A Look Inside the Capital Hill Occupied Protest/Capital Hill Autonomous Zone

The Capital Hill Occupied Protest, also known as the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone, has received a lot of press in recent weeks. The zone is centered around the East Precinct of Seattle, WA from which police had retreated on June 6th, ceding the area to protesters. 

Whether you call it CHOP or CHAZ, or simple “the Autonomous Zone” the place has been getting a lot of attention and the speculation seems endless. So, what’s really going on? 

We reached to people inside the area to get an accurate perspective and dispel some common myths. Below is an interview with Officer Chaz, who is currently an active member of the CHOP/ CHAZ community and opted for the moniker for their own safety and anonymity. The interview below was not edited by our team:

People gather around the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct inside the “Capitol Hill Organized Protest,” also known as the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” in Seattle, Washington, on June 14.

Noah Riffe/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

How would you want to describe the CHOP to outsiders?

A thriving, co-operative, and socially-driven community that puts people over profits, and need before greed.

What is a typical day like inside CHOP?

Whether we're farming, cooking, camping, or teaching, the people of the CHOP are always keeping busy. A typical visitor might attend one of our daily classes on decolonization, or even learn some authentic djembe music with a culturally-sensitive focal point for white allies.

You may have seen from photos that CHOP has a bustling art community too. Nearly everyone here is chipping in to cover every visible surface with murals of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

We want to show visitors that when we say "BLACK LIVES MATTER" we mean business, and if you're not walking through our streets with a grim reverence for over 400 years of colonized Black bodies, then you're here for the wrong reasons. Tourists need to understand: this is a protest, not a party.

Revolution, not relaxation. We have a long way to go to dismantle the systemic racism permeating every facet of American life, so that remains our primary focus.

However, while activism certainly isn't fun and games, fun and games sure can be activism! To keep the morale, we host free movie nights, dance parties, and even finger painting activities for the kids. The CHOP makes fighting for civil rights both informative and fun for the whole family.

Are local businesses still able to operate?

Yes, definitely! They don't mind the ruckus one bit. They are compassionate enough to understand that any minor gripes they might have about noise, or graffiti, or homeless encampments in their parking lots, will always pale in comparison to the centuries of oppression faced by BIPOC and WOC communities.

Most people are pretty chill about it. We've only had one or two "Karens" (you know the type) who have come at us with complaints, but we simply remind everyone in a place of privilege that their white sensibilities are not more important than black lives.

We definitely get a ton of support from Black business owners above all, who finally have a chance to grow a successful business after the CHOP drew the line in the sand between them and a dog-eat-dog capitalist oligarchy that had been holding them back. There's a small Black-owned food cart that grills up the best vegan chili dogs you've ever had in your life.

Sometimes on my way by, I'll drop a little something in their tip jar without even placing an order. That kind of unconditional gratuity is commonplace in the CHOP, it's just our way of saying thank you for being you.

How are food, water and waste handled?

I don't handle any garbage personally, I'm pretty sure Waste Management still comes by to vacate the septic tank beneath the park's public restroom. I've definitely spotted a few City of Seattle employees in those dorky reflective vests scrubbing the place out from time to time.

The way I see it, the City owes us that much for all the hell they've put us through. For food, we primarily rely on generous donations from the outside world (my favorite thing ever donated was those little Keebler mint cookies, you know the ones).

We will continue taking donations until we can sustainably grow our own crop. I've been putting together some plans for a new green house, and my hope is that by the end of the year our kitchen will be able to provide three nutritious home-grown meals per day to every CHOP resident, and not just the homeless either. It can be rough sometimes, but I think we're pretty solid overall.

We've stacked up enough bottled water at the co-op to last about three more weeks. If anyone runs empty on the go,

I'll let them in on a little open secret: there's a mysterious tube sticking out of the ground near the cycle polo court. No kidding, this thing just splurts water out at random intervals throughout the day. Nobody knows why or how, but hey, we ain't gonna complain about a free refill!

How difficult or easy is it for someone to get in or leave the area?

Not difficult at all! People come and go freely. We don't actually have armed guards at the border like the propagandists at Fox News tried to tell everyone.

The CHOP is 100% open borders, unless you're a fascist. If you try bringing that nazi shit in here, my boy Dikembe might just have to send a strongly worded message to your jawbone faster than Usain Bolt. But for real, there aren't any strict rules about it.

As long as you enter the CHOP with a respectful attitude and an underlying love for Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples, we welcome you with open arms. But all the haters, infiltrators, and masturbators beware. To those who only come in trying to undermine our project, we've got some choice words for you:

Fuck around and find out.

Is there any concern about COVID 19 within CHOP? Are people still social distancing / wearing masks whenever possible?

Social distancing can be difficult in an area this compact, but we do the best we can to obey the CDC guidelines. Masks are an absolute necessity.

I will typically carry five or six extra masks in my back pocket just in case anybody needs one, but a lot of people have already made their own. Makeshift masks are very popular, and a great way to repurpose items that would normally be discarded: dish rags, newspaper, even orange peels if you're in a jam.

Pretty much any material that proves to be both effective against the virus and easy to craft with. Our Black artists are getting real creative with designer PPE (personal protective equipment) to express their lived experience.

Safety has basically become a whole new form of fashion. While COVID has disproportionately ravaged Black families in some parts of Seattle, we are fortunate the CHOP remains relatively unscathed. I'd like to attribute at least part of the CHOP's low infection rate to all the extra special precautions we take to protect Black bodies in this space.

There are rumors that an ANTIFA group has taken over as a civilian police force. Can you comment on that?

Fake news! It's pretty insulting that the people who spread these kinds of rumors think we'd fight this hard to exile police only to replace them with a form of our own. That wouldn't make any sense.

When we say "Defund the police" we mean exactly what that sounds like. We not only aim to keep the CHOP 100% cop free, but also root out anything that even remotely resembles cops.

Let's be clear: all cops are bastards, and if you're gonna run around acting like a cop, well you're a bastard too.

Is there any sort of civilian run effort to ensure order?

The order we enjoy in the CHOP is as organic as our garden. We ALL run an effort to keep the peace, together. Social tranquility is just what happens when you don't have an oppressor class of thin blue murderers stalking you all the time, needlessly putting everyone on edge. We are a family here. We take care of each other, and that's all there is to it.

Are there any plans to expand CHOP? If so how and to where?

There were plans to expand, but recently the City has decided to inappropriately slide their slimy hands all up in our business again. We're unfortunately experiencing some shrinkage at the moment as a result.

They installed some new barriers, permanent ones this time, so the territory is pretty locked down for now. But CHOP will still expand. We will expand over the only territory that really matters: your heart.

Some media sources have claimed that there have been attacks on individuals who are unwelcome in CHOP? Is this true? How are unwelcome visitors handled?

No, not true at all. That's more of the Regime's lies attempting to smear and discredit us.

Sure, my main man on guard duty may be six-feet four-inches of pure Black mayhem ready to dunk on some foolish individuals at a second's notice. But Dikembe is really a big ol' teddy bear at heart; he would never mash your face into an unrecognizable pulp without a damn good reason.

We did have a couple of those jokers, the Proud Boys, trying to stir up some shit the other day. But man, they took one look at Big D and I swear one of them pissed himself.

Our people can smell dickwads from a mile away. Within seconds, our people formed a 20-foot wide living barrier of concerned citizens, working in unison to surround those shit weasels and scream them back down the street.

They scuttled back into their vehicles like frightened adolescent chihuahuas. You'll never hear this in the news, but the truth is that we almost never need to resort to violence in the CHOP. Actions may speak louder than words, but our words speak louder than assholes. Intimidation can go a long way, believe me.

Do you have any doctors, nurses or pharmacists on site to provide care if needed? Are they community volunteers?

Yes, yes, and yes. We have medical practitioners in almost every field, most of whom were never given a chance to make a career out of their talents because they weren't able to afford all the expensive classes and certifications that are normally required.

We are trying to move away from that western imperialist model of medicine, and take a more natural and holistic approach. For instance, by making sure to incorporate herbal remedies, and the expertise of Indigenous spiritual healers.

Our medical community is almost all volunteers, but they truly do fantastic work. We've got this running joke about how one of our on-site physicians kind of looks like Doogie Howser, but in all seriousness, he's the real deal when it comes to treating patients for nearly anything they require.

Best of all, the CHOP might be the only place in the city where our undocumented comrades can seek "no questions asked" medical attention without having to worry about I.C.E. knocking down their door the next day.

There are a few videos floating around of the “segregated gardens” that claim that CHOP has separate plots of land for various races. Is there any truth to that? If not, how do you think the rumors got started?

"Segregated" is an unnecessarily harsh and intentionally provocative word that our detractors use to make us look racist. But I assure you, our gardens are NOT segregated.

What they are, is equitable. Keep in mind, this land rightfully belongs to Indigenous peoples, full stop.

As the true keepers of the soil that sustains each and every American life, the CHOP rightly reserves and preserves the most fertile plots to Native tribes who have suffered at the hand of colonizers for generations. The CHOP garden gives all marginalized groups an opportunity to reclaim a small piece of what is owed to them.

Don't forget that redlining has prevented Black and Brown folk from owning property too.

Everybody is allowed in the garden, we only ask that our white allies and white-passing POC take a step back to give our gardeners of color their space, so they can finally grow crops without having to relive the generational trauma that an overabundance of whiteness tends to bring to BIPOC spaces.

This is not segregation, it's reparation.

Per media, protesters have demanded that Seattle defund SPD, invest in the black community and release any protesters arrested during the recent George Floyd protests. If these are met, what would be the next steps?

Well, that would be a start. But our list of demands grows daily as more injustices come to light.

Black people are still dying for no explicable reason other than racism. We will not stop making demands of the City, and we will not stop draining every red cent from the SPD until they have utterly and unquestionably removed their white supremacist knees from our collective Black necks.

There has been some commentary that the protests are affecting Cal Anderson Park, which is a historical site for the LGBTQ+ community in Seattle. Are there any plans to work with local LGBTQ+ leaders?

Absolutely. We are always looking for new ways to elevate the voices of our LGBTQ+ leaders.

In fact, nearly all community decisions in some parts of the CHOP, especially anything involving Cal Anderson, must be cleared by our Black LGBTQ+ Elder Council. Papa Jacoby, a trans West African High Elder, makes most of the final decisions before we get to work on a new project. If it doesn't fly with Jacoby, it doesn't fly at all.

Is there anything I didn’t ask that you’d want people to know about CHOP?

Yes. I want people to know that not everybody is thrilled about the name-change to CHOP. You might not know it by seeing all the CHOP tags all over the place now, but the people of Capitol Hill are actually quite divided on this issue.

For us, this space always was, and forever will be CHAZ: The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. CHOP folks will attempt to delegitimize the CHAZ name, but they do not speak for the community as a whole.

What right does anyone have to dictate what's "official" and what's not? There is no central authority with an unquestionable power to make that kind of call, and that's kind of the whole point of this project.

I don't mind using CHOP in polite conversation, just to try and not make a big deal out of it, but let it be known that anyone who tells you CHOP is the so-called "official" name, is probably just some out of towner trying to hijack this movement so they can turn it into some frat-bro block party.

Call it CHOP if you want, but to anyone who actually takes activism seriously, this is CHAZ. Don't you forget that.