Seattle Police Department Refused To Provide Evidence Of Chief’s Claim That CHOP Is Not Cop-Free

The Seattle Police Department refused to provide evidence Wednesday supporting the chief’s claim that the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest area is not a cop-free zone.

Police Chief Carmen Best claimed “there is no cop-free zone in the city of Seattle” during a press conference on Monday, Kiro 7 reported, though the apparent premise of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, formerly called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, was to create an cop-free area protected by numerous armed citizens, the Daily Caller reported.

“The Seattle Police Department will respond to significant life-safety issues in the shaded area,” Sergeant Lauren Truscott told the Daily Caller News Foundation Wednesday.

After multiple requests for information on the dates, times and locations of officers inside the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, Truscott responded that she was “pulling numbers” but only sent a map of the protest zone of Seattle.

Screenshot of a map provided by Sergeant Lauren Truscott to the Daily Caller News Foundation. (Photo: Sergeant Lauren Truscott, Seattle Police Department)

“For all other calls originating from this area, dispatchers and officers will attempt to coordinate officer contact outside of these boundaries when feasible,” Truscott added. “Officers have and will continue to document calls for service that originate within these boundaries.”

“The City of Seattle continues to meet with demonstrators to work toward long-term solutions to issues within this area,” Truscott said.

The neighborhood was previously called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone by activists, and was only recently renamed the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone or “CHOP,” the Daily Caller reported.

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best: City Leaders Have Failed, Abandoning Precinct “Was Not My Decision” https://t.co/2kbf5eHL3g

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) June 11, 2020

Best said officers responded to an emergency call Sunday night reporting a robbery and that instead of investigating the claim, officers on the scene watched from a distance and determined the issue was not life threatening, Kiro 7 reported.

A business inside the CHOP was allegedly targeted by an armed mob after suspected false reports circulated that an individual was being held at gunpoint inside the small business, the Daily Caller reported. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: False Reports Inside CHAZ Cause Angry Mob To Descend On Small Business)

“I can’t even get the police to show up, I can’t get the fire department to show up,” a man involved with the business told the Daily Caller. “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,” he added.

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