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Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

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Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#251

Post by jessaustin »

hedora wrote: post #228
throwaway894345 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does “neoliberal” mean in this context?

I think of neoliberalism and neoconservativism as offshoots of corporatism, which is the idea that government can most efficiently serve the people by protecting the interests of corporations above all else. This leads to the idea that regulatory capture is economically efficient (“Who is better qualified to regulate industry than successful industrialists?”) It also leads to things like banning class action law suit…

Please don't quote that reptile. Of all the reasons to resign from the currently-reigning administration, he chose the fact that Trump had decided to stop killing Syrian children. Not a good look. If the war media is refocusing its attention on him, we can expect he'll be pimping more atrocities real soon. After all the public must be distracted from its current concerns, otherwise we might spend some money on something besides armaments and prisons.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/politics/james-mattis-resigna...

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#252

Post by scarlac »

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

This is not true. I am Danish and my apartment is in Copenhagen. It's in fact so successful it has turned into a tourist attraction. Lukas Graham[1] is a Danish musician who grew up there. I don't see how this community can be called a failure.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukas_Graham

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#253

Post by gabesk »

pera wrote: post #118
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 media coverage of it is WILD I live 7 blocks away from "the zone" and can confirm, I have never in my life seen anything alike in this regard. The scale of the misinformation being spread in social networks and news media reached a level I couldn't believe possible before. Seriously, it's beyond absurd. If anyone is interested, I have been taking some pictures of the ongoing protests (including a few of the zon…

I'm also about that far away and walked through there last night. It felt more like a summer street fair festival. I also took a few pictures. https://photos.app.goo.gl/UN8RpwWS5TYAY5Nn7

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#254

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

jessaustin wrote: post #238
VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #229

I lived in Seattle Capitol Hill (Harvard Ave by SCCC) area for 10 years and left the state in 2010. I went back a few years ago for a visit and it looked like the homeless population had doubled in the time since. All of King and Pierce counties are completely overrun by homelessness and drug addiction. I remember it was a big deal when they would go sweep out "The Jungle" tent city under I-5 at Beacon Hill. Now they…

Recent events cast doubt on your judgment of the government there. Unlike e.g. New York they have dealt somewhat effectively with the pandemic. Seattle was hit first yet seems to have brought the situation under control with fewer deaths than other American cities. At the very least, they didn't force covid-positive patients into old folks' homes.

There's a pretty big difference between Seattle and NYC in terms of size and population density. Like many orders of magnitude difference. But you're right that NYC didn't handle the outbreak very well.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#255

Post by rtkwe »

logicprog wrote: post #159
solarkraft wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So it took about 3 days for this anarchist utopia to demonstrate exactly why police exist. Yes, but not current american police. What is demonstrated here is that unchecked power is bad, which is pretty close to what the american police currently seems to have, leading to crimes like the one that started the whole protest.

Well said. It's about checked power - abolishing police totally would just end up with them recreated again when the need arises, but without the proper infrastructure to control them. What we really need is a system of accountability and control over police. Police should be as accountable for their actions and mistakes as every other citizen (equality under the law!), or at least that's the idea. We can start by: -…

> without the proper infrastructure to control them.

Many, myself included, would argue that they're basically out of control right now. Just look at the sequence of events that unfolds almost to the letter after every unjustified police killing. At best the outcome is the cop involved resigns and quietly goes to work for another police department a few months down the line or retires with full benefits.

Defund of course means a million things to a million people but a lot of what I'm hearing is about moving the armed police response to the minority of roles where it's needed. The amount of time you need an armed officer is a tiny fraction of the times they're there and they're not trained for the vast majority of the actual work they do. Under this defund is about taking the glut of resources allocated to cops and moving it to people better trained to deal with the kind of mental health, mediation, etc tasks that take up the bulk of police's actual time.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#256

Post by hedora »

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

We visited Christiania a few years ago. It was lovely. The entire time, we felt just as safe as anywhere else in Copenhagen, and we didn’t see any evidence of drug use (certainly less than you’d see “on the wrong side of the tracks” in any other big city).

If you have a chance to visit Christiania, I recommend it. Copenhagen is one of my favorite towns. They have wonderful parks, museums, and even a really cool amusement park.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#257

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

dag11 wrote: post #199
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 media coverage of it is WILD Yep. I live three blocks south of CHAZ and it's so overblown. Conservative family from the east-coast have told me they're very worried for me, and I check fox news and see images from "Seattle" of parking lots of cars on fire. Those images were from Minneapolis last month, not even from Seattle. As another nearby commenter said, last week when the police were here gassing us, throw…

On the right, I am seeing:

- It's called Antifastan

- Warlord Raz is prone to violent outbursts, and is an AirBnb Superhost.

- There are open carries with automatic rifles. They get the most respect.

- Laughing out loud at an attempt to create a vegetable garden. Didn't appear promising.

- Laughing harder at a cry for 'please send vegan meats and soy products, the homeless took all the food!'

My thinking is, the truth is much more clearly painted in this forum than on either side of the mainstream media. I do consider them the enemy of the people for dividing us, pitting us against each other, and creating an oppression of fear. So they can sell more clicks.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#258

Post by rtkwe »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #154

I never understand why likeminded people don’t just start a city? “Wild country” was an example of this, but they were bound together by a quasi religion. There’s so much unincorporated land in the USA. So many opportunities to prove things work or don’t work. Why move into a place somebody else built?

Unincorporated but not unowned and there's a huge amount of infrastructure and money required to setup even a small town ex nihilo in some randomly selected part of the country.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#259

Post by throwaway894345 »

jessaustin wrote: post #233
throwaway894345 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without police or “criminal justice apparatus” your rights are merely theoretical.

If you feel this insecure, you should purchase firearms and practice using them. Many of your neighbors are doing this.

Or we could keep the police and purchase firearms.

Re: Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

#260

Post by acidburnNSA »

artemisyna wrote: post #194
libria wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That comparison kinda worries me. Occupy had some hygiene issues and did not have a coronavirus to worry about.

The city has put in Port-a-potties and there are maps of nearby businesses friendly and with restrooms. Iirc, there is also some sort of plan for trash collection. The coronavirus bit still isn’t good, but the city has learned for the hygiene bits.

I was just down there and saw a volunteer with a trash stick cleaning the streets. Seems like a good culture.
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