Seattle ‘Organized Protest’ Zone Is Not Peaceful, but To Disrupt and Destroy Until ‘Demands Are Met’
June 18, 2020 (EIRNS)—That the goal of the newly named “Capitol Hill Organized Protest” zone, or CHOP in Seattle, is nothing short of total destruction, having nothing to do with any protest, was made abundantly clear in statements made by one of its leaders, Jaiden Grayson, to documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz, as reported by Fox News.
Horowitz, who has filmed protests in other cities, showed footage of Grayson, a black woman who describes herself as an “African brought to America,” warning “every day that I show up here, I’m not here to peacefully protest. I’m here to disrupt until my demands are met. You cannot rebuild until you break it all the way down.” Her group will not stop, she vowed, until its demands are met “by any means necessary. It’s not a slogan. It’s not even a warning. I’m letting people know what comes next. If the Seattle Police Department turns in their badges, we’ll have made a move forward.”
Their demands? Abolish the police, prisons, courts and the criminal justice system “as we know it today. The unraveling of that system is also what will fuel the black minds in the black bodies that will create a new world,” she said. Another person filmed by Horowitz warned “if there’s no change, there might be a lot more destroying until there is, but I think some destruction and looting kinda sends the message to people and breaking their shit is justified.”
A man who identified himself as an original member of the Seattle Black Panther Party explained that police are needed and said the movement had “taken a move in the wrong direction.” He continued: “Shutting down the streets and calling it some kind of autonomous zone is a bunch of bullshit,” he was quoted in the footage.
In Portland, Oregon, the local Fox affiliate reported, police moved swiftly early this morning to halt an attempt to set up an “autonomous zone” like Seattle’s. Protesters had taken dumpsters and construction materials to set up barricades around an apartment building where the mayor reportedly lived, claiming they were doing it because the city council meeting the previous evening had failed to meet their demands. The council had voted to cut almost $16 million from the police budget, but they argued, the cut should have been $50 million.