The "Homeland for Racial Justice." Sound like a neutral journalistic description? It's not, but that's how The New York Times described an area in Seattle taken over by protesters. Instead of battling for control of the entire city, law enforcement officials allowed demonstrators to establish a “police-free” autonomous zone, a move praised by a reporter for the New York Times but slammed by President Trump.
According to an article posted on Thursday by Rudy Takala, a writer and editor for Mediaite, Times correspondent Mike Baker described the result as a “liberated” area that has become a “homeland for racial justice.”
Takala quoted Baker as stating:
Facing a growing backlash over its dispersal tactics in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, the Seattle Police Department this week offered a concession.
Officers would abandon their precinct, board up the windows and let the protesters have free rein outside.
The Times reporter noted that the police precinct is now called the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” or CHAZ.
Once police abandoned the area, protesters on June 8 “reversed the barricades to shield the liberated streets and laid claim to several city blocks,” Baker stated before describing the situation as “part street festival, part commune” and “a homeland for racial justice.”
“This space is now property of the Seattle people,” read a banner on the front entrance of the now-empty police station. Meanwhile, the Times correspondent noted, one block had a designated smoking area while another provided a medic station. Of course, the “No Cop Co-op,” distributed free plastic bottles of La Croix sparkling water or a snack.
“No currency was accepted,” Baker continued, “but across the street, in a nod to capitalism, a bustling stand was selling $6 hot dogs. It was dealing in U.S. dollars.” Takala also stated: “President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed his dismay on Twitter, writing: ‘Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!’’’
The Republican official later addressed Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Washington Governor Jay Inslee -- both Democrats -- by demanding those leaders “take back your city NOW” since they “are being taunted and played at a level this Great Country has never seen before.”
