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Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

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Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#91

Post by bathtub365 »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #55
blaser-waffle wrote: post #8

I believe Denmark had something like this for a while. It started with squatters taking over an area kind of like this. Turned into a serious drug venue and eventually fell apart. Sounds like it sort of restarted, albeit with regular Danish law enforcement and other city resources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

> Turned into a serious drug venue and eventually fell apart. Sounds like it sort of restarted, albeit with regular Danish law enforcement and other city resources. As someone living in Copenhagen, I would not consider that anything near an accurate description of the history of Christiania. What happened was that an old military area and barracks was left abandoned and disused, so a group of squatters moved in, fixe…

I was in Christiania late last year and there were at least a dozen tables with sellers selling drugs. It didn’t seem like the community was shunning them or running them out

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#94

Post by solidasparagus »

conroy wrote: post #84

A friend lives in Seattle and texted me today about his visit last night: > I was there last night and it's such a cool pseudo utopian place > The media coverage of it is WILD > People on the internet are convinced it's protected by armed guards and people are dying of hunger and instead its...like a music festival campground > There are speakers, musicians, art walls. I took a group pic for a bunch of black guys las…

> a music festival campground

Which is fun for a while until people start dying or fighting like they always do and suddenly you need a group of people who spend their time dealing with it. Anarchic utopias do not stay utopic for all that long.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#95

Post by gen220 »

Taikonerd wrote: post #57
kf wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While that’s a fair point, this situation is a more literal insurrection than the previously seen protests and taking of goods from stores. CHAZ has declared their independence from the USA and historically that kind of thing is really not allowed. Has Trump so thoroughly lost control that secession is legal now?

I think the Seattle Police are thinking, "these are a bunch of kids who want to play-act La Revolución. If we just ignore them for a week, they'll get bored or disillusioned and go home." So the police aren't going to storm the barricades -- they figure they won't have to.

This basically happens in Berlin every year on the May Day celebrations/marches.

The police let the anarchists do whatever they want, within certain constraints (no injuring people, constrained to certain neighborhoods), and the anarchists only do it on that day of the year. Sometimes there are conflicts between the police and the rioters, but it never escalates to huge conflicts any more.

It’s a display of mutual respect for authority, and it allows the radical groups to blow off some steam, while campaigning for progress.

I know this idea makes no sense to law and order -type people, but it’s an ancient human idea to ritualize and sanctify the behaviors you want to discourage or control.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day_in_Kreuzberg

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#96

Post by undoware »

jerf wrote: post #21
Pfhreak wrote: post #16

Seattle police vacated the east precinct, fully expecting protesters to burn it down. Instead, the protesters set up an open zone, compiled a set of demands, and from all accounts set up something cool and unique. Here's hoping it sustains itself for a while.

No, not even remotely "by all accounts". There are plenty of accounts that isn't "cool and unique" but is just another place ruled by violent thugs: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/h077uv/raz_simone_... I'm not passing judgment yet since the days are young and the political bias on the ground is thick in both directions. But it is definitely not "by all accounts". But my personal bias on the table is that y…

Hey dang, or whoever else is modding,

Consider, in the above post, that 'thug' is a well-known racist epithet. Not 'racially loaded'. Straight-up racist. We see you too.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#97

Post by kixiQu »

haram_masala wrote: post #92

I don't live there, but there's something about all this that make it seem like a wildly overblown media event - that the actual thing itself is much more pedestrian and much less sensational than reports would have us believe.

I live there. This is correct in that the CHAZ itself has its biggest impacts through

a. having free snacks and b. not allowing through traffic, but

it really hasn't been stated enough how awful it had been when the police were there. Helicopters all night and if you were unlucky to be close enough: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/04/43840246/seattle...

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#98

Post by AnimalMuppet »

kf wrote: post #71
dilap wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting theory; from what I've seen though, it's fueled more by Adderral scrips.

There’s lots of that too. My theory implies that a bunch of people that say they’re taking adderall are actually doing a little meth before they get on the Google bus because it’s cheaper and easier to get.

More years ago than I care to admit, I suspected that Intel's Multibus II design showed evidence of the use of "nose candy" in SV...

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#99

Post by 0xddd »

solidasparagus wrote: post #94
conroy wrote: post #84

A friend lives in Seattle and texted me today about his visit last night: > I was there last night and it's such a cool pseudo utopian place > The media coverage of it is WILD > People on the internet are convinced it's protected by armed guards and people are dying of hunger and instead its...like a music festival campground > There are speakers, musicians, art walls. I took a group pic for a bunch of black guys las…

> a music festival campground Which is fun for a while until people start dying or fighting like they always do and suddenly you need a group of people who spend their time dealing with it. Anarchic utopias do not stay utopic for all that long.

What examples do you have in mind when you say this? The main case studies that I see get brought up are Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War and the Paris Commune, but the wartime pressures that led to their collapse strike me as much different from the present situation. I think the CHAZ will be an interesting experiment given the context.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#100

Post by clairity »

conroy wrote: post #84

A friend lives in Seattle and texted me today about his visit last night: > I was there last night and it's such a cool pseudo utopian place > The media coverage of it is WILD > People on the internet are convinced it's protected by armed guards and people are dying of hunger and instead its...like a music festival campground > There are speakers, musicians, art walls. I took a group pic for a bunch of black guys las…

the annotated maps are funny, portraying a vibe of relatively relaxed occupation. but serious too, monitoring police activity nearby, like swat.
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