolonize” the space.

Mainstream media reports have focused on the “block party” atmosphere of the occupation, repeating a talking point from the Seattle mayor. She, along with Gov. Jay Inslee, a fellow Democrat, have gone to great lengths to emphasize the “peaceful” nature of the occupation. For media crews that arrive during the day, that is certainly what they will see. People have barbecues in the street. Many bring their children to make street art. People walk their dogs.

But at night, a whole different side of the CHAZ emerges.

Lacking agreed-upon leadership, those who have naturally risen to the top have done so with force or intimidation. For example, rapper Raz Simone, real name Solomon Simone, patrols the CHAZ on some nights with an armed entourage. Simone, originally from Georgia, has an arrest record for child cruelty and other charges. He usually conducts his patrols carrying a long semi-auto rifle and sidearm. Last weekend, a livestream recorded Simone handing another man a rifle from the trunk of a car.

Not everyone in the CHAZ recognizes Simone’s police-like presence, but no one is willing to stand up to him and his group. There have been consequences for those perceived as challengers or threats. Independent Los Angeles-based journalist Kalen D’Ameida recorded Simone and his crew in the early hours of Monday. He was spotted by one of Simone’s men, who manhandled him and demanded he turn over his mobile device. Simone’s team chased D’Ameida and tried to drag him to the security tent. He escaped by hiding in a construction site outside the CHAZ until police responded to his 911 call.

Those unfortunate enough to have homes or businesses within the CHAZ — an estimated 30,000 residents — have no say over their new overlords. Residents have discreetly voiced their concerns to local media. Gunshots and “screams of terror” at night have been reported. A resident of an apartment building came out twice to ask protesters to leave the alley where the entrance is. They brushed him off.

Every business and property inside the CHAZ has been vandalized with graffiti. Most messages say some variation of “Black Lives Matter” or “George Floyd,” but other messages call for the murder of police. Most businesses are boarded up. “ACAB” — “All cops are bastards,” an Antifa slogan — is written over them.

Businesses outside the CHAZ are also suffering. Last week, the Trader Joe’s in Capitol Hill announced it was closing immediately and indefinitely because of “safety and security concerns.” Then last Sunday night, around 100 angry protesters sprinted toward a nearby auto repair shop to “rescue” a comrade who had been detained. All it took to sic the mob on the business was one man yelling into a microphone inside the CHAZ. According to the police report, the store’s owner, John McDermott, stopped Richard Hanks after he allegedly broke into the business, stole property and tried to start a fire. The owner and his son said they called police “multiple times” but cops and firefighters never responded.

Rioters from the CHAZ broke down the gate to the business lot and began rushing the owner. A large team of CHAZ volunteers successfully de-escalated the situation by forming a human chain where the fence once stood. It was one of the rare occasions the community was able to police itself. Private security for the business said they found a cache of weapons, including a rifle, hidden in a nearby bush.

In the midst of the restlessness and drug abuse that arises in and around the CHAZ, acts of kindness and community support also flourish. Donations from outside have poured in every day, supplying the camp with multiple food and supply stations. The “No Cop Co-Op,” the largest supply booth, distributes raw meat and fresh vegetables. Next to the tents in Cal Anderson Park, denizens have started rudimentary “farms” to grow lettuce and herbs. One farm is only for “black and indigenous folks.” Those looking to make new friends can sit on one of the many sofas at the “Decolonization Conversation Cafe.” Free coffee is served.

Left-wing political groups have capitalized on the opportunity to recruit new members. The Democratic Socialists of America features prominently in addition to the Seattle Revolutionary Socialists. But in the absence of any vetting, perhaps intentionally, extremists have also set up shop. One station that operates off and on distributes extremist anarchist-Communist agitprop — the political ideology of Antifa. In one manual titled, “Blockade, Occupy, Strike Back,” instructions show how to use human shields against police, and make rudimentary “bombs” using light bulbs and paint.

Another booklet is titled “Against the Police and the Prison World They Maintain.” It features short essays on why police, capitalism and the state must be destroyed by any means necessary, including through violence. One section explains how the media are enemies used to “pacify” revolutionaries.

“Our contempt for the media is inextricable from our hatred of this entire world,” the booklet reads. Attacks on journalists who are accused of not toeing the line have become commonplace. On Monday, a masked Antifa militant pointed me out to her comrades and tried to assemble a mob. I left before I could be injured. The following day, a Fox News crew was forced out of the zone.


A man sits in the Conversation Cafe while carrying a firearm in the police-free zone in Seattle.

Knowing the danger journalists faced in the CHAZ, I tried to blend in by dressing in the “black bloc” uniform popularized by Antifa. I avoided speaking to people on the chance they would recognize my voice. When they viewed me as one of their own, they were incredibly kind. They offered me water and snacks throughout the day. Suspicious “outsiders,” on the other hand, were immediately tailed by security.

Despite the pleas from those who live and work inside Capitol Hill for law and order to be restored, Seattle’s city council has determined that the CHAZ should continue. On Tuesday, the city even provided upgrades to the CHAZ, including street blockades that double as graffiti canvases, along with cleaning services and porta-potties.

It is difficult to decipher what CHAZ occupants want. Each faction, whether liberal, Marxist or anarchist, has its own agenda. But one online manifesto posted on Medium demands no less than the abolishment of the criminal justice system.

See also:

• Cops allegedly refused to respond to shop under attack near Seattle CHAZ
• Shooting reported in Seattle’s ‘CHOP’ zone for second straight night
• No arrests in shooting in Seattle protest zone that killed 1
• 1 killed, another injured as bullets fly inside Seattle's cop-free zone

[AutumnW]

NY Post is alt right deception. Fade 'em and watch this. Get out of your damn heads. Chaz is about people wanting to protest without being tear gassed. The police left following the mayor's request that they do so. Comparing them to children and 'having a chuckle' about it makes my blood ****ing boil. Where the hell are you spiritually? Where is your sense of compassion and decency?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=E46uaDCcT9Y

¤=[Post Update]=¤

On Saturday morning, a shooting erupted that left at least one person dead and another injured near a border checkpoint. Police were reportedly met with resistance when they tried to get to the victims, who apparently were then taken in private cars to the hospital. Cops made it into the zone to gather shell casings and evidence, some reports said, as police in riot gear stood at the border.

The interpretation will be skewed like crazy. Please Bill, could you do better than quoting the lowest of the low in "journalism?" The New York Post is part of the problem, not a solution. It is divisive, sensation seeking and appeals to the lurid.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by AutumnW (here)
Where is your sense of compassion and decency?

It's alive and well: very much so.

Jess, I won't get into a fight with you about this. I sincerely think, based on everything I believe I know and have read and listened to on all sides, that you may have this one a little wrong.

I'll just say this, and allow others to post if they want to.

Andy Ngo, who wrote the article, has been interviewed several times (easy to search and find), and he was there in person night and day. I don't think he's making this stuff up. As best I can see, this isn't a summer of love, it's a summer of hate.

[AutumnW]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by AutumnW (here)
Where is your sense of compassion and decency?

It's alive and well: very much so.

Jess, I won't get into a fight with you about this. I sincerely think, based on everything I believe I know and have read and listened to on all sides, that you may have this one a little wrong.

I'll just say this, and allow others to post if they want to.

Andy Ngo, who wrote the article, has been interviewed several times (easy to search and find), and he was there in person night and day. I don't think he's making this stuff up. As best I can see, this isn't a summer of love, it's a summer of hate.

My husband was an investigative journalist. My brother was a political cartoonist and an editorial columnist. I helped my husband write a book about propaganda. The part I was responsible for was tabloid media and how it has been infiltrated by what you refer to as the "deep state." I think I have a pretty good handle on this.

Is it complete fabrication? No, of course not. But it will be exaggerated along the lines of the dictates of the hard right--because that is basically who owns it.

It's not Woodstock, but neither is it a "summer of hate" or Mad Max. You are thinking along the same lines as the fascists that control Fox, print tabloid media and much of the social media opinion mills. And you can't help it, because you are so immersed in it. They are in control. They are ascendent. They dominated social media before the left so they have mental leverage..mind share over the population.

With respect,

Autumn