Over the weekend, those of us paying attention to Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupy Protest (CHOP) saw something we knew we’d see sooner or later. In an era with absolutely no police presence allowed, we’d see some pretty serious crimes. Oh, there’s plenty of hippy-dippy feel-good stuff in the CHOP to make fun of, to be sure, but police don’t just arrest criminals. They deter crime.

When you don’t have any around, you just encourage the monsters, and that’s what happened in the CHOP.

On Saturday, it was reported that two individuals were shot in the autonomous area of Seattle, one fatally.

One man was reported dead and another person was shot and wounded in an overnight shooting at the Capitol Hill protest zone.

Police have confirmed the shooting but have not released further details. It was not clear if any suspects were in custody.

UPDATE 10:10 AM: Seattle Police have confirmed CHS’s early reports on the shooting and say that a 19-year-old is dead and that there have been no arrests:

On June 20th, at approximately 2:30 AM, East Precinct officers responded to a report of shots fired in Cal Anderson Park. This is inside the area referred to as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP). Officers attempted to locate a shooting victim but were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims. Officers were later informed that the victims, both males, had been transported to Harborview Medical Center by CHOP medics. Officers responded to Harborview and were informed that one of the victims, a 19-year-old male, had died from injuries. The other victim, also a male, unknown age, remains in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The suspect or suspect(s) fled and are still at large. There is no description at this time. Homicide detectives responded and are conducting a thorough investigation, despite the challenges presented by the circumstances.

Police are asking for the public’s assistance in gathering evidence. Anyone with information about the shooting or who may have video from the incident is asked to contact the Seattle Police Department’s Violent Crime tip line at (206) 233-5000.

District 3 Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant went on the attack, releasing a statement that there was evidence that this was a right-wing attack. However, that evidence appears to be a couple of people making claims with zero evidence to back them up at this time, and that’s a big problem.

You see, these aren’t unbiased bystanders. These are people who have made it clear they’d seize any opportunity to advance their agenda, which means it wouldn’t be surprising if they just made up anything the could to try and paint the entire CHOP as the victims.

“Eyewitnesses reported multiple white men with long guns in a pickup truck as doing the shooting,” wrote Geov Parrish of KODX Seattle on Facebook. “White men shooting, and the deceased was an African American male. Reportedly. There’s a lot we don’t know yet.”

Though he acknowledged they were just early reports, Parrish went on to point fingers.

White guys with long guns and pickup trucks. The quintessential version of the right in the minds of many of these folks.

All of that has since been walked back because it appears the shooter may have been an African-American male, thus proving those early reports false.

All of that kind of makes you wonder what will happen now that there’s been a second shooting in the same weekend.

Seattle police are investigating a shooting in the area of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone, also known as CHOP. It’s the second shooting in the CHOP area in two days.

A person was taken to Harborview Medical Center with a gunshot wound and is in serious condition, according to hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg.

Seattle police tweeted about the incident.

Police investigating reported shooting inside CHOP zone. One person at HMC with gun shot wound. Hearing reports of a second shooting, but have not be able to verify at this time. Conflicting reports, will update with more information when available.

— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) June 22, 2020

Unfortunately, they haven’t been permitted to investigate the first shooting so far, so it’s unlikely they’ll get much in the way of an opportunity to investigate this one. As such, there have been no arrests in either case.

However, this is precisely what many thought would happen within the CHOP.

You see, for all the “peace and love” BS being spouted by some in reference to the CHOP–Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan suggested this could be the beginning of a second “Summer of Love”–the truth is that it’s a lawless area of a major American city. There’s no way to catch the people responsible for the shootings unless the police can investigate, yet this is a group of people who view the police as nothing more than jackbooted thugs looking for an opportunity to kill them all.

Which, if it were true, would have already resulted in numerous CHOP residents being killed by law enforcement. It hasn’t.

Regardless, though, we can’t help but wonder just how many other crimes are taking place in the CHOP right now. We’ve heard of the odd theft here and there, of course, and we have two shootings, but how many assaults are there? How many more serious acts of violence?

This isn’t the “Summer of Love.” It’s shaping up to be the Summer of Anarchy, and that’s on Durkan and Governor Jay Inslee for letting this continue.