CHOP Protestors Won't Leave Until Demands Are Met

After two shootings last weekend including one fatality, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan finally got off the proverbial pot–and maybe the literal pot, too. It is Seattle, after all–and called an end to the failed experiment called the Capitol Hill Occupy Protest, or CHOP.

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Almost immediately, some of the occupants began packing up to head home, their pathetic attempt at Utopia fizzling before it could do more than encompass more than a few city blocks.

However, not all are ready to leave. Some claim they’re not leaving until their demands are met.

With rumors and speculation swirling that city crews would be coming in to the “Capitol Hill Organized Protest” to remove barricades on Sunday, so far there has been no indication that’s happening – at least for now.

“When you hear times of when they’re coming, that’s not when they’re coming,” said Angelica, one of the “leaders” at CHOP.

As some entrances have been fortified, the rebar loops that are used to move those barricades have been cut on most of them. A boom truck would use the loops to lift the barricades away.

With roughly 70 of the concrete barriers in and around CHOP, a local structural engineering firm says it would take anywhere between 4 and 6 hours to haul them off. With the rebar loops out of the picture, a forklift could be used to put them on a flatbed.

“When it came to new negotiations on moving barricades, we told them we’re not moving anything until we have a written agreement with what you’re doing,” Angelica said of the City and protesters trying to find some kind of solution. “Yeah, they’re not taking them,” she added.

So, in other words, residents of the CHOP aren’t about to back down.

Of course, why should anyone be surprised? Durkan showed how little spine she possessed by allowing this to go on this long, thus encouraging this sort of behavior. Now, it looks like the only way the CHOP is going down is with some kind of assault by law enforcement, the kind of thing that will just reinvigorate the anti-police hysteria that gave rise to the CHOP in the first place.

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Plus, we also know that some in the CHOP are armed. They have guns and a bad attitude toward police. That means any assault is likely to erupt into a gunfight.

Then again, who knows? Raz Simone and the John Brown Gun Club and others may talk a big game, but will they actually make a move when law enforcement comes to call?

Regardless of what happens, all of this has to rest at the feet of Durkan. Not only did she allow it to continue, but she gave it tacit support by putting the barricades in place to begin with. Those same barricades that the CHOP is now saying aren’t going anywhere.

Just think, had Durkan not had the city place them there to begin with, this would likely be playing out very differently. Instead, the probability of still more people losing their lives has increased, all because she wanted to placate people who still want to force her to resign.

Sure makes perfect sense to me.

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