# Seattle CHAZ/CHOP



## Dameon (Jun 17, 2020)

Seeing a lot of rumors going around about this space in Seattle, so I figured I'd make a post here dispelling rumors and giving people an idea what it is/what it's about.

What happened was that protesters originally attempted to march past the police station, but police chose not to allow them to proceed. That turned it into a line in the sand, where police gassed protesters nearly daily, which wound up in more protesters showing up every day. Finally, somebody gave the order to clear the area, the police removed everything of value from the precinct, and withdrew from the area, leaving the precinct completely unlocked and unguarded while simultaneously saying they had credible threats that protesters intended to burn it down. Instead, protesters barricaded it off and have protected it from agitators so thoroughly that police later returning had no choice but to confirm that it was as they left it (and it was TRASHED). Clearly they intended it to look like protesters had trashed the building, and were confident it would be set on fire and they would then have reason to gas and arrest protesters again. CHOP was effectively born from the effort to protect that building, effectively giving police no excuse to return to the area.

There are no checkpoints with armed guards, nobody checking ID. There have been volunteers at entrances to move barricades for residents and deliveries to drive in, and this was set up after somebody attempted to plow into protesters with their car and then shot somebody. There have been some people with guns occasionally showing up, some of them protesters, some of them white supremacist groups. It's somewhat understandable that there's been people carrying weapons after the shooting and the armed groups of supremacists showing up. Most of the people showing up are just normal, every day people. Everybody comes and goes as they please.

There's been a few incidents, which shouldn't surprise anybody when tens of thousands of people show up. Normally the Capitol Hill Block party would actually be going on about now, and that alone would probably generate far more police reports and damage. Overall, the residents have been very supportive, and businesses are stoked that they're getting thousands of extra customers when they expected this time of year to be a net loss.

What's crazy is the disinformation attacks. Chats for streams of the area are full of Russian and right-wing trolls, spreading disinformation. The name CHAZ was changed to CHOP nearly immediately, but since the new name doesn't fit the "anarchists taking over Seattle" narrative, trolls are actually working very hard to make sure the public continues to see the name as CHAZ. There have been constant attempts to spread rumors of various biker gangs or large amounts of white supremacists being on the way, to scare protesters away, as well as to ideally draw actual anti-protesters and create a violent situation. The police have been using the scanner to spread disinformation themselves, saying there were large groups of armed supremacists where protesters were able to confirm that there weren't. The disinformation campaign against this movement is *huge. *Both sides are being played and manipulated like crazy by all kinds of different groups. Fox News has been caught photoshopping armed men into photos of CHOP; agitators and plants and undercover police are all over the place in the crowd.










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## roughdraft (Jun 17, 2020)

what's the OP in CHOP stand for?


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## Dameon (Jun 17, 2020)

roughdraft said:


> what's the OP in CHOP stand for?


Occupied Protest. It was changed to put emphasis on the fact that it is a protest, rather than a permanent takeover of public land.


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## LuckyMinnie (Jun 17, 2020)

There's so much evil going on, with people trying to provoke violence. Throughout the protests that erupted after the murder of George Floyd, various people who don't care about justice for Mr. Floyd and have their own agendas have instigated riots and looting. There are gangs who only care about money who have organized looting. There are white supremacists who for years have been sitting behind their keyboards talking about a new civil war. But the most sinister are the dirty cops who know as long as people are peacefully protesting, there's not much they can do to stop them. But once it becomes a violent riot, they can employ more forceful techniques. So they try to turn the protests into riots. People of such questionable character should never own a gun or be given a position of authority.


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## iamwhatiam (Jun 19, 2020)

Dameon, are you currently there? Is this firsthand observations? I have been trying to explain these things to certain people on my towns Facebook group, who want to demonize the protestors as a whole but I'm learning to just not try and even argue with the liberal hating pro trumpers......it's useless.


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## Dameon (Jun 20, 2020)

iamwhatiam said:


> Dameon, are you currently there? Is this firsthand observations? I have been trying to explain these things to certain people on my towns Facebook group, who want to demonize the protestors as a whole but I'm learning to just not try and even argue with the liberal hating pro trumpers......it's useless.


Yup! I've been out there and these are first hand observations. And yeah, the people who just want to believe every ridiculous rumor aren't really worth arguing with, they have a specific thing they want to believe and that's all they'll see.


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## r3yn (Jun 20, 2020)

The (heavily foreigner-driven) social media here in fascist China is abuzz with right-wing nonsense about "CHAZ". That's absolute madness that FOXNEWS was caught shooping pictures. What kind of state is Seattle (and America, more generally) in, right now? I had to ask my good friend, who also went to the protests, about what was actually happening on the ground. Thanks for sharing your take on things, too, Dameon.


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## Dameon (Jun 20, 2020)

r3yn said:


> What kind of state is Seattle (and America, more generally) in, right now?


Between the protests and COVID and our broken economy, not a great state. A lot of people are acting like business as usual, but it feels like a front everybody is putting on in the face of imminent collapse.


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## r3yn (Jun 20, 2020)

Dameon said:


> ... imminent collapse.



I wonder if this will be the fall of the American Empire.
I'd imagine the US is much stronger than that, but still, the economy must have and be taking a huge hit this year. 
I mean, fuck the corporations, but the looting will also come back on the future consumers.... those filthy fucking corporates won't take any loss.
Not to mention the mass unemployment....
The trade war with China....


Here in China, most "normal" people think that America is fucked, and nationalism is on the rise. Even more-so than usual.
State media is encouraging the misinformation by simply not correcting erroneous bullshit floating around amongst the people... I have talked with some Chinese people who actually believe the Coronavirus started in America... ("美国有四种类型的新冠肺炎")
American carrier group entered the South China Sea not long ago....
Hong Kong is heating up again....
PLA have planned massive training exercise this summer (a mock invasion of Taiwan)...

Shit's getting pretty apocalyptic, I gotta say....
Hold on, I'll make some more popcorn.


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## LuckyMinnie (Jun 20, 2020)

r3yn said:


> I wonder if this will be the fall of the American Empire.
> I'd imagine the US is much stronger than that, but still, the economy must have and be taking a huge hit this year.
> I mean, fuck the corporations, but the looting will also come back on the future consumers.... those filthy fucking corporates won't take any loss.
> Not to mention the mass unemployment....
> ...


One thing I've noticed that makes me sad are the items looters are taking. I see them walking out of a store they looted with a cart full of food and diapers. The only other time in my life that I have seen looters take survival items like this was after Hurricane Katrina. Usually looters only go after expensive clothes and electronics. And of course they have gone after these items now. But there's also a lot of people who are stealing normal groceries, because they need to eat and have had a very hard time affording food these past few months. People needing to steal food is very sad, and not a good sign for our country.


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