Six people have been shot in Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone in 10 days, prompting officials to look at dismantling it A 16-year-old is dead and a 14-year-old is in critical condition in the latest of a series of shootings inside Seattle’s self-proclaimed police-free zone, known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP/CHAZ).
Initially home to hundreds of sometimes peaceful protesters, in the last 10 days, four other people were shot in the area, including a 19-year-old man who was killed.
The violence has left some officials seriously questioning the safety of the encampment and looking to take steps to dismantle it.
Officers said in a police blog that at about 3am on Monday, a white Jeep Cherokee SUV was reported near a Chop concrete barrier that surrounds the protest area. Several unidentified people then fired shots into the vehicle. “Two injured individuals, presumably the occupants of the Jeep”, were then taken to Harborview Trauma Center, according to the police blog.
One was transported by a private vehicle, while the other was taken by medics.
Police are investigating the shooting.
Chop, originally named the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or “CHAZ”, was founded about three weeks ago after a series of dangerous clashes between protesters and law enforcement during protests against police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd.
The clashes culminated in police abandoning their east precinct building in the area. A number of peaceful protesters filled the area with free food and community gardens, and held speeches, movie nights and teach-ins. Others assaulted, bullied, threatened, intimidated and even robbed journalists. Police were not allowed to accompany City medics to recover/rescue victims of gun battles prompting the medics to refuse to enter the barricaded zone.
Across the main road in the encampment, some people painted “Black Lives Matter” in large, colorful letters. But recently, with the barrage of nighttime gun violence, the numbers of demonstrators have dwindled dramatically.
During a press conference at the occupied zone on Monday, Carmen Best, the police chief, said the situation at Chop was “not safe for anybody” and said protesters should move out of the area.
“As an African American woman with uncles and brothers, I wouldn’t want them to be in this area,” she said. But Best did not provide additional details about when officials would begin dismantling the zone.
Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s mayor, had previously said during a meeting with protesters Friday that the concrete barricades surrounding the protest zone would be removed on Sunday, and those directly outside the police’s east precinct would be left, according to Converge Media, the only news organization allowed in the meeting. But no crews arrived Sunday to remove them, and as of 3pm Monday, the barricades were still up.
A large group of Seattle department of transportation crews had tried to remove the barriers early Friday morning, but were stopped by several people sitting or lying on the ground in front of the equipment. In recent days, some people at Chop have moved their tents away from Cal Anderson Park, so they are closer to the police precinct. But many still remain in the park.
Questions remain about how protesters will respond to the city attempting to remove barricades, and what will happen to those still in the park.
Hours after the shooting, an African American woman was reportedly pushed by the Fox News reporter Dan Springer, according to Derrick Drungo, an activist at Chop who witnessed the incident.
Drungo said Springer then got in his truck and protesters surrounded it, asking for an apology. One woman briefly climbed on top of the truck. Activists said the reporter’s personal security detail came out and tried to pepper spray them, and the group moved a concrete barrier in front of the truck to stop him from leaving. The reporter later got out of the car and another man with Fox tried to move the truck.
While driving very slowly, Drungo said the man hit him. “I got back in front of the car and the driver kept driving,” Drungo told the Guardian. “My hands were up in the air, and he hit me six times. I told him to stop,” He added.
In a statement, Nancy Harmeyer, the vice-president of domestic bureaus and the LA bureau chief at Fox News, said:
“While covering the news just outside of Seattle’s Chop zone this morning, a protester confronted Fox News Channel correspondent Dan Springer and his crew after overhearing him cancel a live report due to ‘filthy language’ in the background. The protester started yelling at him and threw a cup of coffee in his face and on his jacket.
Attempting to de-escalate the situation, the crew returned to their vehicle, which was then surrounded by protestors. Unable to drive away, the crew turned the car off and walked away from the scene.
At no point during the situation did the Fox News crew ever physically instigate or retaliate in any way against the protesters.”
In a tweet early Monday, Donald Trump said, “Seattle Looters, Agitators, Anarchists and ‘Protestors’, are now refusing to leave the ‘CHOP’ Zone. They have ZERO respect for Government, or the Mayor of Seattle or Governor of Washington State! Not good!”
Chief implores BLM supporters to stop the carnage, go home…says crime scene and murder evidence was tampered with, no suspects or arrests, cites refusals to cooperate with police investigation.
King5 possibly owns the copyright to this critical footage but the 4th estate cannot be trusted to preserve the record and make it irrevocably available to the public.
The Chief maintains poise and dignity almost effortlessly in the face of CHAZ denizens’ attempt to drown out her interview with the press–a class act all the way.
The 4th Estate has failed to report the details inn the following footage. The 5th estate has. Today, WE are the media! Barricades being dismantled down in Seattle’s CHOP/CHAZ zone Raw Gunshots & Tampered White Death Car w/2 Black Teen Victims
Why I left Antifa | Gabriel Nadales
“By their works ye shall know them.” -MATTHEW 7:20 KJV-
An apologist explains The Philosophy of Antifa
Original CHAZ/CHOP shooting Footage & Report 6/28-29
Street Demonstrators Record Police Violence,Targeted Reporters
A Quick History of ANTIFA, Its Genesis in Leon Trotsky
The communist movement known as Antifa (short for Anti-Fascist Action) has sparked violence across the nation. In the wake of their battling despicable white supremacist in Charlottesville, Antifa has begun to gain mainstream popularity.
But unbeknownst to much of the public, the vast majority of Antifa violence isn’t targeted at genuine fascists, but mainstream conservatives and civilians. With help from those who have encountered Antifa, including Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, Lauren Southern, Jack Posobiec, and Steve Deace, conservative author Trevor Loudon guides us through the history and ideas behind the Antifa movement, starting with Leon Trotsky and going all the way through the events in Berkeley, CA and Charlottesville, VA.
“Antifa” is the third episode in the “America Under Siege” documentary web-series from Dangerous Documentaries (a project of the Capital Research Center) and Cohesion Films. Each episode profiles the influence of radical Marxists on various segments of American society.
DangeousDocumentaries.com CapitalResearch.org
Jerrad Johnson 2 years ago says: I’ve seen Antifa in person, I was at the battle of Berkeley. They throw explosives and bricks and glass bottles at us and called us nazis, just because we support free speech.
I’m a slightly left of center libertarian native-American who is married to a hispanic girl that is the daughter of a mexican immigrant. I adopted my wife’s 2 hispanic nephews because their mom is a crack head and CPS took them away. I couldn’t be further from a nazi by their identity politics standards yet they call me one for supporting free speech (including theirs ironically).
These people are animals, I assure you. This is a spot on documentary.
