U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The slaying of a 19-year-old man and wounding of another in Seattle’s so-called “CHOP” (for Capitol Hill Organized Protest) zone over the weekend could be a game-changer politically for the city’s far-left administration.

A Twitter message from “Capitol Hill Neighbors” sums it up: “This is no longer about BLM – it’s chaos. A teenager is dead and somewhere a mother grieves. Neighbors support BLM and free speech but demand the City Council comes to its senses and negotiates w/SPD and mayor to clear the area. We want our neighborhood back!”

https://twitter.com/hill_asc/status/1274391713130430465?s=20

Six city blocks in uptown Seattle’s Capitol neighborhood, including a popular city park, were essentially surrendered to protesters in the wake of violent demonstrations in the city. The riot and aftermath protests were initially in reaction to the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis, Minn., police, one of whom kept a knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.

But things have gone beyond that, and an assertion by Socialist Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, published in The Stranger, a Seattle alternative newspaper, attempts to blame the deadly shooting on right-wing extremists, and ultimately President Donald Trump. At least nobody has so far blamed it on the “easy availability of guns,” but that is certainly possible.

According to The Stranger, Sawant issued this statement: “It is no accident that right-wing hate and violence has grown dramatically with Donald Trump in the White House. If this killing turns out to be a right-wing attack, President Trump bears direct responsibility, since he has fomented reactionary hatred specifically against the peaceful Capitol Hill occupation, and even threatened to intervene with federal troops. Also responsible are the conservative and corporate media outlets, both locally and nationally, which have themselves whipped up right-wing hate by completely misrepresenting the nature of the peaceful protest occupation, and who are continuing to do so even now, claiming that this shooting proves the CHOP is descending into chaos. Seattle’s establishment Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best also share responsibility for having portrayed our protest movement as violent.”

Apparently Sawant believes Seattleites have forgotten some burned police vehicles and trashed and looted businesses downtown. That unrest eventually led to the occupation several days later, and she knows it.

At a rally in Tulsa, Okla., over the weekend, Trump told the audience he has offered to help take back the seized area, but so far Democrat Washington Gov. Jay Inslee apparently hasn’t requested it.

KIRO News, the local CBS affiliate, identified the dead teen as Lorenzo Anderson, “a local rapper who goes by the name ‘Lil Mob.’”

What happened when police tried to respond to the shooting turned into bad publicity for supporters of the CHOP zone. According to the Seattle Police Blotter—with body cam video to back it up—“Officers attempted to locate a shooting victim but were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims.” By the time police were able to safely move in, both shooting victims had been transported separately by private vehicle to the hospital with “volunteer medics” attending their wounds. At last report, the surviving wounded victim was in intensive care.

KOMO News, the ABC affiliate in Seattle, quoted Victoria Beach, representing the African American Community Advisory Council, stating, “I’m so mad at the mayor. I feel like she might as well have had her hand on that gun because she’s allowing this.”

She was referring to Mayor Jenny Durkan, whom many critics of the CHOP zone believe has treated those behind the takeover of several square blocks on the city’s Capitol Hill with proverbial kid gloves. She has talked about negotiating, but now one person is dead in a shooting.

Durkan is the mayor who said the protesters aren’t terrorists, they are patriots.

KOMO ran a survey via Twitter asking whether the city should “move in now to end” the CHOP zone occupation. More than 22,000 viewers responded, with 72 percent favoring an immediate end to the zone.

Should the city of Seattle move in right now to end the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest or CHOP?

— KOMO News (@komonews) June 20, 2020

During his remarks in Tulsa, the president stated that every city where there are continuing problems of unrest is governed by Democrats. Durkan is among the most liberal. A gun control supporter, her administration hasn’t made a peep about a widely-circulated video showing one of the alleged leaders in the CHOP handing an AR15 from the trunk of his car to an unidentified young man with no background check or waiting period, as required by citizen initiatives heavily supported by Seattle voters.

Among the demands of CHOP zone occupiers is to defund or abolish the police. A headline piece in Liberty Park Press on that subject was almost prescient. Apparently, keeping them out of the CHOP is having a similar effect.

It could only be a matter of time before the situation becomes politically untenable.

 

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About Dave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.