Seattle’s summer “block party” may only comprise only about three square blocks of the city now, but the cop-free CHAZ or CHOP or people’s autonomous zone — whatever — has experienced more than its share of gunfire over the weekend.
Two people were shot — one fatally — in the early hours of Saturday morning. According to the AP, responding officers were met by a “violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims,” which included responding EMT’s.
Chop warlord Raz Simone didn’t appreciate the EMTs’ reluctance to enter the CHOP and ted to the wounded (language warning):
Medics refused to help even after people in the CHOP begged. They let our bro bleed out for 30 minutes till he died. Fuck politics. Fuck your currupt system. pic.twitter.com/PMwxU9yEzd
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
Two men with gunshot wounds were taken to a hospital in a private vehicle. One of them died.
There was another shooting in the CHOP last night.
Shooting in #chop #chaz again tonight. pic.twitter.com/uroJ1wYKg8
— cacti (@SCCacti) June 22, 2020
From the AP:
Police in Seattle say one person has been wounded in the second shooting in Seattle’s protest zone in less than 48 hours.
The shooting happened late Sunday night in the area near Seattle’s downtown area known as CHOP, for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.” Police tweeted that one person was at a hospital with a gunshot wound. A hospital spokesperson says the person was in serious condition.
According to the Seattle Times,
Dispatch logs place the emergency response at Harvard Avenue and East Pine Street, with the first reports at about 10:42 p.m., though it was unclear where exactly the shooting happened.
Seattle firefighters arrived at 10:46 p.m., two minutes after being dispatched, and went to a predesignated staging location near the perimeter of the protest zone, Fire Department spokesman David Cuerpo said. A couple of minutes later they were notified that the injured person had been taken away in a private car, Cuerpo said.
One Seattle city council member, Kshama Sawant, made the claim — apparently without any evidence — that the shootings were actually part of a “right-wing attack.”
Without evidence, Seattle socialist city council woman @cmkshama says CHAZ shootings have “indications that this may have been a right-wing attack.” Witnesses have been refusing to cooperate in investigation & many prevented police from entry. https://t.co/6dtxL2R425
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 21, 2020
The entire CHOP “experiment” doesn’t seem to be turning out to be the “summer of love” that Mayor Jenny Durkan claimed it would be. You have to wonder what other crimes are taking place there that are lower profile and haven’t made it into the news.
It’s almost as if the predictions of inevitable violence resulting from the creation of a law enforcement-free zone in the middle of a major American city — and the strategy of letting it all play out — were right on the nose.