Gun Battle in Seattle’s CHOP Zone
June 29th, 2020Via: Daily Mail:
One man has been killed and a teenager wounded following a gun battle inside Seattle’s CHOP zone after those inside the protest zone claim the two men plowed through and started shooting before armed protesters returned fire.
Police said they are investigating the shooting that unfolded just before dawn on Monday in the city’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone.
One of the wounded men was brought to the Harborview Medical Center at about 3.15am in a private vehicle before the second man was brought in about 15 minutes later by Seattle Fire Department medics.
The man brought in by medics died several hours later and the other remains in a critical condition. One of the victims had gunshot wounds to his hip, arm and temple.
The man and teenager have not been publicly identified.
Protesters claim the gun battle unfolded after the two men plowed their white Jeep Cherokee into the CHOP zone before opening fire on those inside the area.
Those inside the zone say self-appointed security guards, who are heavily armed, then returned fire.
‘The protesters responded quickly with CHOP security returning fire hitting both the driver and passenger in the front seat,’ a CHOP member, only known as Stitch, told DailyMail.com.
‘I’m not certain if anyone else was hit by gunfire, there were bullets flying all over the place.’
Another person, who refused to give his name but claimed to have witnesses the incident, said police responded and did a cursory investigation before quickly leaving the scene.
Police were at the scene on Monday morning photographing blood-soaked evidence and the bullet-ridden jeep.
It is the fourth shooting in, or near, the CHOP zone in nine days.
Members of CHOP security openly carry around pistols and other weapons. One member has previously been seen brandishing an AK-47.
In a previous fatal shooting in the zone, a 19-year-old man was killed on June 20 and a 33-year-old man was wounded.
Cameras and twitch streamers everywhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN2oxy4aVUU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg7UYNFPSBc
yes, I’m in Portland. Some of the demonstrations have had thousands of people with no issues at all. There is a feeling of amazement of everyone coming out- earlier rallies themed on something like Trump impeachment (or even police shootings last year) could only garner a couple hundred mostly older people, but this has really inspired many with endless energy.
One large contingent has some fairly confrontational people (plus at least 1/3 out to film content for their channel). Iraq war protesters were comparatively neurotic, with their fears that they would alienate the public by walking on the freeway (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_bo7RYZ2nE), or breaking windows- this is happening constantly now. Here, before kids looted stores downtown (streamers capturing the whole thing, although few have been arrested), some were burning the front office of the police precinct:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlpL20IV-0o
My friend observed that if you take such an uncompromising stance, you aren’t leaving the state with many options other than a violent crackdown; and the Weatherman had a better propaganda arm. But maybe things are different, with decentralized social media communications that are reaching younger people at least? The overton window has shifted. Here- right after the mayor had come outside in a black hoodie, announced they would disband the transit police and high school resource officers and declare Juneteenth a city holiday, people still went and set up barricades outside his apartment and stayed up all night flashing lasers and making noise, calling for him resigning and demanding further abolition, or perhaps they didn’t even listen to his concession.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTARR6xych8
An element or tactic I don’t like is a small number who have locked and obstructed doors to the police precinct and/or jail while others are engaging in setting fires to the building. Even if the fire department could come and break the locks and they claim that they could put out the fire before it became serious, what are you gaining by doing these things for dramatic effect? (also, see woman with hair spray can torch at 42: https://www.twitch.tv/cheetosanchez/video/663822752 ). I think rather than having just a few people doing this, gives the police the legal justification to use the less lethal rubber bullets and tear gas on the whole crowd.
see – here at the north precinct, some people set up their Occupy autonomous zone at the police parking lot, and after a few hours they were pushed away so they set up some barricades in the major street. You can see here that some had put dumpsters against many of the doors and locked the door handles, and here two brought a drill and are screwing in a board to block the door https://youtu.be/X1g92U7pnzQ?t=1310
Meanwhile on the other side of the police building, the barricade is on fire (as this self-described conservative guy films with zoom lens on other side of the intersection). The barricade isn’t next to the building but you can see these kids deliberately starting a second fire right up next to the building. https://youtu.be/qkszBqdeVfA?t=653
I see one specific guy with blond hair there fanning and building the fire (people wearing black are hard to distinguish). He has been seen at other incidents downtown, including a group jumping out of a van to fight the protesters at the downtown precinct. The police were unhappy with this guy (who has boogaloo stuff on his website- he isn’t left wing) who parked in front of the precinct and was openly passing around his rifle to teens standing around the park who were handling it and aiming it at the courthouse (streamer Portland andy quit his job to do this). https://youtu.be/rzLj27FxX-0?t=21319
Thanks for the man at the scene perspective, Q.