Seattle residents said Sunday that despite rumors that the city was going to reclaim the “occupied” area known as CHOP, little has changed on the ground and “security” in the protest zone has become more ” contentious “with nearby residents.
“They don’t let people in the neighborhood sometimes at night,” Matthew Ploszaj, who lives there, told KOMO News. He told the station that he supports the Black Lives Matter movement, but said it is a “terrible precedent” that “any political message can enter and occupy a neighborhood.”
Mayor Jenny Durkan said last week that the city is working with the community to end the “Capitol Busy Protest” zone and that police will soon move to a compound on the compound they had largely abandoned in the area. .
Durkan also promised to address some of the protesters’ demands, including investing more in black communities, reinventing police action in cooperation with community leaders, and pushing for accountability measures and state reform of police unions.
The KOMO report indicated that any action by the city would be a Herculean task. Some entrances have been fortified with reinforcing bars and about 70 concrete barriers.
Michael Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, told Fox News on Saturday that business owners and residents there are being held hostage.
“There were some entities in the city, in regards to the heads, who entered the area yesterday to try to eliminate some of the border areas, in regards to the blockades, and met with resistance. The armed people came to the area and they avoided those entities in the city, those agencies to do the job, “he told” Cavuto LIVE. ” “So no, this has not been resolved. It is still deeply troubling.”
The Seattle Times reported that hundreds of protesters marched to Durkan’s home on Sunday to bring their demands to their “door.”
The newspaper said protesters rejected their proposal to cut the police budget by $ 20 million. They said the figure was too low. Protesters said they were honoring a black woman, Charleena Lyles, 30, who was killed by police in 2017 in the city. The newspaper said it was a peaceful gathering. Durkan was at the city hall during the protest, the newspaper reported.
Jacob Bozeman, a Washington attorney, recently filed a lawsuit against Durkan and Washington Governor Jay Inslee, both Democrats, over CHOP. Approximately 30 people have approached him to thank him or request to join the lawsuit, he said.
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“I can’t understand how anyone could say that the mayor and the state governor should relinquish their law enforcement authority … just hand that over to an armed group of unelected people.”
Fox News ‘Julia Musto, Fox Business’ Evie Fordham and Associated Press contributed to this report.
