A man who had been streaming the events surrounding Seattle’s protest-led autonomous zone known as CHOP was threatened by someone living within the camp after he was seen filming tents.
Video shows Shawn Whiting, a local video game designer, being confronted by a man who said he lives in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest which occupies the city’s Cal Anderson Park.
” This is where I live. It’s our houses,” the man said before asking Whiting if he would allow someone to film him at his house.
Whiting responds by noting the CHOP tents are set up in a public park to which the man responds that it is no longer a public park and now “CHOP zone.”
Whiting said he was forced to delete the video he was filming and that the man had grabbed him for a while before he let him go.
“I’ve seen people with weapons,” Whiting said. “I didn’t know if (he) was going to put a knife in me or put a gun to my head. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
One of the CHOP protest leaders Maurice Cola told KOMO News that the encounter was taking away at what’s intended to be a peaceful protest.
“That’s not beneficial and trying to assault people just trying to document is not OK,” Cola said. “This is still a public place and we’re not going to violate anyone for doing and utilizing their rights properly.”
CHOP came out of unrest that escalated after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. The protest is considered a designated, police-free zone and has overtook a large portion of the Seattle’s bustling Capitol Hill neighborhood.
