Protesters have commandeered a section of Seattle and declared it an “autonomous zone,” but Mayor Jenny Durkan doesn’t seem to care.
She has denied reports from Seattle police officers that protesters within the six-block zone, known as the CHAZ, are extorting businesses and threatening other residents, and has instead insisted that activities within the zone have been nothing but peaceful. I’m not sure the officers who were forcibly removed from their precinct would agree. And neither would the pro-life activist who was shouted out of the CHAZ by angry protesters. Nor would the resident accused of stealing who was cornered and harassed by a group of protesters, one of whom waved a baseball bat in his face.
But again, this is of no concern to Durkan. When asked how long Seattle would allow the protesters to occupy the CHAZ, Durkan told CNN: “I don’t know. We could have a summer of love!” And on Twitter, Durkan praised the CHAZ as a “peaceful expression of our community’s collective grief.”
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone #CHAZ is not a lawless wasteland of anarchist insurrection – it is a peaceful expression of our community’s collective grief and their desire to build a better world. Given his track record, it’s not hard to believe that Trump is wrong, yet again.
— Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) June 11, 2020
This is absurd. Peaceful or not, what’s happening in Seattle right now is lawless. And to treat it as anything less is to deny the reality of the situation, which is that these protesters are attempting to establish their own “state,” make up its laws, and force other residents to obey them.
Durkan needs to stop pretending like the CHAZ is just one big Woodstock Festival and do her job. These protesters have made it clear that they’re not leaving the area until Seattle abolishes law enforcement completely and drops all criminal charges against rioters. These aren’t the demands of concerned citizens trying to change the system; they’re the demands of insubordinates trying to burn the system, and the order and stability it provides, to the ground.
Seattle law enforcement must be allowed to restore order to the city, but Durkan is preventing them from doing so. It’s time to come back down to reality, Mayor Durkan — this experiment in lawless self-government won’t end well for anyone.
