Comments

1

Is there any word as to the perpetrators? I can't believe with that many people around there are no witnesses. A video a couple days ago showed Proud Boys beating a protester near CHOP. Did anyone recognize the shooter as one of their members? Or a gang member? The sooner this can be clarified the less likely the national media or government will put pressure on the city to close down the protest zone. As of now SPG head Solon is going on FOX and falsely claiming that CHOP is detrimentally impacting the entire city (although personally I would not want to live in those blocks with activities going on 24/7).

2

Is it true that 911 repeatedly hung up on them? https://twitter.com/RegretaGarbo/status/1274430260872744960

4

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

7

First priority: public safety. Save lives. Right/left politics should not influence what needs to be done to save lives. Either make the zone safer for all concerned or end the occupation. Antifa? Proud Boys? Left/right, Durkan, BLM, Sawant, SPG, Trump, and all the rest? No protest or counter-protest is worth human lives. This tragedy must be a wake-up call to all concerned. And note: no arrest has been made, and the shooter is at large. And clearly there are factions within CHOP, and leadership hierarchies seem difficult to determine. And other violent incidents, short of murder, have occurred. These are troubling signs. Mayor Durkan and the City Council: do your job. Quit worrying about approval, and focus on saving lives. Time is truly of the essence here.

9

CHS had a report that the gunman drove up in an SUV. If so hopefully somebody got a plate number?

"A security employee working in the area reported the shooter had been in a black SUV that arrived in the area on E Pine. A 911 caller told police a man carried a rifle out of the SUV before gunfire erupted, according to East Precinct radio updates."

10

@3: So glad you're doing just fine and no more annoyed than usual.

11

@5,

How/where did he attempt to re-cast facts? This reads like a pretty objective and straightforward account of events from here. Are you just butthurt because he included a statement from Sawant?

13

It is no coincidence that it was the end of a Juneteenth evening.

Super Happy Fun America and another organization are propmoting a 4th of July attack upon #CHAZ #CHOP (I like CHAZ better. Autonomous doesn't mean succeeding. ...Although I did run an Occupy WS info page listing news stories about it.)

People ought to be prepared for it.

14

"More from Sawant..."

There will always be more from Sawant. Thanks, but...uhhh...no thanks.

16

Sawant speculating and accusing at this point seems premature, unhelpful and even dangerous.

19

@16 I agree. Sawant's tone of blame and presumption: wrong, repellant--and rather like that of Trump, albeit from a different political view. But the tone, the character, the knee-jerk blaming--like something from a Trump tweet.

22

So police couldnt get to the scene in a timely manner and have no leads or information. How is this different from pre-CHOP SPD?

25

A lot of crazy-sounding people in these comments, but I'm bored, so.

Our Mayor seems very incompetent to let this go this far like this. You can allow peaceful protest without...this. I stopped by CHOP today and it's growing and deteriorating at the same time. The people stuck in CHOP (homeless, addicts and mentally ill) have deserved better for a long time, and the activists there - well, I hope they will be effective.

26

@23, Proud Boys are not smart. I mean, that’s self-evident. And with the amount of absolute batshit crazy coverage CHOP has gotten in right wing media outlets as well as, you know, the fucking President, it’s not remotely hard to believe some right wing troglodyte is responsible.

30

Seattle Is Dying! etc etc etc

31

Doesn’t take long before any utopia is overrun. Vulnerable as an attractive young woman at a Schlitz Kavanaugh party, back in the day. Real America always gets wind of a free lunch.

34

So glad comrade Sawant can take time out of her weekend to let us know who is to blame for this. Now maybe she can come down off her soapbox long enough to let us know how she is going to fix the problem. Here’s the thing, even if it does turn out to be proud boys or some other right wing piece of shit what is to stop them from coming back? Absolutely nothing. The city council, specifically Mosqueda and Gonzales, need to stop using these people as political pawns and do their damn jobs. This is on them.

37

It's all Woodstock until it turns into Altamont

38

Defund the police is not a sideline point darling it is a serious demand. WE want IT done. We also want the crooked mayor removed and protestors released. This may be a setback but this movement has just begun. BLACK LIVES MATTER.

We have a shit load of right wing hysteria going on right now against the movement perpetrated by the powers that be. Because of YOU right wing crazies a young man is dead and someone is in critical condition. YES Trump has responsibility for much of these attacks.
As well as the mayor and her administration who will do everything in their power to defeat this movement. We will go on.

Liberated areas are alive and well in parts of the world including in Spain which has lasted at least ninety years. It will be done.

39

27 You are truly a mess of delusion.

40

@34 Absolutely right. And if they cannot stop it, then who's to say our city doesn't wind up with Hatfields versus McCoys you-did-it-to-me-so-I'll-do-it-you vigilantism. Nothing would be worse. And it's not an impossibility. One day at a time, though: here's hoping at least for a peaceful night.

41

27 You are actually describing this system which murders, exploits and obliterates people in communities here and around the world. So take away the word CHAZ and put in USA instead.

42

40 We already have that with the police only its one sided with people of color and poor people being beaten up and murdered and the police getting away with it.

43

26 You are on target my friend.

44

@41 through 43... still being a dipshit.

46

44 Is that the best you can do? Is call me a name? Unable to respond intelligently again.

47

Too bad the Black Panthers aren't around. They wouldn't have allowed that shit to go down. Yeah, they might have gotten into a firefight with the cops, but no one would be able to just randomly show up on their territory and shoot somebody.

Sorry, so many things nowdays remind me of the '70s. There is no traffic in Seattle. My hair is really long. The president is a sexist, anti-Semitic, racist asshole. Nixon in 1973: I am not a crook. Trump in 2020: I am not a Nazi. Oh, and of course we have riots because of police brutality and racial injustice. The only difference is that then we were dealing with a shitty war, while now we are dealing with a shitty pandemic.

Anyway, it is way too early to tell whether this was just some random asshole making an attack -- the type that could occur in a country with lots of guns (like the U. S.) or whether the occupation had anything to do with it (directly or indirectly). It sure sounds to me like the response was worse because of the barricade, but even that isn't clear. It was 2:20 AM and lots of people responded. A shooting that occurs in, say, Lake City at 2:00 in the morning will quite likely result in the person bleeding for quite some time before the cops and medics are called.

48

@26: And if the shootings do turn out to be caused by something else like a botched drug deal, robbery, or a crime of passion -- you will still have the proud boys narrative to hang your hat on and turn the police report into a conspiracy theory.

Let nothing go to waste and recycle. It's a good thing.

49

@42 so if the police are part of the problem what is the solution? The CHOP is 2 weeks old and already you’ve had someone drive a car into the crowd and shoot someone, an attempted rape of a hearing impaired woman and now a murder. How do you protect innocent civilians from the predators who are more than happy to take advantage of chaos? It doesn’t matter what the motivations are, what matters is it happened and will keep happening. Disband the police if it makes you feel better but it seems clear you need someone who will take on the responsibility to shield us from those who would do harm. What’s equally clear is the city council is willing to put people in harms way as part of their political ambition. I hope people can wake up to that fact before more people have to die.

50

Quick, call a social worker and have her solve this crime using xer restorative justice superpowers. No reason to rely on the fascist SPD guys. Those proud boys are out there, go get em.

52

@27,

Regardless of what facts are uncovered relating to the incident, to say this situation in any way speaks to the viability of alternative political models is nonsensical fucking bullshit and you know it. I'd actually be perfectly fine with their abandoning (or at least downsizing/re-organizing) this spontaneous and haphazardly organized experiment, but that certainly doesn't discredit Socialist agendas in any way. And you and everyone else here knows that the #BLM movement that galvanized in the wake of Floyd's death has had a profound impact on our society, allowing for a broad scaled and necessary re-examination of law enforcement funding models and the role of police in our society.

And for the record, I had a friend in college who became a cop and I both respected and continue to respect the fuck out of him as a person and that decision. But that doesn't excuse him from scrutiny.

53

Donald said in Tulsa tonight that he let Jay Inslee know that all he has to do is pick up the phone and he will have it (CHOP) cleaned up in less than an hour.

54

CHOP is a godsend for the SPD. After years of ignoring things like rape, murder and assault in this part of town they can now act like this is something new and they could of prevented it.

Given SPDs own history of rape, murder and assault against the poor and marginalized, I'm not sure how preventing that by kicking them out of CHOP would have led them to solve exactly the kind of violent crimes they rarely pursued in the past, but I guess reasons.

55

@37
Bingo!

56

The paramedics and EMTs aren’t going into the aftermath of a violent situation involving guns without SPD period. That’s anywhere in the city. There was violence in the area before the CHOP but there was professional medical help just a few minutes away. I sincerely doubt the volunteer medics are up to the task of treating multiple gunshot wounds and stabilizing critically injured people in the field. Early transport absent stabilization isn’t helping. I hope the survivor recovers.

60

The excitement some of you are exuding over people getting shot because it affords you a perceived "I told you so" moment is disgustingly palpable.

62

@60: History teaches us "I told you so"'s all the time. Logic as well, as things that are not sustainable are not sustained. Nobody's exuding any smugness (except @3) over this unnerving and foreboding situation us citizens of Seattle find ourselves in.

63

@61: Right, because only real paramedics* can do crowd control, fight off the bad guys, secure the scene, get witness statements, as well as handle the medical equipment, tend to the injured, etc.

(*like Randolf Mantooth)

64

Extremist right-wing Trumpanzees are trying to paint Seattle as a war zone. I realize facts are hard for MAGATrash to grasp, but Seattle is one of the safest cities in the country.

Out of the 91 U.S. cities with >250,000 population, Seattle has the 18th-lowest murder rate, even lower than NYC, which has dramatically cut its murder rate in the last couple decades. So far in 2020, Seattle's murder rate is 3.83 per 100k residents; NYC's is 4.06. The entire U.S. average, including suburbs & rural areas, is 5.0 murders per 100k residents.

Not only that, but — contrary to right-wingnut bleating — Seattle's massive protests, over more than 20 straight days, have been OVERWHELMINGLY peaceful. Last Friday alone, more than 60,000 peaceful protesters took part in the Silent March.

The best news of all? Less than five more months until the Morbidly Obese Orange Toddler is kicked outta town & exiled to his mosquito-infested trash mansion. We The People will be singing & dancing in the streets of Capitol Hill... "Ding Dong, The Wicked Witch Of The West Wing Is DEAD!!!"

65

If the Fire Department doesn't want to do their jobs, defund them, as well. We don't need the police arbitrarily firing chemical weapons at medics on the scene. We don't need FD staff who don't want to save lives.

Budgets are going to have to be cut with the coming economic depression. If you don't want to do your jobs, don't expect to get paid.

68

@52- "Regardless of what facts are"- the only way to believe socialism works is to ignore the fact that it doesn't.

69

Honestly, only one shooting on a Saturday night on this block shows that CHOP (and the pandemic) is keeping things more peaceful than normal.

71

Sawant owes everyone a big apology for attempting to whip up a frenzy with a bunch of conspiracy theory nonsense before the anything was actually known..... Apparently CHAZ/CHOP itself has released a statement last night that the shootings were most likely gang related - nothing at all to do with any right wing nutters or proud boys at all.

72

@61 and 65. Firefighter/EMTs and paramedics absolutely want to go and render aid. They train and have equipment and plans for these incidents. SFD has responded to many of these incidents and will continue to.

They accept risks but the model you’re suggesting with the shooter still on the loose is not reasonable.

74

Had the police been given access to the shooting victim, he would have had a better chance of surviving.

https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-police-release-graphic-video-of-chop-shootings

75

@ Quentin. He was 19 and just graduated from high school. Have some decency.

76

Its funny that somebody would look out the window at the world of today and say "socialism doesn't work" like that's some sort of keen insight.

77

@71 Agreed. I was wondering if Sawant had special access to information due to her council-member status. Apparently her claim is fiction (I also read the story containing the statement from CHOP). Shameful of Sawant to assign blame without evidence. Of course you likely know not to expect any apology from her. Rather, her usual brand of blame, negative stereotyping, and moral self-congratulation. But good of you to raise this and to call her on it. Hopefully, others will note this. Her methods, if not her politics, strongly resemble those of Trump: the insults, exaggerated claims, hogging credit, baseless accusations, obsession with media-based fame... Well, this is one more reason to mistrust anything she says...

78

@61 and @65- you need to thank God for your lizard brains because the pair of you are too stupid to remember to breathe. The rest of us are angry because you're stealing oxygen.

79

You mean Sawant is a demagogue? Wow, shocking. This just in -- water is wet.

Of course just because you are a demagogue doesn't mean she isn't occasionally right. Just enough to keep her going.

80

Defund the fire department? Now I’ve heard everything.

CHOP/CHAZ/etc is going to collapse under the weight of its own chaos. Just like Occupy. Whether the collapse will be peaceful or violent is anyone’s guess.

81

Whatever the heck the delusional idiots call it CHAZ or CHOP, its very existence only serves to re-elect Trump. It makes Trump seem sane in comparison to Democrats who openly support and tolerate it.
The Mayor, Governor need to show some sense and guts and shut the chaos down.

83

How to use a carrot and a stick to remove CHOP:

Mayor asks city council to come up with a resolution for CHOP with a required evacuation date (after the November election).
A Seattle City Council committee (can be led by Sawant) works with BLM and CHOP to negotiate in good faith with community leaders to address demands. Negotiation on timelines and a deadline is established.
If deadline is ignored, the governor shall use all force necessary to remove it using the National Guard and federal assistance if necessary.

It's not rocket science.

84

Someone should describe the constituency that would have voted for Biden but because of this business is going to vote for Trump. My imagination is short on megawatts to identify them.

More salient, I think, is this thing's influence on Durkan's prospects. How's it going to look if she has SPD cracking skulls in there. Or, ffs, calls up Donald Trump to send in the Marines to pull a Teinanmen Square? Even my dim imagination reels at the prospect. Is there any chance of this opening up a threat to her from the right? Seems unlikely but local politics is a lot more opaque than it used to be since the local papers went up in smoke. So what do I know?

85

I expect Seattle will finally turn away from lockstep Leftism when all these tech bro/sis/xs who live here start to actually plan for retirement.

86

@82: when people don't support police to use tear gas, ... to disperse rioters and looters, the police had no choice but to leave.
What happened in Minneapolis, ... obviously highlight the importance of getting bad cops off the street. But, it doesn't negate why police forces were created in the first place, to maintain order, by force if necessary.

This father's day weekend, 56 people shot, 9 killed in Chicago. These killings occur in mostly Black, poor areas. Has anyone started a protest about that?
Idiotic ideas of getting rid of the police (CHAZ) only serves the criminals, not the majority. Which is why Trump is LOVING the chaos.

91

@87: I'm not required to explain my genius ideas. This is not the venue. I present a very high level attempt at providing some framework (amateur as it may be), and all you do is (predicabley) rage insulting.

You present nothing, nothing at all.

93

@84 -- Good point. To be clear, shit like this scares me. It is quite likely that Trump will lose because of the virus, and because he is an incompent asshole. His numbers are terrible. So anything out of the ordinary -- anything that could possibly be seen by dumbshit voters as an argument to vote for Trump -- scares the fuck out of me.

But in 1968, Nixon was the outsider. So it was easy for him to say that the status quo sucks, and therefore, it is time for a change. Now it is the opposite. Trump may talk shit about Seattle, but ultimately, his job is to maintain peace throughout the land, including Seattle. He is failing in that respect, bigly. My guess is that none of this is likely to alter the election one bit, even though I wish it was all happening six months from now. The best chance of making social change is when you have a sympathetic government. Biden may have his flaws, but he sure as fuck knows that. Wasn't Biden the dude that threw his balls out in favor of gay marriage? Why yes, yes he was (https://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/joe-biden-gay-marriage-white-house-response-105744). Dude like that would respond to a mass movement from the left, without a doubt.

95

@92 -- I agree. The decision to let the protesters have the CHOP was probably the best decision made during the last month. Of course that doesn't make up for weeks of incompetence.

To be clear, the police and the mayor were blindsided by this. I get that. There have been bigger protests (the "Womxn's march" was way bigger). But this turned aggressive, much sooner. People broke windows and stopped traffic (Oh No! Heavens to Betsy, how will we ever repair a damaged window!). It wasn't really violent -- there weren't dozens, let alone hundreds of people hurt by the protests. In fact, other than police action, very few people were hurt. But the police freaked out, and as a result, things got worse. Deciding to let protesters take a tiny bit of land and make their stand was by far the best decision by the powers that be.

Yet now, after all the mess, neither side really knows what to do.

96

@94 -- This is Eric Sevareid, reporting from New York. Twenty eight students and eight New York Police officers are dead after a confrontation at Columbia University, because local officials didn't want the students to "take control of local property".

Yeah, you're a dumbfuck that doesn't know shit about history. Look that shit up, boy.

Discretion is the better part of valor, dipshit.

99

@96 What in the world are you talking about.... the Columbia Revolt in 1968? No one died.

101

I think the city's response was pretty smart: Deescalate the situation by "abandoning" the precinct (here's a hint - they didn't abandon it. It will be open as a precinct again, or there will be another precinct opened in that area) and let the protesters stew in their own juice for a while, until the novelty wears off and things start to deteriorate.

I'm not saying that I approve of that approach. I just see the writing on the wall.

102

The Columbia University Revolt, 1968: no one died, but during April and May of that year hundreds of protesting students were arrested, and about 200 protesters (and some police) suffered injuries of varying severity. (Attica occurred in late summer, 1971. Dozens died, and many more were injured.)

I, and I'm sure almost of all us, hope for no or minimal injuries and a peaceable resolution to the situation in CHOP. I have little doubt that Mayor Durkan, some City Council members, the police, fed-up Capitol Hill residents, and some of the more visible, respected protest organizers are in communication trying to come up with an acceptable compromise. Just because there have been few comments this weekend after the shooting does not mean they aren't negotiating. I suspect negotiations are delicate, and media leaks could damage chances for resolution. And, no one wants a repeat of Attica. Some compromises will be necessary on all sides to resolve this. But no one wants a repeat of Attica.

103

@101 Yes, well-said. You explained Durkan's and the city's strategy. "De-escalate the situation" and then "the novelty wears off" hits the nail precisely on the head. We'll see if it works.

111

Mellow dear, must you ALWAYS be such a victim? I know that that's in the DNA of what passes for conservatives these days, but it really is tedious.


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