CHOP in Hindsight

Since May 29th, protests had raged in Seattle in response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. By June 1st, the protests had become more organized, and a mass of protesters faced off against row upon row of cops on 11th and Pine, next to Cal Anderson Park and near the East Precinct, which was the protest's objective. For a week, the two forces met nightly in a tense standoff, tear gas, pepper spray, and flash bangs deployed by police, often without provocation. By June 5th, Mayor Jenny Durkan, facing an increasingly concerning state of affairs, issued a ban on tear gas in an attempt at chilling tempers (1). Despite this, tear gas was again deployed on June 8 (2). At midnight, the police retreated from the East Precinct and gave it over to the people, and the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ, later changed to Capitol Hill Organized Protest, CHOP) was born.

CHAZ began as a small area outside the precinct where people began to gather, create art, and set up barricades to stop cars and create clear boundaries. As time went on, it grew to encompass several blocks and the whole of Cal Anderson Park. It was also renamed to CHOP to better reflect the true character of the zone. The area was at once a street festival and an ongoing protest. There was no official leadership; the occupants of the zone preferred to settle matters by consensus through general meetings and discussion groups. There were various security teams working around the clock to protect the area. These teams had clear rules of engagement. They would not fire unless fired upon (3).

The zone was centered around three demands, generally considered the Big Three of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020: 1. Defund Seattle Police Department (SPD) by 50%. 2. Invest in black communities. 3. Free all protesters.

In one area of the CHAZ, a man had brought couches and chairs, setting up an open discourse area to ensure that all voices were heard. It was the site of constant discussion in the early days of the CHAZ. Many tents popped up, giving out food, hand sanitizer, t-shirts, and other supplies, as well as tents providing medical treatment. A farm was started north of the ball field, which has continued to grow ever since, even after the end of the zone.

Soon, however, the red flags began to pop up, one after another. First, many black community members and protesters voiced their concerns that the organizers were not talking to the black community, and that there was no effort to reach out to other black organizers and groups. This was also made worse by the clear gentrification and hippie-fication of the area. It began to look far more like a farmer’s market or festival than a protest, and the focus on black liberation began to be lost as white people came to eat and take pictures of the CHAZ as a novelty instead of a political movement. In Seattle, this is a common occurrence. Movements and organizations are frequently watered down by Seattle’s significant white liberal population, who either support the movement for clout or novelty, or center themselves within the movement and drown out BIPOC voices. CHAZ was no different.

On June 13, the name was changed to CHOP. On June 16, the people of CHOP found the barricades removed, and new concrete blocks in place to route traffic through the area. According to the city, this had come from an agreement with CHOP leaders, but most of the protesters were not aware of any meeting or agreement, and many didn’t recognize leaders in the area anyway. This decreased the number of protesters who came to the area, and reduced the legitimacy of the zone as a true occupation or even a strong stand against the state. This was the true beginning to the unraveling of the CHOP.

In the early hours of the morning on June 20, the neighborhood rang with gunshots. Those shots were connected to two separate killings in the zone. One of the two black men shot was Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr., also known as the rapper Lil Mob. He died shortly after being brought to Harborview, at 2:53am. The second man was 33-year-old DeJuan Young, who suffered from two gunshot wounds, but managed to survive. After the shooting, Young said "I was shot by, I'm not sure if they're Proud Boys or KKK, but the verbiage that they said was hold this 'N-----' and shot me."(4) It is not clear if either of the shootings was connected to the protest, although the presence of possible white supremacists in the area suggests that at least the shooting of Young was.

On the 21st, a 17-year-old black man was shot in the zone, prompting Mayor Jenny Durkan to say "It's time for people to go home...to restore order and eliminate the violence on Capitol Hill."(5) The victim declined to speak with SPD detectives. On the 23rd, a 33-year-old black man was shot in the zone. He declined to provide information about the attack. A fourth shooting in the zone occurred on June 29. A 16-year-old black man named Antonio Mays Jr. was killed and a 14-year-old male was in critical condition with gunshot injuries. In a video of the shooting, a series of 12 gunshots can be heard just before a voice yells warning of "multiple vehicles"; "multiple shooters"; and a "stolen white jeep" as protesters scramble into position (6). Five minutes later, another 18 gunshots can be heard as the white jeep crashes into something. Police made no arrests in relation to any of the shootings.

In response, SPD Chief Best told reporters, "Enough is enough. We need to be able to get back into the area.”(7) On July 1, 2020, after the mayor issued an executive order, Seattle police cleared the area of protesters and reclaimed the East Precinct.

CHOP is not a criticism or a triumph of anarchism overall. It was one of the first attempts at autonomy in recent memory, and it was a mix of failure and success, although a greater portion the former. The largest internal change as a result of the CHOP was the near total stagnation of protests. Instead of being used as a base for actions, it was simply a festival that occupied protesters’ time and gave the police, who were on the back heel at that point, time to regroup. The weakness of the area as a protest zone and occupation was largely the result of a phenomenon that is a staple of Seattle: gentrification. The zone sprung out of nightly radical expressions of anger and confrontations with police lines of 11th and Pine. During these protests and the first several days of the CHAZ, the character was mostly of anarchism, liberation, and black power. But this didn’t last, as white organizers and members of the community quickly co-opted the area, with the effect of deradicalization and snuffing out the fire and adrenaline from the days before the zone.

CHOP was also nowhere near a true occupation, which weakened its position, its ability to internally manage itself, and its ability to take a strong stand against the tyranny of the SPD and Seattle establishment. There was no clear direction, no strong, consistent security, and no occupation of true spaces of power. The CHOP failed where other Seattle occupations succeeded in the past, like El Centro De La Raza, in that it was unable to achieve one of its main goals of turning the East Precinct Station into a community center. It was maintained as a demand of the protest, but this demand, along with the others, was superficial and performative, ignored as a necessary condition, because the gentrified festival of white liberal activism is more interested in clout than in liberation, loyalty, and change. And that is also why the CHOP was not able to be a true occupation: those who occupied it by day were not interested in liberty, loyalty, or change for those who lived there by night. They brought their complicity and capitalism with them from outside.

Sources:

1. Kroman, David (June 5, 2020). "Seattle issues 30-day ban on tear gas at protests". Crosscut.

2. "Seattle-area protests: Live updates for Sunday, June 7". The Seattle Times. June 7, 2020.

3. “The Rise and Fall of the Seattle CHOP”. Popular Front. August 9, 2020.

4. Horne, Deborah (June 23, 2020). "Man critically injured in CHOP shooting says he was the victim of a racial attack". KIRO-TV.

5. Stelloh, Tim (June 22, 2020). "Officials tell protesters to leave Seattle's 'autonomous zone'". NBC News.

6. Gutman, David; Brownstone, Sydney (July 8, 2020). "'Everybody down!': What happened at the shooting that killed a teenager and led to CHOP's shutdown". The Seattle Times.

7. "Another shooting in Seattle's protest zone leaves 1 dead". Associated Press. June 29, 2020