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Watch a CNN Reporter's Narrative on Peaceful CHAZ Activists Collapse on Live TV

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 12, 2020 6:10 PM

I've seen some good tweets about far-left wingnuts seizing parts of Seattle. It's called the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ). There's no police. Some folks have described it as "Mad Max" for eight city blocks to "Escape from New York" governing-style. They're not wrong. The city has devolved into quasi-anarchy, with crime spiking. Our own Julio Rosas is there, embedded with these folks.

Will there be a return to law and order? Probably not. Gov. Jay Inslee doesn't seem willing to confront these people. The mayor, Jenny Durkan, seems to all but endorse this seizure as a peaceful event. That's not usually how it goes.

Right now, it's pretty much the wild west in there. Think Somalia in the 1990s. And yes, there is reportedly a warlord running the show (via NY Post):

A Seattle rapper is accused of declaring himself a warlord — and acting as the sheriff of the city’s leaderless, cop-free protest zone dubbed the CHAZ.

Raz Simone was caught on video allegedly assaulting someone over graffiti in the CHAZ — which stands for Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — a six-block area set up by protesters this week around the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct.

“We are the police of this community now,” a person on the video posted to Twitter is heard telling the alleged vandal, as Simone tries to intervene. “We are the leaders of this community now.”

The video then shows Simone and the tagger scuffling.

Simone, who’s reportedly been patrolling the CHAZ with an AK-47 and a handgun, responded on Twitter, saying the men squashed their beef.

And how has the media treated this incident? Oh, well with kid gloves, of course, as noted by former CNN producer and media executive Steve Krakauer. Right now, the liberal media is appearing to have a contest concerning who can be the CHAZ militia's top public relations executive. Why? Well, CNN told me that it's a right-wing myth that there are folks with guns in the CHAZ. Yeah, that totally collapsed on live TV (via Fourth Watch):

The New York Times got poetic in its coverage, noting the "free food" in the headline of their piece. "What has emerged is an experiment in life without the police — part street festival, part commune," it reads. "Hundreds have gathered to hear speeches, poetry and music. On Tuesday night, dozens of people sat in the middle of an intersection to watch '13th,' the Ava DuVernay film about the criminal justice system’s impact on African-Americans. On Wednesday, children made chalk drawings in the middle of the street."

Fun! Nevermind that police say the, uh, residents are extorting local businesses in their "zone," or that there are reports of armed guards checking IDs. CNN's JV media team reports it's just a right-wing conspiracy that there are armed individuals at all.

Which makes it a little hard to explain this CNN segment tonight, which started with a CNN reporter describing the "peaceful" activities happening... before his live report was crashed by a protester yelling about racism and trying to organize others to continue to interrupt the report…

I mean the doublethink here. People who seize portions of a city with armed volunteers are peaceful. I think the best example of this mental exercise rests with this tweet from Fox Business' Evie Fordham, who got a text from someone who owns a business inside the CHAZ.

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"Hi, we are still closed, but I was up there the other night with my family right before the shooting and it was very peaceful."

Things are double-plus good, huh? Wow.