The first thing I noticed right off the bat is that Mayor Durkan said four blocks. It’s actually six square blocks. Does she not even know how large the area is? And secondly, on the same day that Durkan said this, her chief of police Carmen Best said, “rapes, robberies, all sorts of violent acts” are occurring inside the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). So, which one is correct? I don’t think there is any doubt at all that the mayor is being less than candid.
I’m sure the chief of police knows exactly what she is speaking of, especially when you consider the occupants of the no go zone are anarchists. I can honestly say that I have never attended a block party thrown by anarchists, have you? There have also been stories tying the anarchists to the shake down of businesses within the occupied territory.
Durkan said:
“We’ve got four blocks in Seattle that you just saw pictures of that is more like a block party atmosphere. It’s not an armed takeover. It’s not a military junta. We will make sure that we can restore this. But we have block parties and the like in this part of Seattle all the time. It’s known for that. So, I think the president, number one, there is no threat right now to the public. And we’re looking, we’re taking that very seriously. We’re meeting with businesses and residents. But what the president threatened is illegal and unconstitutional, and the fact that he can think he can just tweet that and not have ramifications is just wrong.”
“We do. And the chief of police was in that precinct today with her command staff looking and assessing operational plans. But we saw that it was a point of conflict night after night between the police department and protesters, and we wanted to de-escalate that, and what we decided was the best way to do that was reopen the streets. And that itself ended up with some ramifications for the precinct to remove anything that was valuable from out of that building. But we will make sure that all of Seattle is safe. We take public safety seriously. But the description the president has given is not only wrong. But if it were right, his remedy is wrong. You don’t ‘dominate[.]’ Remember why we’re here. You know, we’re here because the nation saw Mr. Floyd murdered. And that lit a match across this country. And we have to acknowledge and know that we have a system that is built on systemic racism and we have to dismantle that system piece by piece. We have to empower the black community and communities of color. And we have to invest in their health and their safety and their education and opportunity.”