A failure at every level

On September 22, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s veto on a budget reform bill was overridden by the Seattle City Council in a clear political move with no benefits for the people. To truly understand this event and its implications for the future, one must look at the context of the past, particularly the history of CHAZ, which would be the spark to ignite the fires of political activism this summer.

On June 8, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was created as a means of breaking free from America in response to the death of George Floyd. Violent protests had been breaking out across the country, and few were more potent than those on Capitol Hill, with a week of non stop violent outbreaks between rioters and police preceding CHAZ’s inception.

 In response to her officers being injured and overpowered by violent mobs, and Seattle’s East Precinct being burnt and occupied by rioters, Jenny Durkan issued a ban on tear gas, pepper spray, and cracked down on the conduct of her police force: a concession to the protestors in order to retain votes. But that deterred them nonetheless, the birth of CHAZ was ever impending due to the city’s slovenly response to the riots leading to its founding. Durkan maintained her lackadaisical efforts to dismantle this autonomous zone, who in protest to the cops and institutionalized racism, created its own vigilante force led by rapper/warlord Raz Simone, mandated a stop and frisk policy at its highly regulated borders, and met violators of CHAZ law with publicized beatings.

 Durkan however, turned the other cheek to the obvious criminality that plagued CHAZ in favor of appealing to the leftist voters who keep her in office, calling the zone a “street fair,” catalyzing a “summer of love.” Shortly after, there were 6 shootings and 2 fatalities, multiple rapes, countless robberies, and millions in property damage in 10 days. In each instance, the citizens of CHAZ blocked the medics and police from reaching the wounded to help them, linking arms and brandishing weapons to bar them from entering. Multiple victims died, some minutes before reaching the hospital; minutes that could’ve been saved had the medics and officers been allowed to enter the zone and provide immediate aid. 

However, to the people unaffected by the violence and destruction in CHAZ, the zone was a protest fighting systemic racism, something that should be respected. These unaffected people make up the majority of the people who will be voting for the city officials when they run for reelection and the city officials being opposed to CHAZ would steer away potential voters. Because of this, they took a weak approach to disbanding the zone, allowing the minority to suffer because it preserved their image for the majority. They subverted justice in favor of looking as if they were enforcing it, and they kept this up for as long as possible, allowing CHAZ to exist for nearly a month.

Finally, the multiple deaths, homicide rate 50 times higher than Chicago, and destruction of city and private property was enough to prompt Durkan into breaking down the area. The name was promptly changed to the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in an effort to make the area fall under different laws and harder to legally abolish. However, it was to no avail, and after a month of struggle, the zone was disbanded, and normalcy returned, almost. The people of CHAZ left behind a whirlwind of property damage, vandalism, and a long list of other ailments; getting off scot free with minimal prosecution from the city officials who refuse to enforce their own laws. 

Local business owners returned to find their livelihoods destroyed and investments desecrated, void of reimbursement or even any accountability for those who perpetrated the act. The city of Seattle let down those people, favoring a political appeal to the voters by cracking down on the SPD instead of protecting the citizens of their city by breaking down CHAZ. It is clear that to the politicians of Seattle, CHAZ was nothing more than an opportunity to expand their voter base; the people who suffered at the hands of their misconduct have been let down, including the general public, who are still unaware of the mishandling of this situation.

The remnants of CHAZ lived on, the same beliefs leading to CHAZ’s inception led to multiple bill proposals to drastically change the city’s systems, most famously, defunding and altering the police department. Despite the clear indications that the values that dominated CHAZ inevitably lead to a virtual warzone, the politicians of our city still decided to push legislation following that fundamentally flawed system, indicating that they prioritize looking good over doing good. 

The bills would lay off 100 officers, reduce the salary of SPD’s command staff by 40%, abolish the Navigation Team (designed to remove homeless camps and provide outreach services to the homeless), dismantle the Harbor Patrol, SWAT, Horse Unit, and Public Affairs, according to the Seattle Times. There would be an additional 23 million dollars redacted from the remaining 2020 SPD budget, much to the chagrin of many city council members and Black Lives Matter activists who were pushing for a reduction of 63.5 million dollars. Although overwhelmingly supported by the city council, Durkan used her power as mayor to veto these bills, something of a U-turn when compared with her response to CHAZ. However, her veto was inconsequential, as the city council overruled her with a vote, implementing these new plans for SPD and the city as a whole. Included in the new budget was also a plan to “borrow” 17 million dollars (mostly from the construction budget) to search for “alternatives to policing.” 

Don’t fret however, the city council vetted the people heading the charge for this ambitious experiment. For instance, Andre Taylor, convicted pimp, self-proclaimed street czar, and proud citizen of CHAZ, will be given 150,000 dollars a year and an office in Seattle’s Municipal Tower, according to the New York Post. The city of Seattle looked straight past his record of pimping underaged girls, proclaiming to have “had children with some of the women who were with me,” according to the Las Vegas Sun, and all the other morally reprehensible deeds he has done; he’s a BLM activist and giving him a 6 figure wage will qualm the tides of the rioters and his appointment will go without scrutiny from the public. 

Taylor was recorded in CHAZ telling occupants, “don’t just leave, leave with something,” referring to his recommendation to hold the area ransom until the city paid each occupant to leave. This is the man that the city council deemed most fit to find alternatives to policing, a man who was part of a subculture that he himself described in a Youtube video he uploaded as “like the Mafia,” and came to Seattle to “go to war,” according to the New York Post. Although he is not receiving all of the money, he is indicative of the level of requirements necessary to take a cut. 

The politicians of Seattle do not care about fixing the issues that actually plague the city, they just care about seeming as though they are, so they can secure as many votes as possible. These issues will continue to persist, and the superficial city officials will continue to pretend as if they actually care about fixing them, while they push legislation like this. I, like most, am completely in favor of dismantling any forms of systemic racism, but this is just not that. We shouldn’t allow a morally favorable title cloud us from seeing the true nature of these inherently misguided political schemes.

CHAZ dissipated as quickly as it arose, but the impression of its ideology will be long-lasting on the future of Seattle, in the form of its budget and its exposure of the motives of the city’s politicians. The repeated concessions to the mob that the city of Seattle made at every level will serve as a constant reminder of their vacuous morals and their hunger for votes. Officers that once protected the areas in which they were needed will find themselves unemployed, the owners of property in CHAZ will find their livelihoods destroyed, and the people of Seattle will be footing the bill for millions in property damage, a convicted pimp, and the salaries of the city officials who subverted justice to secure political backing. Many will still remember these events as a positive change in the name of fighting systemic racism, I hope that this helps you remember them as a blatant instance of political failure at the expense of the police department, business owners, and the people of Seattle.