John Fund of National Review Online looks into recent chaos in Seattle.
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 it’s the very basis of CHAZ, Seattle’s separate “autonomous zone.” Signs at the barricades read “Property of the People” and “Leaving USA.” But from a video tour of the new country, it doesn’t look promising so far. …
… Liberal blogger Steve Leslie says of CHAZ: “As far as internal governance goes, there is none of course. . . . It’s probably most similar to Freetown Christiania which is an intentional commune in the borough of Christianshavn in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.” …
… [L]et’s hit the pause button before anyone thinks CHAZ is going to adopt what Christiania’s advocates call its “tenets of individual responsibility and communal harmony.” … Here are the major differences I see:
One. Christiania’s squatters occupied vacant land that the Danish military should have sold off years before. No businesses were cut off from the rest of the city or extorted into making “donations” to the squatters. …
… Two. The Christiania squatters had relatively reasonable demands, including affordable housing, a large meditation and yoga center, and opportunity for people to buy marijuana without fear of the cops. The occupiers of CHAZ have a list of 30 demands that they insist apply to all of Seattle. …
… Three. Christiania was all about tolerance. Over time, it proved to be too tolerant, and there were some hard-drug sales (later banned). In 2016, a 25-year-old man with ties to the hash market shot and injured three people, including two police officers. After the shooting, residents decided to tear down all the drug stalls on Pusher Street.
It’s unclear how tolerant CHAZ will be.