Depending on your political slant and newsource of choice this is either a hostile domestic terrorist takeover of a portion of Seattle, a peaceful commune/street festival or something in between.
Living in the midwest, I am far away from the scene but I am fascinated that this is happening right before our eyes.
That said, I am curious what the active political dopers here think:
a) do you fully support this action?
b) what do you HOPE will be the end result?
c) what do you THINK the end game/result of this will be?
I used to live right in the middle of what is now the CHAZ, and know plenty of people who have wandered by to check it out. The right-wing representations of it are just complete bullshit. There’s no ‘depending on your political slant’ about it. One side is flat-out lying about what’s going on.
As for me, sure I support it. I expect that after a while, people will get bored of hanging out there and wander away. That seems fine with me.
I agree with this based on what friends in the area have shared with me.
I fully support this action. The action was taken in response to police heavy handedness, not because protesters were out of control.
I hope the protests will end peacefully, that the police station will be relinquished back to the local police. I am confident they will.
I think the end result will be better communication between the community and its police force, with attendant necessary changes made with respect to how this police force engages with its community.
I doubt that it’ll work long-term, but… Well, it is so far. In what way, precisely, will it stop working? I don’t know, and that’s a problem to be addressed when we do know, i.e., when it comes up.
I think it’s beyond stupid. I imagine they’re the children of parents who thought they were sticking it to the man when they smashed up some Starbucks windows during the WTO riots.
I wish them failure and all the mockery they’ve earned
The biggest problem with it working “long term” is, of course, money. Volunteers can only volunteer for so long, and then they need to pay rent.
So I’m sure that, at some point, it will revert to a more traditional arrangement of a police-like organization funded by the local government.
What would be nice is, if after a few weeks or months of showing how a community can be policed in a non-traditional manner, the government were to take note, and adjust their policing policies accordingly.
The whole thing has been so wildly misrepresented by conservative media. No “action” was taken by protestors, aside from protesting. The city government asked the police to stand down because their presence was making it MORE dangerous.
The protestors have not “taken over” anything. This is basically a protest without a curfew. It is not the attempted formation of a new government. There’s nothing to support, except freedom of speech. Eventually it will dissipate and things will be as they were.
All of the wild stories and incendiary language from right-wing media about how the area is “under siege” and protestors have “taken over” is utter bullshit. Local media has not been nearly as dramatic in its descriptions. It’s a protest without a police presence. That’s all it is.
I’ve worked in the area off and on for about 30 years. I still have a very small studio space about 6 blocks from C.H.A.Z…
The area directly around the police station is mostly condos and a few apartments, stores and shops. The demographic is largely white, upwardly mobile with artists, IT and medical professionals from the five hospitals in the area. Many work in the downtown core. Crime pre CHAZ was mostly street level; strong arming, drugs, fighting from the bars (Most closed now because of Covid)
Also in the area is the Cal Worthington Park; a big open area with a baseball field.
I’ve been through the intersection several times. Basically its a street fair. with the same amount of bad behavior you would see at any such event . Police have “Wandered” around the area get yelled at and leave.
Sustainability is tricky. If no provocation is given I think they can hold it during the summer. Then its a coin toss what can happen.
Here’s some streams from the area most the ones in the main circle have turned to Portland
Yeah, from what I’ve read, all that’s going on there are people protesting, do I don’t see why it should bother me at all. It’s not even rioting or looting.
The only issue seems to be the city boarding up the police station for no good reason, as the cops themselves say it was fine and they were willing to just stay by.
Now maybe that decision meant that the cops didn’t get mixed in and escalate the situation. I dunno. So I’m not completely condemning the city. But it really does seem to be no big deal at all.
And it will be yet another shibboleth–if I see someone ranting about this non-event, I’ll know they’re just a Trump supporter.
I hope they use this opportunity to prototype some alternative policing models that people are so excited about. eg: If there’s a domestic violence case within the CHAZ, this is the number to call, if you need help dealing with someone who’s mentally ill, contact this org. If these orgs prove to be successful, I hope one of the conditions to “hand back” the zone to the Seattle government is that those orgs get permanent funding from the city/state government matched by police budget cuts in exchange for taking over those responsibilities.
Right now, “defund the police” is still such an abstract notion to many people. CHAZ could really pave the way to showing people real life examples of what defunding looks like on the ground.
And it seems a lot of the news coverage is skewed, even faked to the extent that manipulated photos are being spread. I think that it’s been an easy place (Liberal Seattle, a Democratic voting state overall, Jay Inslee’s presidential run) for Trump and the right-wing media to point to and decry and lie about.