CAPITOL HILL AUTONOMOUS ZONE (CHAZ) — An apparently false report from inside Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) resulted in an angry mob descending on a small business Sunday evening, according to Daily Caller reporters on the ground.
The scene inside CHAZ, recently renamed the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” (CHOP), was at first relatively relaxed Sunday evening, with a large group of people playing music and dancing. At one point, a man paused the music and told the crowd that someone was being detained with a gun to his head just outside of the CHAZ border.
The crowd sprinted into action and headed towards the location where the alleged incident was occurring. Upon arriving at the local business – an auto repair shop called “Car Tender” – the mob began to yell at individuals guarding the location, although those individuals said the report was false. Some protesters ripped down the fence to enter the property as others tried to keep the peace.
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One of the men involved in the local business said someone broke in and lit the place on fire. The person left, he told the mob.
The man added that his heart is broken for every person in America. pic.twitter.com/UbCiUcdgLU
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) June 15, 2020
One man involved in the business tried to explain what happened. He lamented about the lack of police in the area, which is apparently part of the no-cop zone.
“I can’t even get the police to show up, I can’t get the fire department to show up,” the man said. “I mean, I had to put the fire out myself. The fire department’s one block away. And this kind of mob stuff, that doesn’t work. I’m not doing that stuff. I caught somebody in my building with my property, so I detained him, hoping the police would show up, but they didn’t show up.
“So I detain him, trying to get him to let us frisk him to see what he had of our property still, and he wouldn’t let us frisk him. So, you’ve got all these people out here saying that we had him at gunpoint. We didn’t have him at gunpoint, there’s an attorney that was here that we let in here to make sure he was safe. That he wasn’t being hurt. And this is what I get.”
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Some emotional comments from another man involved in the local business. The business is apparently within the no-cop zone.
“I can’t even get the police to show up, I can’t get the fire department to show up … and this kind of mob stuff, that doesn’t work.” pic.twitter.com/LD3Q8JpL6N
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) June 15, 2020
Two other men involved in the business, one of whom was armed and appeared to be keeping guard, told similar stories. Both stated that this was “not about politics” and expressed concern about no-cop zones such as CHAZ. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS: American Flag-Bearing Demonstrators Cause Uproar Within Seattle’s Autonomous Zone)
“It’s not about politics,” one of the men said. “It’s about your people. … And the fact that we have to come out here and do this, it sucks. It sucks that we have to do this. It sucks that I look at my friends and my family that are part of the police force and they worry more … I’m [more] worried about them than anything else. And they aren’t even allowed in these spots.”
“This needs to get taken over. It needs to be under control. And it is not under control. … The fact that there’s no cop zones, that is disturbing and it is going to ruin the state,” the man continued, adding that it is unsettling that he can’t call cops to help all the peaceful protesters that were part of an effort to deescalate the situation.
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Full interview with witness on scene from the attack lastnight on a #Seattle small business ‘Car Tender’ inside ‘no-cop zone’ #CHAZ. Are you going to protect your citizens @GovInslee @JennyDurkan ? pic.twitter.com/Pot2fAN1yt
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) June 15, 2020
The armed man added that the group feels for what is going on in America and that everyone’s hearts need to change.
“It’s about the change of the hearts of American people. That’s all it is, man. People need to change, every single one of these people’s hearts needs to change. Period. And our hearts are broken for this nation,” the other man said.
The armed man protecting the business spent time throughout the incident trying to assure the mob that there was no one being held with a gun to their head. The man said that someone broke into the business, lit it on fire and was released after a brief detainment.
The mob remained at the fence for about 20 minutes, apparently unswayed by the man’s statements. The situation continued, with various CHAZ representatives arriving to try and get to the bottom of the situation.
One such person identified himself as a deescalation official, to which the man protecting the business responded and asked why he was not helping to deescalate the crowd.
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Some protesters tried to keep the mob at bay as a “deescalation” person tried to talk to one of the men involved in the business.
The man asked why he wasn’t deescalating the mob at the fence. pic.twitter.com/ZqUV2FY1SW
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) June 15, 2020
The local business owners eventually persuaded the mob that no one was held at gunpoint and that the situation allegedly began because of a break-in. The mob dispersed and many returned to CHAZ.