
I like quirky places. So when I heard that a ragtag group of left-wingers, anarchists, and street people had taken over a six-block-by-six block section of downtown Seattle, I was intrigued.
Secession is considered treason by mobs hauling down Confederate statues in other cities, but itās the very basis of CHAZ, Seattleās separate āautonomous zone/ā Signs at the barricades read āProperty of the Peopleā and āLeaving USA.ā But from a video tour of the new country, it doesnāt look promising so far.
Solomon Simone, a 30-year-old dreadlocked artist whose nom de guerre is Raz, is the self-styled leader of the 300 or 400 CHAZians. Critics call him a āwarlord.ā But itās been discovered that he sent out ugly homophobic tweets several years ago, so he could be deposed. Raz claims āsomeone is creating fake tweets from my page somehow.ā
Many sympathizers make excuses for CHAZ. In a New York Times news story it was described as āa homeland for racial justice.ā Liberal blogger Steve Leslie says of CHAZ: āAs far as internal governance goes, there is none of course. . . . Itās probably most similar to Freetown Christiania which is an intentional commune in the borough of Christianshavn in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.ā
Christiania was formed in 1971, when hippie squatters took over a vacant 19-acre military base in Copenhagen and declared independence. While itās seen changes, Christiania still exists and will mark its 50th anniversary next year.
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See Also:
(1) Class, Not Race, Divides America
(2) Obama Left African Americans No Choice
(3) My Name Is Joe OāBiden, And I Am Here To Defund the Police!
(4) The Confederate-Monument Controversy Is a Democrat-vs-Democrat Question
(5) Seattle anarchists and their lunatic fringe list of demands