Trump Tweets That He Will “Stoop” Seattle Autonomous Zone Protesters

There is a lot going on in cities across the nation, but Seattle is honoring its anarchist history and going the extra mile. Or at least the extra few city blocks. Protesters in Seattle have camped out and declared a six-block area of the city the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” and it’s drawn the worst kind of national attention from the usual suspects—specifically that of the commander in tweet, Donald “No time for spell checking” Trump.

He stoops to conquer, I guess?

The area Trump wants to …invade (?) has been nicknamed “CHAZ” and was formed when the Seattle police opened up Pine street on Monday, expecting people to march through. Instead, they camped. They took over the emptied East Precinct Building of the Seattle PD and declared it the “Seattle People’s Department.” The protesters have set up blockades, declared the area a “police-free zone” and organized activities like a mass viewing of Ava DuVernay’s 13th.

Reports from CHAZ are … varied. Police are still responding to any emergency calls in the area and have received “reports” of barricades with “some armed individuals running them as checkpoints into the neighborhood.” But the atmosphere doesn’t quite come off as an anarchist uprising.

This small block party where people are mainly just chilling out and speaking out for Black lives is hardly the kind of anarchy Trump thinks it is …

No, Donnie. No terrorism, just people exercising their rights

The authorities don’t seem too worried about the generally peaceful protest zone, and slapped down the president’s nonsense themselves, including the Seattle Mayor:

And the Washington governor:

But it’s not all great inside CHAZ. Despite declaring themselves the “Autonomous zone” it’s not quite clear what they are autonomous from, and the leaderless movement has struggled to find a message and determine their specific mission. Of course, they want to end police brutality and eliminate the Seattle PD entirely, but how that might happen and what more they want before leaving is not clear. Many participants were part of the Occupy movement, years ago, and worry that this could similarly fall into infighting and stagnation. And Occupy also fell victim to brutal actions from the police and local authorities to clear the areas where protesters were camped.

While the CHAZ protesters want to turn their occupied police precinct into a community center and potentially use their zone as a model for a police-free Seattle, the SPD does want and intend to take back the building at some point. Whether that attempt will lead to violence remains to be seen, but for now, things are calm and there’s not really any dangerous anarchy for the President to stoop.

(via: Vice, image: Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Jessica Mason

Jessica Mason (she/her) is a writer based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on fandom, queer representation, and amazing women in film and television. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author.

twitter