Featured Stories

By Karen Curtis |

“This is not a game” Trump demands Seattle cops ‘take back’ autonomous protest zone

America Protests Seattle
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, left, listens to activist Raz Simone as they talk near a plywood-covered and closed Seattle police precinct Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Seattle, following protests over the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a black man died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. Under pressure from city councilors, protesters and dozens of other elected leaders who have demanded that officers dial back their tactics, the police department on Monday removed barricades near its East Precinct building in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, where protesters and riot squads had faced off nightly. Protesters were allowed to march and demonstrate in front of the building, and the night remained peaceful. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

President Trump is demanding that Seattle officials “take back” what has become an autonomous country or cop-free protest zone in the center of the city.
He also warned that he would take action if they did not shut the demonstration down.

Demonstrators have occupied the roughly six-block Capital Hill area dubbed the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” or CHAZ.
Inside the CHAZ, people congregate as free snacks are handed out at a “No-Cop Co-op” and films on racial justice are screened at night.

Trump on Twitter slammed Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan for allowing the area to be handed over to protesters he described as “domestic terrorists.”

A barricade stands at the end of a street where a plywood-covered and closed Seattle police precinct stands Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Seattle, following protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. Under pressure from city councilors, protesters and dozens of other elected leaders who have demanded that officers dial back their tactics, the police department on Monday removed barricades near its East Precinct building in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, where protesters and riot squads had faced off nightly. Protesters were allowed to march and demonstrate in front of the building, and the night remained peaceful. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

The zone popped up after days of violent clashes between cops and the protesters actually pushed the Seattle Police Department out of their East Precinct building in the area. The cops got threats and feared for their lives so they fled.

Mayor Durkan, who has faced mounting calls from protesters to resign, ordered police to leave the building Monday, explaining the directive on Twitter as a way to “proactively de-escalate interactions between protestors and law enforcement outside the East Precinct.”

On the police station now hangs a banner reading, “THIS SPACE IS NOW PROPERTY OF THE SEATTLE PEOPLE” because the zone has no singular leader.

The protesters have a list of demands: dismantle the police force and end of the use of armed force, including guns, batons and riot shields.

“We demand that the City Council and the Mayor, whoever that may be, implement these policy changes for the cultural and historic advancement of the City of Seattle, and to ease the struggles of its people,” reads the letter.