When protesters first took over Seattle’s Capitol Hill district last month, supporters pitched it as something of socialist summer camp: movie nights 🦂under the stars, free food, a sidewalk library — and no cops.
But the leaderless six-block zone — known as the CHAZ, or Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, before it was renamed CHOP for Capitol Hill Occupation Protest — quickly spiraled into violence and chaos, culminating in a pair of shootings that killed two black teens.
On Wednesday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan finally issued an emergency order for police to take back the streets and clear out the protesters who had been camped out for nearly a month.
It was a st❀unning reversal for🦩 Durkan — who originally compared the CHOP to a “block party atmosphere” and suggested the city could be in for a “summer of love.”
The CHOP first emerge🌌d June 8 amid the raging nationwide protests over George Floyd, the black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck in late May.
As demonstrations grew more violent in Seattle, cops were told to abandon the East Precinc👍t on June 8 in Capit🐲ol Hill, the LGBT-friendly neighborhood with a vibrant nightlife.
Police Chief Carmen Best later made it clear it was not by choice — blas🐈ting the city’s leaders for relenting “to severe public pressure.”
“I’m angry about how this all came about,” shဣe fumed.
That night, protesters, led by Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, invaded City Hall before retreating back to the East Precinct. They huddled together on the pavement to watch the 2016 documentary “13th” on a giant screen꧅, with many camping out overnight.
With cops gone from the area, protes𝓡ters took over — erecting barriers, spray-painting the precinct’s sign to read “Seattle People Department,” setting up a “no-cop co-op” with free food, organizing political discussions and erecting a gia🧜nt memorial in honor of Floyd and other people of color killed by police in recent years.
But the peace didn’t last.
Some protesters armed themse🀅lves ꦫand stood guard at the edges of the autonomous zone — including Solomon “Raz” Simone, an assault rifle-toting rapper who some accused of acting as a “warlord” in what was supposed to be a leaderless movement.
There was also in-fighting — Simone clashed with a graffiti artist, in an caught-on-tape fist fight, and videos showed one protester demanding his white counඣterparts fork over $10 to black d✅emonstrators.
Residents and business owners within the CHOP have ♏also filed lawsuits alleging constitutioꦛnal rights violations — after police said early on they’d o🥀nly respond to the area if there was an immediate threat to life or safety.
In recent weeks, the violence turned to tragedy with at least four shootings in or around the CHOP in nine da🐽ys — including two that left a pair of teens dead.
Lorenzo Ande✱rso♉n, 19, died of his injuries in a shooting on June 20 that also left a 33-year-old man injured.
Thℱe slain teen’s father said it was time for CHOP to b⛄e shut down.
“This doesn’t look like a protest ⛎to me no more,” said Horace Lorenzo Anderson, KIRO7 reported. “That just looks like they just took over and said, ‘We can take over whenever we want to.’”
Another shooting early Monday morning claimed the life of Antonio Mays Jr., 🍰16, who was driving in a Jeep Cherokee that witnesses said crashed i🌳nto one of CHOP’s concrete barriers.
Marty Jackson, a volunteer medic within CHOP, estimated that the SUV was ridওdled with 300 bullet holes, claiming the zone’s own security members shot up the car.
A 14-year-old boy was also critical🔴ly wounded in the shootout.
Video taken🌃 the same night and released by local police shows someone prowling the ar🦂ea with a long gun, while others cower behind concrete barricades.
“Now it’s like pretty much an active war zon💮e,” Jacksonಌ told radio station KUOW.
Both of those killed in the zone were black, police said.
“Two African American men are dead, at a place where they claim to be working for Black Lives Matter. But they’re gone, they’re dead now,” Best said on M♑onday.
That sa𒈔me day, Durkan announced plans to finally dismantle CHOP —and issued her vacate order just be🌠fore 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Police outfitted in riot gear and armed with batons and𒁏 tactical vehicles arrived on scene, givin♈g protesters eight minutes to clear out.
Cops used bicycles to push🍌 protesters back about five feet at a time, while warning them about the possible use of ch𝄹emical weapons, according to MyNorthwest.
They then began tearing down t෴ents and wooden barricades.
“A lot of chaos, you hear many, many voices,” Debora Killman, who was sleeping in a ten🌠t, told KOMO News. “But then I heard on the megaphone it’s either going to be the police or Natioꦿnal Guard so that’s when I started saying OK, it’s time to get up.”
Durkan’s Wednesday order directed the police to se𓂃t up a “secuꦕrity buffer” around the area as they work on taking back the East Precinct.
Police said they’d made 31 arrests on charges including failure to disperse, obstruction, assault, and unlawful weapon pꦚossession as of 9:25 a.m. local time.
“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 towarꦦd meaningful change in our community,” said Best.
“But enouܫgh is enough. The CHOP haꦍs become lawless and brutal.”