Hey folks, I live in Seattle and up till a couple years ago I lived on Capitol Hill. I still have friends living there. So I thought I’d provide some local insight into the CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone).
There is a lot of misinformation out there, especially from Fox News, which photoshopped a gunman into pics, wow.
First, the best resources to find CHAZ info are local to Seattle: The Seattle Times, Capitol Hill Blog, and the CHAZ livestream where you can see the streets for yourself.
Capitol Hill is a very densely populated neighborhood full of apartment buildings and bustling restaurants and bars. If you work there, you live there (because it is hard to navigate by car, like NYC), and if you live there, you are probably super liberal. It’s also the center of counter-culture and LGBTQ culture in Seattle.
Are the protesters terrorizing the locals?
No, the protesters ARE the locals. They live in the many, many apartment buildings on Capitol Hill. Having lived there for years, believe me when I say “fuck the police” is a prevalent opinion there even when there isn’t a nationwide protest.
Is there looting? How are businesses protecting themselves?
The local businesses are not being looted; they are open and are doing a booming business. Also, a lot of workers / business owners ARE protesters.
I saw a picture of Seattle on fire!
Actually you saw a picture of a protest in Minnesota that Fox News pretended was Seattle because they are frauds and shills.
How big is the Autonomous Zone?
Six square blocks.
How did this situation come about?
There was a peaceful march. The mayor abruptly set a 5 pm curfew. The protesters ignored it and marched anyway. Then the police set up barricades to stop the march. The cops started using tear-gas and flash-bangs and the situation devolved from there. (You can find videos of this on Capitol Hill Blog.) What prompted the tear-gas was … one of the protesters thrust a pink umbrella over the barrier. Yes, really.
The situation deteriorated for several days/nights running until the police abandoned the East Precinct on Capitol Hill. The violence was very one-sided: the police attacking the protesters.
Then the police left. From what I heard the mayor ordered them out due to rumors or fears that the police station would be burned down? Which didn’t happen. Anyway, they abruptly left. As in, hired a literal moving truck and emptied out their headquarters, in almost a comedic beat.
Do you have to show your ID to enter the Autonomous Zone?
No. People come and go freely. City services are also allowed to come and go (and I presume delivery trucks but I haven’t looked into that.)
What’s with the physical barriers if people can come and go freely?
They’re to keep vehicles out.
Backstory: While the protests were ongoing, a guy (whose brother was an East Precinct cop) tried to ram his car into a crowd of protesters. A brave man eating a hot dog threw himself at the side of the car, grabbed the steering wheel through the open window, and stopped him. Whereupon cop-brother-car-man shot him with a gun.
Personally I think cop-brother-car-man was planning a mass shooting because he had extra ammo taped to his hoodie sleeve. You can see the blue tape on his arm in the pic above. (The protester who was shot thankfully survived. Check out those brave medics tending him while an ACTIVE SHOOTER is standing feet away!)
But anyway, that’s why there are barriers. I believe they move them aside for approved vehicles, like emergency vehicles or deliveries.
Are there people with guns roaming around?
Not on a regular basis, although I’ve heard a local gun club had some members there one night when it was rumored the Proud Boys (a Nazi group) might show up. (They didn’t.) But in general, no.
Is it scary??
No. The neighborhood is fully on board and overall there is a festive atmosphere. There are speeches about BLM, about discrimination, about what people want for the neighborhood. There are first aid stations, medics and counselors, and people offering free pizza. If you watch the livestreams, you can see people walking their dogs, out with their kids, etc.
Where will this all end?
I don’t know. The barriers can’t stay up forever and I think everyone knows that. The “Autonomous Zone” name is tongue-in-cheek, the protesters aren’t actually trying to secede from the United States. Basically, this is a boiling over of frustration. The police have never been good-faith neighbors on Capitol Hill. Also Seattle police have always been pretty racist and had a problem with excessive force.
Look at this whole situation. All the police had to do was stand back and let the protesters march; they would have marched and gone home and that would be that. All the police had to do was nothing. Instead they turned a neighborhood into a warzone.
By the way, did you know that yesterday (6/12) in a different Seattle neighborhood 60,000 people marched to support BLM? And because the city had learned its lesson about dumbass curfews, they let everyone march and nothing bad happened.
Weird how the national news didn’t report on that march, huh? Almost like they cherrypick the protests that will appear “scary” to their audience.
Me @ Lucasfilm it’s not that hard you guys
they are i m your man by mitski coded so i m obligated to be unwell about them
Ahsoka with a little more Skywalker in her, killing palp and only returning to the order to train Leia is an AU that really butters my eggroll.
Rex is the most exasperated clone in the galaxy. The 332nd is the loudest and most scary battalion in the republic right after aayla securas 327th. Leia is like Ahsokas temper times Anakins hype.
Rex: When I first met Anakin, I thought to myself, ‘when the war is over, he’s the Order’s problem again’.
Cody: Oh? What happened then?
Rex: *holding back tears* I don’t know! Sometimes I wake up and he’s going through my fridge and asking why I don’t keep his brand of ‘Padme approved’ organic gummy snacks around and I have to tell him it’s because he doesn’t live here and also Ahsoka ate them all and he’s all ‘the babies are very chatty rn and they repeat everything they hear and I said fuck last week so now I’m avoiding home cause as soon as Padme looks at me she’s gonna know where they learned that word’ and then Ahsoka, who I didn’t even know was THERE, pops up from the couch all ‘I thought I taught them that one!’ And I’m standing there in my sweat pants and wondering why I have to deal with this and then they look at me with these big ol’ dumb puppy eyes and I melt every time, I stg I can’t get rid of them help me!
Cody: …*gently pats Rex’s back* Bro… the only way to stop this… is to just move in with them. See, Obi-Wan can’t pull this shit on me, because I expect him to be there.
Rex: That’s different, you and Obi-Wan are Jedi married.
Cody: Hmm, if you think I knew we were dating before last week, then you’re sorely mistaken. I thought he was just a really clingy roommate I liked to fuck sometimes.
Rex: …how did this flip so you’re the disaster so fast and not me?
Cody: *shrugs* I just assume you come to me to feel better about yourself because you’re not /that/ bad compared to me.
Females?? From me?? Crazy...
I gotta make- like- a shopping list of characters, I've got Cass and Dami on the list, Jon Kon and a few others too- I wanna go draw snuggles now- (tomorrow tho- it's like 10)
Okay okay okay - the first time Anakin hears Padmé make a sex joke? Mind boggling. The first time he realizes Obi-Wan makes sex jokes all the time? Like every day? At least once, maybe twice? Complete with eyebrow waggle and swishy hair and a smirk? Do not pity Obi-Wan's experience.
…so does this mean that on one of their Clone Wars missions, at some point Obi-Wan makes his twelve-millionth dopey “thinking with your lightsaber”-style joke and Anakin is (FINALLY) suddenly all ????????!!!!!!!!!!!!! EXCUSE YOU, THINKING WITH MY WHAT?! YOU DON’T MEAN, OH MY GOD YES YOU DO OH MY STARS OBI-WAN!
It’s even funnier if Ahsoka’s there and, being a teenager and therefore well-versed in dumb dirty jokes, she’s like, “Um…he makes those kinds of jokes…ALL the time, Master?! Are you new here?” and Anakin is like NO SNIPS STOP LISTENING HOW COULD YOU OBI-WAN SHE IS INNOCENT.
Clark: So what do all of your sidekicks bring to the table
Bruce:?
Hal: Yeah, what is all their specialties? Something tells me you dont keep them around for the comapny.
Bruce: Well Nightwing is the worlds best acrobat. Oracle is one of the worlds best hackers. Red Hood is a marksman. Red Robin is the world's second best detective, while Orphan is one of the worlds best trained fighters. Robin is my biological son so theres not really a choice there anyway. Does that suffice Jordan?
Hal: What about the other one?
Bruce: Signal is on daytime patrol, so he was preoccupied.
Hal: No the other other one
Bruce: My gay, army trained cousin?
Clark: I think he means the purple one raiding our breakfast buffet
Bruce: Oh
Bruce: She's moral support
at superman's secret base: fortress of solitude, complete silence, memoir for the fallen krypton, v serious place, only 3 people granted access
at batman's secret base: I AM 200% SURE I DID NOT ADOPT THAT ONE, SOMEONE TELL ME WHY DAMIAN IS LICKING THE DINOSAUR, WHICH ONE OF U BRATS BLED ALL OVER THE BATHROOM, WHO LET THE GREEN FLASHLIGHT IN HERE, ALFRED!!!!
Afsjshs u posted about Wild Space again! Its been a while since Wild Space was last talked abt in ur blog, a little surprising because it is Prime Prequel Content™. Literally the best most wildest fantastic ridiculous and greatest star wars book to ever be written, period.
This is highly entertaining because I feel like I talk about it A LOT. 😄
That said, I agree. It was high time to bring it up again, even if I didn’t have new content to share. What a joyride that book is! I laughed out loud rereading those recap entries I wrote because A) we all know I make myself laugh, and B) I had totally forgotten about this part where Obi-Wan does some Shirtless Hot Yoga:
😂I mean…honestly.
Oh ALSO: every person in this book is The Worst and I am here for it. Obi-Wan almost dies on every other page and yet keeps refusing to sleep for 15 minutes or take Advil (and he is COMPLETELY preoccupied with Anakin every second of his life, and eventually WAKES UP SCREAMING ANAKIN’S NAME at one point while Bail Organa understandably almost dies of amusement), Padme spends pretty much the whole book with her hand thrown dramatically against her forehead as she vows that her Special and Powerful Wuv will fix all of Anakin’s Bad Choice-Making, Those Mean Naysayers Be Damned! (spoiler alert: NOPE), the Order gossips about eeeeeeeevvvvvveerryone, Palpatine spends EVERY CONVERSATION HE HAS WITH ANYBODY thinking about how great it’s going to be when that person is dead, and Anakin. ANAKIN. He wins Best Worst, including:
the scene where he rushes to Obi-Wan’s bedside after one of the times when Obi-Wan almost dies and is like “hey fuck all this I hate everyone why are you all always asking me to do stuff but also HOW DARE YOU insinuate that I CAN’T do all the stuff and also remember when my hand got cut off BECAUSE I DO” and his tantrum causes Obi-Wan to like, almost have a heart attack on his already-death bed and then Anakin is like WAIT MASTER NO DON’T DIE NO ONE LOVES ME LIKE YOU DO and clutches Obi-Wan’s hand like he’s an expiring coma patient in a soap opera, and a doctor almost has to drag him out of the room
the fact that when he and Padme are eating space grapes in bed, ANAKIN is the one being fed like he’s a fancy princess because of course
He goes to the Council Room to tell them Dramatic and Surprising Information, and when one person is like “wow, really?!” in response to this, Anakin flips his shit on them and is like OH I SEE HOW IT IS YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME OR OBI-WAN FUCK YOU GUYS and later Mace is like “…wow, that guy? Is a pain in the ass” and I’m like SAME, MACE. SAME.
he gets annoyed thinking about how Obes is such a Rules-Follower and this naturally morphs into what REALLY reads like him wishing he and Padme could have a three-way with him
Anakin is mid-Dramatic Farewell Makeout with Padme and practically shoves her off a balcony to go rescue Obi-Wan after sensing that he’s in danger, literally seconds after thinking about how much Obi-Wan annoys him and how he’s wrong about everything
he has a hissy fit in the hallway at Ahsoka (who did something egregious like say hello to him or whatever) and when people stop to stare at a grown-ass man yelling at his teenage student he thinks to himself that everyone there is UGH ALWAYS so super invested in his personal business because he’s the Chosen One as opposed to, you know, the fact that he’s a grown-ass man making a scene in public
I don’t think I have ever enjoyed reading a Star Wars book more. It genuinely delights me. 😄