What’s Going On in CHAZ, the Seattle Autonomous Zone?

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/chaz-seattle-autonomous-zone.html

CHAZ may be all of these, but it is also the acronym for the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” an area of about six blocks in Seattle ceded to protesters demanding justice for George Floyd after several tense nights of standoffs with police. In the absence of law enforcement, a kind of commune has sprung up — which has now become a nightmare bogeyman for conservatives, including the president. They seem to think CHAZ is the first “territory” “claimed” by antifa radicals (antifa, which is not a formal organization, has not claimed any responsibility for CHAZ), “Mad Max movie mayhem come to life” (it has actually been described as “extremely chill”), and run by a group of “domestic terrorists” whose “warlord” is a SoundCloud rapper (also false).

After protests began in Seattle at the end of May, standoffs between protesters and police became intense almost nightly, so much so that lawyers with the Seattle firm Perkins Coie, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Seattle University School of Law filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of Black Lives Matter Seattle–King County and others. “On an almost nightly basis, the SPD has indiscriminately used excessive force against protesters, legal observers, journalists, and medical personnel,” the lawsuit says. It alleges that as late as Monday, June 8, police officers deployed tear gas despite a pledged 30-day moratorium.

A day later, on June 9, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced a “decreasing footprint” around the East Precinct at 11th Avenue and East Pine Street, which had become a “flash point” of clashes between protesters and police. “Protesters have requested it, they want the streets open for peaceful marches, and we’re going to facilitate that opportunity for them,” Best said. “This is an exercise in trust and deescalation.” Law enforcement boarded up windows in the precinct and were seen removing items from the building. Once they were gone, protesters moved in on Pine and set up camp, reversing barricades in order to create a protected zone of about six blocks.