Seattle’s Mayor announced Monday that officials plan to dismantle the six-block “police-free zone” in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood following multiple shootings in the area over the weekend.
“It’s time for people to go home,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said.
The area now known as CHOP, which stands for “Capitol Hill Organized Protest,” has been occupied by demonstrators since June 8, when Seattle police left the East Precinct in Capitol Hill.
On Saturday, a 19-year-old man and a 33-year-old man were shot within the area. The 19-year-old died from his wounds and the 33-year-old remains in critical condition, KUOW-FM reported.
A 17-year-old was shot in the arm in the CHOP zone on Sunday night, and another man was shot Tuesday morning and suffered non-life- threatening injuries, according to KING-TV.
“While we believe individuals, organizations and others can continue to gather on Capitol Hill peacefully, the continued disorder, the violence, and the impacts on residents and businesses are not just at odds with a message of justice and equity, they cannot continue to occur,” Durkan said.
“We are working with the community to bring this to an end. Capitol Hill belongs to everyone in the city.”
Neighbors in the community, like Matthew Ploszaj, told KOMO-TV that it shouldn’t have taken such violence for the mayor to take control.
“It was doomed to happen from day one,” Ploszaj said.
“No one wanted to say it, but I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. It should have ended when the Car Tender got broken into and the mob went down and broke his fence. It did not have to come to this at all.”
Although the mayor didn’t provide a timeline for dispersing the CHOP zone, she said it will be “peacefully and in the near future.”
“Clear it out, peacefully remove them, that’s fine,” Ploszaj said. “But start shuffling them away, they don’t need to stay here overnight.”
Andre Taylor, founder of the police accountability advocacy group Not This Time, told KUOW that he met with leaders of the CHOP on Sunday and warned that the situation could get worse.
“Are you willing to die? And not only are you willing to die, are you willing to take the responsibility of someone who dies on your watch?” Taylor said he asked the leaders.
A Capitol Hill resident named Jason Smith said the entire message of the CHOP zone changed course over time.
“I think it was ‘Black Lives Matter,'” he told KOMO. “I think harassing black people. Killing black people. That’s what it was about first,” he said.
“They lost their way. They lost their way, but they still need to give them something and they need to fight for something.”
Poster Comment:
When we were working Security at Woodstock 94, on the last day the temps fell into the upper 40s. Since the weather had been so wet they were afraid people would get hypothermia. That was a real danger. So glad we did not have to sleep in those circus tents any longer.
They found human remains from the Chop. Time to round up those animals and put them down.
"Call Me Ishmael" -Ishmael, A character from the book "Moby Dick" 1851. "Call Me Fishmeal" -Osama Bin Laden, A character created by the CIA, and the world's Hide And Seek Champion 2001-2011. -Tommythemadartist
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- Thomas Jefferson
When we worked Security a Woodstock 94, one morning they called us in early because the bands started early.
We get in there and this guy has his girlfriend on his shoulders right down front. They were telling him to get her down and he wouldn't do it.
There were these two old hippies there who were at Woodstock in 1969. I told them, "Spread out! I'm coming in!" And I jumped into the crowd.
Someone reached out and grabbed that chick by the wrist and pulled her off his shoulders.
I circled around in the crowd. He was taking off for the Mosh Pit. I grabbed him by the wrist before he got in there. I reeled him in and threw him against the barricade, put my hand under his behind and boosted him up. Then the guys pulled me out.
Someone threw a wad of muddy straw and hit me in the face.
There was black on the local crew guy hosing down the crowd. I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and hosed me off.
I saw him again at Lollapalooza in Des Moines in 96. He was on the crew cart. When he saw me he stopped the cart, jumped off and ran over to give me a big hug. He said, "Tex! How ya doing?"
He remembered me. And I am very lucky to remember that since the meningitis wiped out so much memory. ;)
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke