Friday, August 7, 2020

NYT: Oh I guess CHAZ was actually bad

Date: August 7th, 2020 1:39 PM
Author: Bistro point

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/us/defund-police-seattle-protests.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720377)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:17 PM
Author: ,.,...,..,.,.,;:,.:,.,.,::,..,..,:,.,.:.:.,:.::,.


Copy paste pls

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720563)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:58 PM
Author: I understand and wish to continue

Abolish the Police? Those Who Survived the Chaos in Seattle Aren’t So Sure

What is it like when a city abandons a neighborhood and the police vanish? Business owners describe a harrowing experience of calling for help and being left all alone.

Faizel Khan, who owns a coffee shop, is part of a lawsuit that says Seattle let occupying protesters damage property and stifle revenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Faizel Khan, who owns a coffee shop, is part of a lawsuit that says Seattle let occupying protesters damage property and stifle revenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

By Nellie Bowles

Aug. 7, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET

SEATTLE — Faizel Khan was being told by the news media and his own mayor that the protests in his hometown were peaceful, with “a block party atmosphere.”

But that was not what he saw through the windows of his Seattle coffee shop. He saw encampments overtaking the sidewalks. He saw roving bands of masked protesters smashing windows and looting.

Young white men wielding guns would harangue customers as well as Mr. Khan, a gay man of Middle Eastern descent who moved here from Texas so he could more comfortably be out. To get into his coffee shop, he sometimes had to seek the permission of self-appointed armed guards to cross a border they had erected.

“They barricaded us all in here,” Mr. Khan said. “And they were sitting in lawn chairs with guns.”

For 23 days in June, about six blocks in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood were claimed by left-wing demonstrators and declared police-free. Protesters hailed it as liberation — from police oppression, from white supremacy — and a catalyst for a national movement.

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In the wake of the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, the Black Lives Matter movement is calling to defund the police, arguing that the criminal justice system is inherently racist.

Leaders in many progressive cities are listening. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a plan to shift $1 billion out of the police budget. The Minneapolis City Council is pitching a major reduction, and the Seattle City Council is pushing for a 50 percent cut to Police Department funding. (The mayor said that plan goes too far.)

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Some even call for “abolishing the police” altogether and closing down precincts, which is what happened in Seattle.

That has left small-business owners as lonely voices in progressive areas, arguing that police officers are necessary and that cities cannot function without a robust public safety presence. In Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland, Ore., many of those business owners consider themselves progressive, and in interviews they express support for the Black Lives Matter movement. But they also worry that their businesses, already debilitated by the coronavirus pandemic, will struggle to survive if police departments and city governments cannot protect them.

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On Capitol Hill, business crashed as the Seattle police refused to respond to calls to the area. Officers did not retake the region until July 1, after four shootings, including two fatal ones.

Now a group of local businesses owners — including a locksmith, the owner of a tattoo parlor, a mechanic, the owners of a Mexican restaurant and Mr. Khan — is suing the city. The lawsuit claims that “Seattle’s unprecedented decision to abandon and close off an entire city neighborhood, leaving it unchecked by the police, unserved by fire and emergency health services, and inaccessible to the public” resulted in enormous property damage and lost revenue.

ImageRancho Bravo, a popular late-night Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill, is one of the businesses in the lawsuit, which says Seattle provided material support for the occupation.

Rancho Bravo, a popular late-night Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill, is one of the businesses in the lawsuit, which says Seattle provided material support for the occupation.Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

The Seattle lawsuit — and interviews with shop owners in cities like Portland and Minneapolis — underscores a key question: Can businesses still rely on local governments, which are now rethinking the role of the police, to keep them safe? The issue is especially tense in Seattle, where the city government not only permitted the establishment of a police-free zone, but provided infrastructure like concrete barriers and portable toilets to sustain it.

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The economic losses that businesses suffered during the recent tumult are significant: One community relief fund in Minneapolis, where early protests included vandalism and arson, has raised $9 million for businesses along the Lake Street corridor, a largely Latino and East African business district. “We asked the small businesses what they needed to cover the damage that insurance wasn’t paying, and the gap was around $200 million,” said Allison Sharkey, the executive director of the Lake Street Council, which is organizing the fund. Her own office, between a crafts market and a Native American support center, was burned down in the protests.

Some small businesses have resorted to posting GoFundMe pleas for donations online.

Many are nervous about speaking out lest they lend ammunition to a conservative critique of the Black Lives Matter movement. In Portland, Elizabeth Snow McDougall, the owner of Stevens-Ness legal printers, emphasized her support for the cause before describing the damage done to her business.

“One window broken, then another, then another, then another. Garbage to clean off the sidewalk in front of the store every morning. Urine to wash out of our doorway alcove. Graffiti to remove,” Ms. McDougall wrote in an email. “Costs to board up and later we’ll have costs to repair.”

The impact of the occupation on Cafe Argento, Mr. Khan’s coffee shop on Capitol Hill, has been devastating. Very few people braved the barricades set up by the armed occupiers to come in for his coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Cars coming to pick up food orders would turn around. At two points, he and his workers felt scared and called 911. “They said they would not come into CHOP,” said Mr. Khan, referring to one of the names that protesters gave to the occupied Capitol Hill area. “It was lawless.”

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He had to start chipping in for private security, a hard thing to do when his business had already been hurt by the coronavirus.

But he considers himself lucky — and he was. Even weeks after the protests, blocks of his previously bustling neighborhood remained boarded up and covered in shattered glass. Many business owners are scared to speak out, Mr. Khan said, because of worries that they would be targeted further.

One mid-July morning in the neighborhood, workers in orange vests were mopping off the sidewalks and power-spraying graffiti off the sides of buildings. Two window repair guys said they had their hands full for weeks. Shattered street lamps were being unscrewed and replaced.

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A confusing array of security teams wandered around, armed with handguns and rifles. Some wore official-looking private security uniforms. Others wore casual clothes and lanyards identifying their affiliation with Black Lives Matter. A third group wore all black with no identifying labels and declined to name their group affiliation.

Image

Rick Hearns displays two handguns while patrolling Capitol Hill as a private security guard. His badge reads “Black Lives Matter Community Patrol.”Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

When a tall man in a trench coat and hiking boots walked over to question Mr. Khan, the man spread his coat open, revealing several pistols on harnesses around his chest and waist. He presented a badge on a lanyard that read “Black Lives Matter Community Patrol.”

His name is Rick Hearns and he identified himself as a longtime security guard and mover who is now a Black Lives Matter community guard, in charge of several others. Local merchants pay for his protection, he said as he handed out his business card. (Mr. Khan said he and his neighbors are now paying thousands of dollars a month for protection from Iconic Global, a Washington State-based private security contractor.)

Mr. Hearns has had bad experiences with the police in his own life. He says he wants police reform, but he was appalled by the violent tactics and rhetoric he witnessed during the occupation.

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He blamed the destruction and looting on “opportunists,” but also said that much of the damage on Capitol Hill came from a distinct contingent of violent, armed white activists. “It’s antifa,” he said. “They don’t want to see the progress we’ve made. They want chaos.”

Many of the business owners on Capitol Hill agreed: Much of the violence they saw and the intimidation of their patrons came from a group these business owners identified as antifa, which they distinguished from the Black Lives Matter movement. “The idea of taking up the Black movement and turning it into a white occupation, it’s white privilege in its finest definition,” Mr. Khan said. “And that’s what they did.”

Antifa, which stands for anti-fascist, is a radical, leaderless leftist political movement that uses armed, violent protest as a method to create what supporters say is a more just and equitable country. They have a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest, including the current protests in Portland.

Image

Police officers did not retake the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, where demonstrators graffitied walls and broke windows, until after four shootings had occurred there. Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

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When the occupation in Seattle started in early June, Mayor Jenny Durkan seemed almost amused. “We could have the Summer of Love,” she said.

After President Trump took aim at the governor of Washington State and Seattle’s mayor on June 11, Ms. Durkan defended the occupation on Twitter as “a peaceful expression of our community’s collective grief and their desire to build a better world,” she wrote, pointing to the “food trucks, spaghetti potlucks, teach-ins, and movies.”

The lawsuit by the small-business owners, filed by the firm Calfo Eakes on June 24, seizes on such language, pointing out that the city knew what was happening and provided material support for the occupation.

Matthew Ploszaj, a Capitol Hill resident, is one of the complainants. He said his apartment building, blocks from Mr. Khan’s shop, was broken into four times during the occupation. The Seattle Police were called each time and never came to his apartment, according to Mr. Ploszaj. When he and another resident called the police after one burglary, they told him to meet them outside the occupation zone, about eight blocks away. He and other residents spent nights at a friend’s house outside the area during the height of the protests.

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The employees of Bergman’s Lock and Key say they were followed by demonstrators with baseball bats. Cure Cocktail, a local bar and charcuterie, said its workers were asked by protesters to pledge loyalty to the movement: “Are you for the CHOP or are you for the police?” they were asked, according to the lawsuit.

The business owners also found that trying to get help from the Seattle Police, who declined to comment for this article, made them targets of activists.

Across from Cafe Argento is a funky old auto repair shop called Car Tender run by John McDermott, a big soft-spoken man. On June 14, Mr. McDermott was driving his wife home from their anniversary dinner when he received a call from a neighbor who saw someone trying to break into his shop.

Mr. McDermott and his 27-year-old son, Mason, raced over. A man who was inside the shop, Mr. McDermott said, had emptied the cash drawer and was in the midst of setting the building on fire. Mr. McDermott said he and his son wrestled the man down and planned to hold him until the police arrived. But officers never showed up. A group of several hundred protesters did, according to Mr. McDermott, breaking down the chain-link fence around his shop and claiming that Mr. McDermott had kidnapped the man.

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“They started coming across the fence — you see all these beautiful kids, a mob but kids — and they have guns and are pointing them at you and telling you they’re going to kill you,” Mr. McDermott said. “Telling me I’m the K.K.K. I’m not the K.K.K.”

The demonstrators were livestreaming the confrontation. Mr. McDermott’s wife watched, frantically calling anyone she could think of to go help him.

Later, Mr. McDermott’s photo and shop address appeared on a website called Cop Blaster, whose stated aim is to track police brutality but also has galleries of what it calls “Snitches” and “Cop Callers.” The McDermotts were categorized as both of those things on the website, which warned they should “keep their mouths shut.”

Image

John McDermott said the police did not respond when his auto repair shop on Capitol Hill was being robbed by someone trying to set the building on fire.Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

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Many of the listings include names and addresses of people who are said to have called the police. Since the Cop Blaster post went up, Mr. McDermott’s shop has received so many harassing phone calls and messages that some employees have had to take time off.

A block away is Bill Donner, the owner of Richmark Label, who let police officers use the roof of his factory to monitor the demonstration. Inside, his company had spent 50 years making labels for products like whiskey, soaps and natural beef jerky. Many days during the occupation, Mr. Donner, who said he was in favor of police reform, had to negotiate with the occupiers of the zone for access to his factory.

Twice, he called 911 and was told that the police would not be coming into the area.

The experience of the small-business owners seems a universe away from the rhetoric of Seattle’s politicians. As the violence turned deadly, Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, who represents Capitol Hill, defended the protesters’ use of their own armed guards instead of the police.

“Elected committees of self defense have historically played vital roles during general strikes, occupations and in mass movements, in order for the working class and marginalized people to defend themselves and carry out necessary functions in place of the forces of the state,” she wrote. She has called for the local police precinct to be permanently placed under “community control.”

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When the mayor did send in police officers to end the occupation after the shootings, Ms. Sawant wrote on Twitter, “Shame on Mayor Jenny Durkan for deploying Seattle police yesterday in a brutal attack against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters & homeless neighbors at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest.”

Many protesters who remained in early July were milling around a small tent encampment on a lawn at Seattle Central College, some with rifles slung over their shoulders. The smell of weed drifted through. The streets were full of moving trucks.

The crowds were gone, but every now and then, the demonstrators gave speeches about the importance of disbanding the police. Sometimes the activists spoke about what went wrong with the occupation. One young woman on a bullhorn argued to passers-by that the police left too quickly and that a sustainable police-free region would have to be built more slowly.

These days, storefronts in the neighborhood remain boarded up, covered in Black Lives Matter signs and graffiti. Demonstrators still hold evening protests, albeit smaller and quieter than before. But the businesses remain on edge.

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“This is an ongoing crisis,” Mr. Donner said on Tuesday. “Protesters are apparently staying until they get some of what they want. No one knows what level of city cooperation will be enough for them.”

But the area is slowly going back to its old normal. The park and playing fields have been cleared, and police officers have returned to the streets. An apartment building that opened earlier this summer is finally attracting prospective tenants.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Durkan did not comment on the lawsuit but acknowledged frustrations from small businesses.

“Many who live and work in Capitol Hill and other parts of the city continue to witness daily protests that are rightly demanding an end to systemic racism,” she wrote. “In some circumstances, businesses and residents have faced property destruction in the last two months.”

She encouraged the businesses to file claims.

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(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720785)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 1:41 PM
Author: ;..;.;;;.;;.;.;.;;;.;;;.;.;;;....;.


T

Tatjana

Florida

25m ago

Times Pick

CHOP doesn't disprove the need to defund the police. What happened there was chaos, and ended up being violent and tragic; however, the police inflict that same violence and chaos on BIPOC and low income communities regularly. We need to sustainably divest from policing, and move that money into services needed by our communities, especially the communities which have historically been neglected by our racist government. We spend an astonishing amount on policing, and all it does is create trauma for BIPOC.

Reply7 Reco

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720383)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:41 PM
Author: Bistro point

the disparity in message between the 'nyt pick' and 'readers pick' comments is startling

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720387)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:58 PM
Author: DrakeMallard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720448)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:58 PM
Author: IronMonkey



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720449)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 1:42 PM
Author: .,.,;,.,..,.,.,:,,:,..,:::,...,:,.,.:...:.,:.::,.


silence all twitter accounts

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720388)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:54 PM
Author: '""""""

wtf is BIPOC, these freaks love their acronyms

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720435)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:58 PM
Author: .,.,,..,..,.,.,:,,:,...,::,....,:,.,.:...:.,:.::,.


as far as i can tell, it was recently invented overnight as a way to exclude asians and whites

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720450)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:07 PM
Author: je suis charliexii (gunneratttt)

just asians. lol.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720493)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:59 PM
Author: An 8-INT Orc AA'ing their way into mage school

The "Second Chair" for racial grievances rotates about once a decade. In the 90s it was Blacks and Hispanics. In the aughts it was Blacks and Muslims. Apparently this decade the Native Indians get a turn. Hence, BIPOC, or "Black and Indian Persons of Color."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720454)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:00 PM
Author: IronMonkey

WHOAH WHOAH WHOAH! "Indian" is not the preferred nomenclature(even if that's how most Indians refer to themselves). The preferred term is "indigenous" bro.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720462)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:50 PM
Author: An 8-INT Orc AA'ing their way into mage school

Oh fuck my bad. I will self report to re-education camp at once.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720753)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:14 PM
Author: ~~(> ' ' )>



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720538)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 7:38 PM
Author: Pumonymous

It's "Black, Indigenous, and People of Color," i.e. blacks and natives are the "most oppressed" groups, with Latinos, Asians, Indians, and Middle Easterns being lumped together as the remaining "POC," who are explicitly "last" in the racial victim hierarchy.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721796)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:41 PM
Author: ;..;.;;;.;;.;.;.;;;.;;;.;.;;;....;.


Tom

Seattle

59m ago

Times Pick

I live in Seattle and have been to the CHOP on multiple occasions. I have also first hand witnessed the indiscriminate brutality of the Seattle Police Department. The notion that they are “peace officers” is widely misconstrued.

It is worth noting that neither the Mayor of Seattle nor the Chief of Police ordered officers to abandon the East Precinct. Officers abandoned the precinct on their own, violating the city charter and compromising the safety of the community. Individual officers staged a coup, whether the mayor or the chief was complicit in that action is under investigation by the office of police accountability. Thus, the origin of this disaster starts squarely with the incompetence, and pettiness of rank and file SPOG members who literally chose to walk away from their sworn duty.

This component of the story is not covered within your narrative.

2 Replies31 Recommend

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720386)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:42 PM
Author: .,.,;,.,..,.,.,:,,:,..,:::,...,:,.,.:...:.,:.::,.


sorry your twitter account has been revoked.

reason: retard

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720390)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:47 PM
Author: IronMonkey

"It is worth noting that neither the Mayor of Seattle nor the Chief of Police ordered officers to abandon the East Precinct."

That's the first time I've heard that claim.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720414)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:53 PM
Author: An 8-INT Orc AA'ing their way into mage school

That's because it's patently untrue.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720432)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:48 PM
Author: Inner Hajnal Forest Dweller

this guy should be killed and probably all of his offspring too

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720418)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:55 PM
Author: A Jurisprudence is Performed

lol @ offspring

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720436)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 6:20 PM
Author: droplet transmission



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721549)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 1:50 PM
Author: L'uomo pumo

even assuming this is true (i certainly don't remember it being reported that way at the time), i don't see how this helps their case?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720424)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 6:05 PM
Author: sealclubber

it doesn't because the immediate next question is

did the mayor immediately order the police to retake the precinct? no. why not? what steps were taken to reestablish order in chaz? what steps were taken to at least get the precinct back under control of the government?

it's a red herring.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721508)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:07 PM
Author: under color of official right

"the police are evil if they do their job and also if they don't"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720492)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:17 PM
Author: ,.,...,..,.,.,;:,.:,.,.,::,..,..,:,.,.:.:.,:.::,.




(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720558)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:50 PM
Author: .....:::::>>>>::>>.....



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721665)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 1:46 PM
Author: IronMonkey

"“It’s antifa,” he said. “They don’t want to see the progress we’ve made. They want chaos.”

Many of the business owners on Capitol Hill agreed: Much of the violence they saw and the intimidation of their patrons came from a group these business owners identified as antifa, which they distinguished from the Black Lives Matter movement. “The idea of taking up the Black movement and turning it into a white occupation, it’s white privilege in its finest definition,” Mr. Khan said. “And that’s what they did.”"

Oh sure. Next you'll claim Santa Claus broke your windows. Everyone knows Antifa is myth

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720409)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:05 PM
Author: ;..;.;;;.;;.;.;.;;;.;;;.;.;;;....;.


Sup Jerry

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720485)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 1:51 PM
Author: uh oh

i posted a comment that notes the NYT fired its opinions editor for allowing an op-ed to falsely claim antifa had infiltrated the protestors..a claim that this article repeats.

the comment was not approved

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720429)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:35 PM
Author: ,.,...,..,.,.,;:,.:,.,.,::,..,..,:,.,.:.:.,:.::,.




(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720686)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:57 PM
Author: DrakeMallard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720782)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:01 PM
Author: War Machine

The thread title isn't fair. There are tons of reporters there who know the company line on the protests is bullshit.

This reporter is among the most respected in the newsroom. She's probably the only one who a: got permission to write this and b: is secure enough in her job to be willing to write it.But there's plenty there who silently agree with her.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720470)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:02 PM
Author: IronMonkey

WTF isn't fair about it? How are we to judge the NYT except by what's printed in the NYT?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720476)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:09 PM
Author: Bistro point



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720512)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:14 PM
Author: DrakeMallard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720537)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:51 PM
Author: Ted Chaough (El Lurcho)



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720761)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:39 PM
Author: .....:::::>>>>::>>.....



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721617)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:45 PM
Author: A Jurisprudence is Performed



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721642)



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Date: August 7th, 2020 2:05 PM
Author: Thoth the Atlantean

they knew it was bullshit but kept quiet? thats even worse

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720486)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:05 PM
Author: DrakeMallard

Lmaoooo

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720488)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:09 PM
Author: War Machine

I know you're gonna think it's bullshit, but there's a real fear you can be fired from these places if you dissent from the accepted truth. Are *you* willing to risk your job to speak out?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720511)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:11 PM
Author: DrakeMallard

If my employer was legitimately evil and hellbent on fomenting race wars, death, and the destruction of this nation, yes I think I'd speak up and get a job elsewhere

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720518)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:13 PM
Author: Thoth the Atlantean

bro you cant expect journalists tell the truth. thats not their job

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720531)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:14 PM
Author: DrakeMallard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720533)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:17 PM
Author: ,.,...,..,.,.,;:,.:,.,.,::,..,..,:,.,.:.:.,:.::,.




(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720562)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:30 PM
Author: Sniggle

Relevant, as always.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/opinion/objectivity-black-journalists-coronavirus.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720653)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:34 PM
Author: Inner Hajnal Forest Dweller



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720684)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:32 PM
Author: uspo (future kanye voter)



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720670)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:52 PM
Author: Ted Chaough (El Lurcho)



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720764)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:39 PM
Author: .....:::::>>>>::>>.....



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721614)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:12 PM
Author: Thoth the Atlantean

what is the point of journalists if they won't speak truth to power? theyre just puppets of the oligarchs then

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720526)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:12 PM
Author: IronMonkey

I don't think that's a controversial statement on XO. But why does that make the thread title unfair? The "NYT" has effectively done an about face on this issue, even if there were individuals within the NYT who knew it was bullshit all along.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720527)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:14 PM
Author: War Machine

"The "NYT" has effectively done an about face on this issue"

No they haven't. It's best to think of what's going on as a civil war.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720536)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 3:02 PM
Author: IronMonkey

Look, I don't regularly read the NYT, so if they weren't previously publishing fawning coverage of CHAZ/CHOP then my bad (although that's what their readers seem to say about their prior coverage).

But if you're argument is that some NYT employees would have published more critical coverage, how does that matter if it wasn't actually published in the NYT? It's like saying the U.S. didn't do a reversal on segregation just because some people always thought "separate but equal" was bullshit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720793)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:14 PM
Author: Inner Hajnal Forest Dweller

holy shit dude how are you a real person lol

the whole concept behind the profession of "journalist" is someone who professionally speaks truth to power to inform the general public for the greater good of society. risking potential backlash for this is inherently part of their profession

this is like saying that saving someone from a burning building is too dangerous, and so it doesn't make sense for a firefighter to risk his life doing it, or that it doesn't make sense for a soldier to risk his life in combat. that's the whole point of their fucking jobs

my god you "journalists" literally live in a completely alternate clown reality where up is down and left is right and 2+2=5

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720534)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:14 PM
Author: DrakeMallard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720541)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 5:51 PM
Author: City Pop

Speaking of 2+2=5... this shit has been all over Twitter for a week:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thepostmillennial.com/two-plus-two-does-not-equal-five-no-matter-what-twitter-says

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721469)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 5:53 PM
Author: City Pop

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/i2tfsu/whats_up_with_people_debating_22_5_on_twitter/

https://twitter.com/kareem_carr/status/1289724475609501697?s=19

Basically, if 2+2 = 4, you’re transphobic, no matter how many thousands of dollars you’ve spent on tranny porn and trap hookers

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721476)



  ReplyFavorite


Date: August 7th, 2020 7:43 PM
Author: Pumonymous

War Machine done here

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721808)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:11 PM
Author: Live Free or Die.

Yes. Its called integrity. I've been fired (and have fired) many clients who won't or can't face truth. I expect JOURNALISTS have some.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721529)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:25 PM
Author: dha tux ( )



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720615)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:08 PM
Author: ;..;.;;;.;;.;.;.;;;.;;;.;.;;;....;.


Lmao at your profession

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720504)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:09 PM
Author: Inner Hajnal Forest Dweller

incredible poast lmao

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720506)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:09 PM
Author: Bistro point

Link to other NYT articles pointing out how devastating CHAZ was to the community?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720509)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:10 PM
Author: War Machine

I pitched a story about the looting in Manhattan/the Bronx while it was happening because I personally knew people who were having their businesses pilfered. I was rejected. Flat out. I wasn't even allowed to mention looting in my stories.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720517)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:12 PM
Author: Bistro point

so the thread title is fair then

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720522)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:12 PM
Author: DrakeMallard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720524)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:15 PM
Author: War Machine

You're ascribing the intent of the paper as a whole to the writer who wrote this story. That's what I was disagreeing with more than anything.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720547)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:17 PM
Author: DrakeMallard

The OP did no such thing

Nobody here except you even knows or cares who the writer is.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720560)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:17 PM
Author: Bistro point



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720564)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:18 PM
Author: Bistro point

the writer is irrelevant. the nyt hasn't provided any critical coverage of CHAZ or CHAZ-like developments nationwide, even when it was obvious how destructive they were. that's the point of the thread.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720571)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:46 PM
Author: A Jurisprudence is Performed

I have no idea why WM thinks his anecdote makes the times look *better*

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721646)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:18 PM
Author: .,.,.,.,.,...,.,,.,,.....,.,..,.,,...,.,.,,...,.


and you went along with it like a good cuck

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720567)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:19 PM
Author: War Machine

Everyone on this forum is a "cuck" by this metric.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720574)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:45 PM
Author: .....,.,......,,.,.......,.,.....,...


I have some vague sense, based on this and some other recent articles/twitter-shit, that the tide is maybe turning at least a little bit? Are the forces of sanity regaining at least a little ground in the newsroom or are the radicals still totally on the march w/ little resistance?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720731)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 5:53 PM
Author: War Machine

The Bari Weiss thing and the harper's letter was a breaking point for a lot of people. Before there was a vague sense that this was part of some good cause, but now more and more it's being exposed as an excuse to be dicks to people you don't like.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721475)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:08 PM
Author: """"""""

So? Your side is still (understandably) too scared to say or do anything about it

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721521)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 3:07 PM
Author: IronMonkey

nah bro. #sololife

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720810)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:47 PM
Author: A Jurisprudence is Performed

this is probably the best part of going solo

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721648)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:39 PM
Author: .....,.,......,,.,.......,.,.....,...


you need to collect incidents like this and then, at an opportune time, drop some big piece about it in another outlet

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720703)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:42 PM
Author: DrakeMallard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720715)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 3:09 PM
Author: Voodoo Child

LMAO

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720815)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:11 PM
Author: ..;.;:.;.;..:..;,;,;.

He blamed the destruction and looting on “opportunists,” but also said that much of the damage on Capitol Hill came from a distinct contingent of violent, armed white activists. “It’s antifa,” he said. “They don’t want to see the progress we’ve made. They want chaos.”

Many of the business owners on Capitol Hill agreed: Much of the violence they saw and the intimidation of their patrons came from a group these business owners identified as antifa, which they distinguished from the Black Lives Matter movement. “The idea of taking up the Black movement and turning it into a white occupation, it’s white privilege in its finest definition,” Mr. Khan said. “And that’s what they did.”

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2020/08/06/police-seek-man-charged-in-fatal-june-20th-shooting-near-chop/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720519)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:43 PM
Author: .,.,'..,'..,.,.,...

the top reader comment:

"worldaccord

oxford

7h ago

This is pretty amazing because I certainly don't recall the NYT reporting on the chaos while it was occurring. The NYT reports made it sound like Seattle was having a block party when in fact the opposite was true. I saw some reports of the chaos on Facebook, but figured it was just right wing propaganda. I guess I'll have to get serious about getting the truth from many news sources going forward. It's naive to think that news reporting is not influenced by political agendas of those reporting it. I'm liberal, but I still like to know the truth even if it flies in the face of my beliefs and forces me to rethink them rationally."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720716)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:45 PM
Author: DrakeMallard

Did the NYT editor take today off or something? First allowing this story then allowing comments

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720725)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:48 PM
Author: .,.,'..,'..,.,.,...

If you can believe it, here is the No. 1 NYT pick:

anonymouse

seattle

52m ago

Times Pick

I live in Seattle. This is a story that needs to be told. Small business is the lifeblood of any community. Put in a restaurant, and culture follows. Here in Seattle, the voice of small business has been drowned out by the socialists on the city council who want to defund the police and do things like escort protestors to the mayor's home to protest there. The mayor is competent, but has a difficult job working with her incompetent city council. And who's to blame? The nice liberal largely white voters who love the idea of socialism because it's well, politically correct in Seattle. They vote in council members who don't represent many of us, including the business community -- large and small -- who have been largely responsible for our economic and cultural growth. WE, the voters, are responsible for this.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720745)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:49 PM
Author: L'uomo pumo

take out "seattle" and this comment is relevant to probably 100 medium to large cities in this country

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720752)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 2:55 PM
Author: I understand and wish to continue

Abolish the Police? Those Who Survived the Chaos in Seattle Aren’t So Sure

What is it like when a city abandons a neighborhood and the police vanish? Business owners describe a harrowing experience of calling for help and being left all alone.

Faizel Khan, who owns a coffee shop, is part of a lawsuit that says Seattle let occupying protesters damage property and stifle revenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Faizel Khan, who owns a coffee shop, is part of a lawsuit that says Seattle let occupying protesters damage property and stifle revenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

By Nellie Bowles

Aug. 7, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET

SEATTLE — Faizel Khan was being told by the news media and his own mayor that the protests in his hometown were peaceful, with “a block party atmosphere.”

But that was not what he saw through the windows of his Seattle coffee shop. He saw encampments overtaking the sidewalks. He saw roving bands of masked protesters smashing windows and looting.

Young white men wielding guns would harangue customers as well as Mr. Khan, a gay man of Middle Eastern descent who moved here from Texas so he could more comfortably be out. To get into his coffee shop, he sometimes had to seek the permission of self-appointed armed guards to cross a border they had erected.

“They barricaded us all in here,” Mr. Khan said. “And they were sitting in lawn chairs with guns.”

For 23 days in June, about six blocks in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood were claimed by left-wing demonstrators and declared police-free. Protesters hailed it as liberation — from police oppression, from white supremacy — and a catalyst for a national movement.

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In the wake of the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, the Black Lives Matter movement is calling to defund the police, arguing that the criminal justice system is inherently racist.

Leaders in many progressive cities are listening. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a plan to shift $1 billion out of the police budget. The Minneapolis City Council is pitching a major reduction, and the Seattle City Council is pushing for a 50 percent cut to Police Department funding. (The mayor said that plan goes too far.)

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Some even call for “abolishing the police” altogether and closing down precincts, which is what happened in Seattle.

That has left small-business owners as lonely voices in progressive areas, arguing that police officers are necessary and that cities cannot function without a robust public safety presence. In Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland, Ore., many of those business owners consider themselves progressive, and in interviews they express support for the Black Lives Matter movement. But they also worry that their businesses, already debilitated by the coronavirus pandemic, will struggle to survive if police departments and city governments cannot protect them.

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On Capitol Hill, business crashed as the Seattle police refused to respond to calls to the area. Officers did not retake the region until July 1, after four shootings, including two fatal ones.

Now a group of local businesses owners — including a locksmith, the owner of a tattoo parlor, a mechanic, the owners of a Mexican restaurant and Mr. Khan — is suing the city. The lawsuit claims that “Seattle’s unprecedented decision to abandon and close off an entire city neighborhood, leaving it unchecked by the police, unserved by fire and emergency health services, and inaccessible to the public” resulted in enormous property damage and lost revenue.

ImageRancho Bravo, a popular late-night Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill, is one of the businesses in the lawsuit, which says Seattle provided material support for the occupation.

Rancho Bravo, a popular late-night Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill, is one of the businesses in the lawsuit, which says Seattle provided material support for the occupation.Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

The Seattle lawsuit — and interviews with shop owners in cities like Portland and Minneapolis — underscores a key question: Can businesses still rely on local governments, which are now rethinking the role of the police, to keep them safe? The issue is especially tense in Seattle, where the city government not only permitted the establishment of a police-free zone, but provided infrastructure like concrete barriers and portable toilets to sustain it.

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The economic losses that businesses suffered during the recent tumult are significant: One community relief fund in Minneapolis, where early protests included vandalism and arson, has raised $9 million for businesses along the Lake Street corridor, a largely Latino and East African business district. “We asked the small businesses what they needed to cover the damage that insurance wasn’t paying, and the gap was around $200 million,” said Allison Sharkey, the executive director of the Lake Street Council, which is organizing the fund. Her own office, between a crafts market and a Native American support center, was burned down in the protests.

Some small businesses have resorted to posting GoFundMe pleas for donations online.

Many are nervous about speaking out lest they lend ammunition to a conservative critique of the Black Lives Matter movement. In Portland, Elizabeth Snow McDougall, the owner of Stevens-Ness legal printers, emphasized her support for the cause before describing the damage done to her business.

“One window broken, then another, then another, then another. Garbage to clean off the sidewalk in front of the store every morning. Urine to wash out of our doorway alcove. Graffiti to remove,” Ms. McDougall wrote in an email. “Costs to board up and later we’ll have costs to repair.”

The impact of the occupation on Cafe Argento, Mr. Khan’s coffee shop on Capitol Hill, has been devastating. Very few people braved the barricades set up by the armed occupiers to come in for his coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Cars coming to pick up food orders would turn around. At two points, he and his workers felt scared and called 911. “They said they would not come into CHOP,” said Mr. Khan, referring to one of the names that protesters gave to the occupied Capitol Hill area. “It was lawless.”

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He had to start chipping in for private security, a hard thing to do when his business had already been hurt by the coronavirus.

But he considers himself lucky — and he was. Even weeks after the protests, blocks of his previously bustling neighborhood remained boarded up and covered in shattered glass. Many business owners are scared to speak out, Mr. Khan said, because of worries that they would be targeted further.

One mid-July morning in the neighborhood, workers in orange vests were mopping off the sidewalks and power-spraying graffiti off the sides of buildings. Two window repair guys said they had their hands full for weeks. Shattered street lamps were being unscrewed and replaced.

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A confusing array of security teams wandered around, armed with handguns and rifles. Some wore official-looking private security uniforms. Others wore casual clothes and lanyards identifying their affiliation with Black Lives Matter. A third group wore all black with no identifying labels and declined to name their group affiliation.

Image

Rick Hearns displays two handguns while patrolling Capitol Hill as a private security guard. His badge reads “Black Lives Matter Community Patrol.”Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

When a tall man in a trench coat and hiking boots walked over to question Mr. Khan, the man spread his coat open, revealing several pistols on harnesses around his chest and waist. He presented a badge on a lanyard that read “Black Lives Matter Community Patrol.”

His name is Rick Hearns and he identified himself as a longtime security guard and mover who is now a Black Lives Matter community guard, in charge of several others. Local merchants pay for his protection, he said as he handed out his business card. (Mr. Khan said he and his neighbors are now paying thousands of dollars a month for protection from Iconic Global, a Washington State-based private security contractor.)

Mr. Hearns has had bad experiences with the police in his own life. He says he wants police reform, but he was appalled by the violent tactics and rhetoric he witnessed during the occupation.

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He blamed the destruction and looting on “opportunists,” but also said that much of the damage on Capitol Hill came from a distinct contingent of violent, armed white activists. “It’s antifa,” he said. “They don’t want to see the progress we’ve made. They want chaos.”

Many of the business owners on Capitol Hill agreed: Much of the violence they saw and the intimidation of their patrons came from a group these business owners identified as antifa, which they distinguished from the Black Lives Matter movement. “The idea of taking up the Black movement and turning it into a white occupation, it’s white privilege in its finest definition,” Mr. Khan said. “And that’s what they did.”

Antifa, which stands for anti-fascist, is a radical, leaderless leftist political movement that uses armed, violent protest as a method to create what supporters say is a more just and equitable country. They have a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest, including the current protests in Portland.

Image

Police officers did not retake the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, where demonstrators graffitied walls and broke windows, until after four shootings had occurred there. Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

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When the occupation in Seattle started in early June, Mayor Jenny Durkan seemed almost amused. “We could have the Summer of Love,” she said.

After President Trump took aim at the governor of Washington State and Seattle’s mayor on June 11, Ms. Durkan defended the occupation on Twitter as “a peaceful expression of our community’s collective grief and their desire to build a better world,” she wrote, pointing to the “food trucks, spaghetti potlucks, teach-ins, and movies.”

The lawsuit by the small-business owners, filed by the firm Calfo Eakes on June 24, seizes on such language, pointing out that the city knew what was happening and provided material support for the occupation.

Matthew Ploszaj, a Capitol Hill resident, is one of the complainants. He said his apartment building, blocks from Mr. Khan’s shop, was broken into four times during the occupation. The Seattle Police were called each time and never came to his apartment, according to Mr. Ploszaj. When he and another resident called the police after one burglary, they told him to meet them outside the occupation zone, about eight blocks away. He and other residents spent nights at a friend’s house outside the area during the height of the protests.

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The employees of Bergman’s Lock and Key say they were followed by demonstrators with baseball bats. Cure Cocktail, a local bar and charcuterie, said its workers were asked by protesters to pledge loyalty to the movement: “Are you for the CHOP or are you for the police?” they were asked, according to the lawsuit.

The business owners also found that trying to get help from the Seattle Police, who declined to comment for this article, made them targets of activists.

Across from Cafe Argento is a funky old auto repair shop called Car Tender run by John McDermott, a big soft-spoken man. On June 14, Mr. McDermott was driving his wife home from their anniversary dinner when he received a call from a neighbor who saw someone trying to break into his shop.

Mr. McDermott and his 27-year-old son, Mason, raced over. A man who was inside the shop, Mr. McDermott said, had emptied the cash drawer and was in the midst of setting the building on fire. Mr. McDermott said he and his son wrestled the man down and planned to hold him until the police arrived. But officers never showed up. A group of several hundred protesters did, according to Mr. McDermott, breaking down the chain-link fence around his shop and claiming that Mr. McDermott had kidnapped the man.

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“They started coming across the fence — you see all these beautiful kids, a mob but kids — and they have guns and are pointing them at you and telling you they’re going to kill you,” Mr. McDermott said. “Telling me I’m the K.K.K. I’m not the K.K.K.”

The demonstrators were livestreaming the confrontation. Mr. McDermott’s wife watched, frantically calling anyone she could think of to go help him.

Later, Mr. McDermott’s photo and shop address appeared on a website called Cop Blaster, whose stated aim is to track police brutality but also has galleries of what it calls “Snitches” and “Cop Callers.” The McDermotts were categorized as both of those things on the website, which warned they should “keep their mouths shut.”

Image

John McDermott said the police did not respond when his auto repair shop on Capitol Hill was being robbed by someone trying to set the building on fire.Credit...Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

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Many of the listings include names and addresses of people who are said to have called the police. Since the Cop Blaster post went up, Mr. McDermott’s shop has received so many harassing phone calls and messages that some employees have had to take time off.

A block away is Bill Donner, the owner of Richmark Label, who let police officers use the roof of his factory to monitor the demonstration. Inside, his company had spent 50 years making labels for products like whiskey, soaps and natural beef jerky. Many days during the occupation, Mr. Donner, who said he was in favor of police reform, had to negotiate with the occupiers of the zone for access to his factory.

Twice, he called 911 and was told that the police would not be coming into the area.

The experience of the small-business owners seems a universe away from the rhetoric of Seattle’s politicians. As the violence turned deadly, Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, who represents Capitol Hill, defended the protesters’ use of their own armed guards instead of the police.

“Elected committees of self defense have historically played vital roles during general strikes, occupations and in mass movements, in order for the working class and marginalized people to defend themselves and carry out necessary functions in place of the forces of the state,” she wrote. She has called for the local police precinct to be permanently placed under “community control.”

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When the mayor did send in police officers to end the occupation after the shootings, Ms. Sawant wrote on Twitter, “Shame on Mayor Jenny Durkan for deploying Seattle police yesterday in a brutal attack against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters & homeless neighbors at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest.”

Many protesters who remained in early July were milling around a small tent encampment on a lawn at Seattle Central College, some with rifles slung over their shoulders. The smell of weed drifted through. The streets were full of moving trucks.

The crowds were gone, but every now and then, the demonstrators gave speeches about the importance of disbanding the police. Sometimes the activists spoke about what went wrong with the occupation. One young woman on a bullhorn argued to passers-by that the police left too quickly and that a sustainable police-free region would have to be built more slowly.

These days, storefronts in the neighborhood remain boarded up, covered in Black Lives Matter signs and graffiti. Demonstrators still hold evening protests, albeit smaller and quieter than before. But the businesses remain on edge.

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“This is an ongoing crisis,” Mr. Donner said on Tuesday. “Protesters are apparently staying until they get some of what they want. No one knows what level of city cooperation will be enough for them.”

But the area is slowly going back to its old normal. The park and playing fields have been cleared, and police officers have returned to the streets. An apartment building that opened earlier this summer is finally attracting prospective tenants.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Durkan did not comment on the lawsuit but acknowledged frustrations from small businesses.

“Many who live and work in Capitol Hill and other parts of the city continue to witness daily protests that are rightly demanding an end to systemic racism,” she wrote. “In some circumstances, businesses and residents have faced property destruction in the last two months.”

She encouraged the businesses to file claims.

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(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720772)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 3:06 PM
Author: '""''''"''"'

When a tall man in a trench coat and hiking boots walked over to question Mr. Khan, the man spread his coat open, revealing several pistols on harnesses around his chest and waist. He presented a badge on a lanyard that read “Black Lives Matter Community Patrol.”

His name is Rick Hearns and he identified himself as a longtime security guard and mover who is now a Black Lives Matter community guard, in charge of several others. Local merchants pay for his protection, he said as he handed out his business card.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40720808)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:12 PM
Author: ,.,..,.,..,.,.,.,..,.,.,,..,..,.,,..,.,,.


where the fuck is trump's department of justice in all of this? armed racketeers literally took over a portion of an american city and SHOT people for approaching their own illegal blockades. where the fuck are the RICO roundups and the federal conspiracy charges? this is easy stuff.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721532)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:21 PM
Author: DrakeMallard

They only do coups now

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721550)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:47 PM
Author: .....:::::>>>>::>>.....



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721649)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:22 PM
Author: """"""""

Antifa types are literally embedded in the DOI

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721552)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:43 PM
Author: peeface



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721635)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:45 PM
Author: .....:::::>>>>::>>.....

"The issue is especially tense in Seattle, where the city government not only permitted the establishment of a police-free zone, but provided infrastructure like concrete barriers and portable toilets to sustain it."

The issue is especially tense in Seattle, where the city government not only permitted the establishment of a police-free zone, but provided infrastructure like concrete barriers and portable toilets to sustain it.

The issue is especially tense in Seattle, where the city government not only permitted the establishment of a police-free zone, but provided infrastructure like concrete barriers and portable toilets to sustain it.

The issue is especially tense in Seattle, where the city government not only permitted the establishment of a police-free zone, but provided infrastructure like concrete barriers and portable toilets to sustain it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721644)



  ReplyFavorite

Date: August 7th, 2020 6:49 PM
Author: DrakeMallard

Summer of Love, bro

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4599391&forum_id=2#40721661)

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