The Block Party Is Over. Arrests Made After Mayor Orders End of CHOP.
The Seattle Police Department moved in to reclaim the East Precinct after an executive order by the mayor, resulting in at least 23 arrests. by Luis Miguel
www.thenewamerican.com
Wednesday, 01 July 2020The Block Party Is Over. Arrests Made After Mayor Orders End of CHOP.
Written by Luis Miguel
The experiment in anarchy is over — for now.
Seattle police cleared the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) on Wednesday following an emergency order from Mayor Jenny Durkan (D). Numerous arrests were made as the city retook possession of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, citing violence and lawlessness in the area as their primary motives for shutting down the insurrection.
Durkan issued an executive order declaring the cop-free zone an “unlawful assembly” on Wednesday that gave protesters 48 hours to vacate the six-block zone.
At 5:00 a.m., dozens of officers with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) moved onto the scene, some wearing riot gear. Police say any protesters who remain in the area will be subject to arrest. Workers with the Department of Transportation are taking down CHOP signs and removing the barricades that served as the autonomous zone’s border.
And just like that, at 5am, #CHOP is closed. #seattleprotest #CHAZ pic.twitter.com/gVWsrhua0d
— Dustin Akers (@DustinAkers) July 1, 2020
Authorities have already arrested at least 23 individuals, including a 29-year-old man armed with a pipe and kitchen knife. Officers also reported sightings of people with guns in cars circling the area. The vehicles had no visible license plates.
In a statement, Police Chief Carmen Best said:
This order, and our police response, comes after weeks of violence in and around the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, including four shootings, resulting in multiple injuries and the deaths of two teenagers.
As I have said, and I will say again, I support peaceful demonstrations. Black Lives Matter, and I too want to help propel this movement toward meaningful change in our community.
But enough is enough.
The CHOP has become lawless and brutal. Four shootings –- two fatal — robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several block area.
It should be noted that while the autonomous zone was created to protest the deaths of black men at the hands of police officers, both of the fatal victims of the recent shootings in the area were black.
Dustin Akers, a Seattle resident who lives in the heart of the CHOP area, shared a notice sent by his apartment complex that described the dire living conditions since police abandoned the zone to rioters three weeks ago.
“Since the occupation of the streets surrounding our building, tenants have been subjected to violence, threats, vandalism, noise, lewd conduct, public defecation, daily fights and limited access to the building,” the complex wrote.
Mayor Durkan was originally supportive of CHOP, infamously comparing it to a “block party.” She pushed back at President Trump’s vows to restore order if she failed to do so.
But she had a change of heart as violence in the zone escalated — and as the anarchy began hitting too close to home.
Durkan has called for the City Council to investigate Kshama Sawant, a self-proclaimed “socialist” member of the council who marched hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters to the mayor’s home, let hundreds into City Hall after hours without following coronavirus guidelines, and encouraged the occupation of the East Precinct. Sawant recently called for Durkan’s resignation.
“All of us have joined hundreds of demonstrations across the city, but Council Member Sawant and her followers chose to do so with reckless disregard of the safety of my family and children,” Durkan wrote in an e-mail to City Council President Lorena Gonzalez, accusing Sawat of acting “in violation of the law.”
Durkans’s 180 on CHOP is not unlike the story of another Washington mayor — Cheryl Selby of Olympia.
While Selby has been a proponent of the Black Lives Matter protests and riots that have occurred across the country since the death of George Floyd, she called the movement out for “domestic terrorism” after they vandalized her home.
“It hurts when you’re giving so much to your community,” the mayor added.
What politicians such as Selby and Durkan fail to understand is that no amount of appeasement will ever satisfy the mob. Those committing looting and arson in the name of “social justice” aren’t peaceful protesters who will be satisfied with some reform. They are Marxist revolutionaries who want to burn down the entire system in order to build socialist tyranny in its place.
Those who still believe the fantasy that such a state would be a “worker’s paradise” need only look at the failed experiment that is CHOP to see the reality. Communities that follow in its footsteps can expect nothing less than violence, robbery, and anarchy.
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
Luis Miguel is a marketer and writer whose journalistic endeavors shed light on the Deep State, the immigration crisis, and the enemies of freedom. Follow his exploits on Facebook, Twitter, Bitchute, and at luisantoniomiguel.com.