WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2020) The US police in a surprise advance reclaimed a protester-held neighborhood in the center of Seattle, which was off-limits to city authorities for three weeks.
Multiple officers in riot gear met little resistance on Wednesday as they moved at dawn into the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) area and swiftly took over its major assets - an abandoned East police precinct, a baseball field and an adjacent Cal Anderson park.
"Yes, there was little to no violence because everybody was asleep. You have people in [an] incapacitated state at 6:00 a.m. It was a perfect time to take the place," one of the protesters told Sputnik by phone.
Activists say that policemen advanced simultaneously from at least two directions and after giving a 10-minute warning to disperse swiftly cleared the grounds.
The Seattle Police Department reported over 30 arrests "for failure to disperse, obstruction, assault, and unlawful weapon possession."
Behind the police encirclement city workers began to remove barricades, tents and other protest leftovers.
"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 toward meaningful change in our community," Police Chief Carmen Best said in a statement. "But enough is enough. The CHOP has become lawless and brutal."
She said that Mayor Jenny Durkan issued a 48-hour public safety emergency order to vacate the area and the Seattle police will be there to enforce it.
Protesters met the development with a mix of ominous warnings and discouragement.
"All they are doing is pouring gasoline on a heated stove. It is going to create another zone, or more destruction," another activist told Sputnik.
A member of the CHOP improvised security, who left the area days ago - apparently with his entire unit - now criticizes protesters for complacency and lack of vigilance.
"It needed security 24 hours, and they were like 'They are not going to bother us'. Police have been planning it for a while. I told them they gonna take it in the morning, watch it," he said.
CHOP appeared around the police precinct abandoned in an attempt to reduce friction with thousands in Seattle who joined the nationwide antiracism protests against the death of George Floyd, an African-American killed in custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
In its heyday the area attracted hundreds of black rights activists, white anarchists, idealists, pacifists, socially deprived and emotionally unstable people with no unified agenda and leadership. Apart from protesting, they entertain themselves with political debates, art, gardening, spontaneous street concerts, yoga and self-defense classes.
Protest frontmen tried to downplay the CHOP phenomenon by changing its name from CHAZ, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, and insisting that they have no intentions to secede from the United States or Seattle. They wouldn't allow city services inside the barricaded perimeter, however, and refused to vacate the area until their demands are met, including a sizable defunding of the police.
The Seattle authorities, initially supportive of the experiment, changed their mind after an uptick of violence in and around CHOP, including four shootings which left two teenagers dead. In all cases attackers fled and there was no word on possible motives.
Deadly assaults and the mayor's decision to reclaim the area announced last week led in the following days to the exodus of most of protesters with mere several dozens left around the precinct to meet Wednesday's police advance.
"The shootings, which are all very murky, have essentially choked up the movement. People were shot outside the territory, but if everything is piled up, it allows fake news that all here are villains who play the guitar during the day and chase passers-by at night to prevail," a Russian-speaking immigrant Mariana Markova, a frequent CHOP visitor, told Sputnik.
"What was happening was a unique experiment that I supported with all my heart. A leaderless movement with young people protesting but doing it in most unusual ways, I really liked it," she added.
