Anarchy in Seattle--Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

[theprestige]

My understanding is that it was "CHOP security" who shot them believing them to be right-wingers who were there to attack protesters. <snip> But they went to CHOP thinking that they would be safe from the police there.

I've been saying for a while now that if you abolish police, the first thing that will happen is people will re-invent police.

The most depressing thing about CHOP is that even with centuries of history to draw from, about how to not be bad at policing, they still managed to stuff it up. And even with an immediate grievance against trigger-happy cops, they still manage to go straight from zero to trigger-happy cops. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, I guess.

 

[theprestige]

Actually it turns out that the most depressing thing about CHOP is that the police precinct that was overrun was built due to the advocacy of Seattle's first black city council member. He was responding to the calls of black residents downtown, who wanted faster police response in their neighborhoods.

This is so depressing because the premise of CHOP was that removing the police would make black people safer. In fact the opposite happened. Every one of CHOP's shooting victims was black.

 

[Puppycow]

Majority of Seattle council pledges to support Police Department defunding plan laid out by advocates

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/majority-of-seattle-council-pledges-to-support-police-department-defunding-plan-laid-out-by-advocates/

Reports are a veto proof majority of Seattle council members support a plan to defund SPD by as much as 50%, reallocating that money for other social services within the city.

Hope the pigs enjoyed their summer of gassing and beating the crowd, they are gonna pay for it.

I'm sure nothing can possibly go wrong with this idea.

 

[Ziggurat]

I'm sure nothing can possibly go wrong with this idea.

Video from a future Seattle city council meeting:

 

[llwyd]

I'm sure nothing can possibly go wrong with this idea.

Well, if the money is directed to serious preventive social work, then it will in the long run be eminently sensible. If it's done very aruptly, there will likely be serious problems initially. From a Nordic perspective the role of the police in the US is quite bizarre. In many instances they seem to be almost all there is to deal with very difficult issues and circumstances.

 

[Arcade22]

At Thursday’s news conference, defunding advocates said community organizations and practitioners — with adequate resources — can protect Seattle residents better than the Police Department in many instances.

...

“We are at a very significant moment,” said Nikkita Oliver, whose nonprofit Creative Justice uses art to empower court-involved young people and resolve their cases. “Seeing the discussion of defunding the police become more than just a chant in the streets.”

Basically, through abstract art and interpretive dance, the gangsters who were shooting it out on the streets are going to abandon their criminal lifestyles? Social workers are to go out and respond to mentally disturbed people armed with guns and knives instead of police?

 

[Delphic Oracle]

Basically, through abstract art and interpretive dance, the gangsters who were shooting it out on the streets are going to abandon their criminal lifestyles? Social workers are to go out and respond to mentally disturbed people armed with guns and knives instead of police?

You willfully misunderstanding something doesn't mean the rest of us have to do the emotional labor of explaining it to you.

Wallow in stupidity, just please don't get any on the rest of us. And take your shoes off before you come back in.

 

[portlandatheist]

The mother of the shooting victim files a wrongful death claim against the city of Seattle [katu news of portland]

“I believe the city let me down, they let my son down (and)they let the community down," Sinclair said. "And they need to be responsible.”
...“The city abandoned this area and the city had no safety plan in place for this abandoned area,” Lindquist said.

I think prestige is right: The people with guns, body armor, walkie talkies and going on patrol in the CHOP are a reinvention of the police and all the systemic problems we have with the existing police, were only amplified in this environment.