BLM Garden, the Last Vestige of the CHAZ in Seattle, Gets Bulldozed – By John Sexton (Hot Air) / Dec 28, 2023
You probably remember the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) which was formed in Seattle back in 2020 before it was renamed the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). The CHAZ/CHOP was supposed to be a living example of how woke anarchists could create a utopia by simply removing the fascist element (Seattle PD) from the a few square blocks.
Initially, the police chief and the city complied, pulling out of the precinct and effectively leaving a few square blocks of the city with no law enforcement. CHAZ residents came up with a list of demands which included a 50% cut to the police budget. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan famously described CHAZ as having a “block party atmosphere.” Seattle’s socialist city council member Kshama Sawant visited and urged the residents to turn the area into a restorative justice center. Vox, among other left wing outlets, wrote about the CHAZ as a blossoming communist paradise.Initially, the police chief and the city complied, pulling out of the precinct and effectively leaving a few square blocks of the city with no law enforcement. CHAZ residents came up with a list of demands which included a 50% cut to the police budget. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan famously described CHAZ as having a “block party atmosphere.” Seattle’s socialist city council member Kshama Sawant visited and urged the residents to turn the area into a restorative justice center. Vox, among other left wing outlets, wrote about the CHAZ as a blossoming communist paradise.
CHAZ has since evolved further into a center of peaceful protest, free political speech, co-ops, and community gardens. Protesters have invited the city’s houseless population, who had been subject to a mass “clearing” of tent communities throughout the city, to come stay in the neighborhood. Movie nights have been held, including Mississippi Burning, about two FBI agents investigating lynchings of black people and activists in Mississippi during the civil rights era.
