Summer of Love ending early in Seattle

[Lennys Tap]

When asked how long she would allow protesters to take over part of her city, Seattle's mayor was unconcerned. "Maybe this will be a summer of love", she said. "People sharing pot luck dinners, that sort of thing". The guns brandished by protesters and the reported shakedowns of businesses inside the "commune" didn't appear to bother her. But two or three people were shot there over the weekend so returning some semblance of law and order to the Emerald City is the new plan. Hope it's accomplished without violence, but when both sides are armed and one is embedded I worry.

And how many more "occupations", how many more "summers of love" in our cities this year? How many occupiers and police will die? I was 19 during the original "Summer of Love" in 67 and 21 when Woodstock took place. Despite assurances from Seattle's mayor it sure doesn't feel like we're heading for anything like San Francisco in 1967 or upstate NY in 1969. This looks scary to me.

[tower912]

Are you more concerned or less compared to the Cliven Bundy bunch and their armed stand off?

[Pakuni]

Our national nightmare will soon be over.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-work-deescalate-dismantle-chop-autonomous-zone-mayor/story?id=71399727

[mu_hilltopper]

To get up to speed ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Autonomous_Zone

[Billy Hoyle]

My wife's company has a branch within the CHOP. The place is a mess and has hurt business significantly. A bunch of white kids running around high and naked, vandalizing businesses, violence at night. It's a very progressive company that focuses on investment in minority businesses and neighborhoods (my wife is is one of the leaders of their diversity committee) and they're happy to see it go.

[rocky_warrior]

CHAZ was doomed to fail.  Seattle is all sorts of crazy, but I suspect the Mayor has made the right call.  Let it continue until it got bad press, then shut it down.  I'm guessing it just sort of quietly disappears now that the general public thinks it's no good.

If you've ever been to Capitol Hill in Seattle - it's always been a free love kinda' area.  Though if you were looking for heterosexual love, you may have been looking in the wrong place.

[Billy Hoyle]

CHAZ was doomed to fail.  Seattle is all sorts of crazy, but I suspect the Mayor has made the right call.  Let it continue until it got bad press, then shut it down.  I'm guessing it just sort of quietly disappears now that the general public thinks it's no good.

If you've ever been to Capitol Hill in Seattle - it's always been a free love kinda' area.  Though if you were looking for heterosexual love, you may have been looking in the wrong place.

It used to be. My buddy used to hold court at The War Room there on open floor nights on Monday (he's a renowned freestyle dancer, and instructor and used to comp my wife and me) but that is gone now with an apartment building in its place like many old classic Capitol Hill haunts. Great restaurants up there now. The CHAZ idiots are madder at the "gentrifiers" than anyone else.

[dgies9156]

Question: How is CHAZ any different than:

   A) Branch Davidians in Waco Texas in the 1990s?
   B) The Bagawhan in Oregon in the 1980s?
   C) Jimmy Jones and the People's Temple in the 1970s in San Francisco and Guyana?

Answer: It isn't. Each of these cults thought they were above the law and created autonomous zones that they attempted to rule. The big problem is that when their laws and regulation infringe on basic rights of their members and/or their neighbors, they go violent (except in the case of the Bagawhan, who forgot to the bills on his ranch and 80 Rolls Royces, leading to a seizure of his ranch and cars).

There have been cults all over our country over the years. There have been extremely conservative Mormon cults in South Utah, who've set their own rules up and interfered with the state's vital interests in child welfare. There have been cults in the south around enough religious fanatics -- including snake handlers -- to make me wonder at times whether there is a need for serious mental health help in some places.

The fact that some of CHAZ's leaders are beginning to strut around in AK-15s suggests this will not end well. Just ask the Davidians.

[Billy Hoyle]

Question: How is CHAZ any different than:

   A) Branch Davidians in Waco Texas in the 1990s?
   B) The Bagawhan in Oregon in the 1980s?
   C) Jimmy Jones and the People's Temple in the 1970s in San Francisco and Guyana?

Answer: It isn't. Each of these cults thought they were above the law and created autonomous zones that they attempted to rule. The big problem is that when their laws and regulation infringe on basic rights of their members and/or their neighbors, they go violent (except in the case of the Bagawhan, who forgot to the bills on his ranch and 80 Rolls Royces, leading to a seizure of his ranch and cars).

There have been cults all over our country over the years. There have been extremely conservative Mormon cults in South Utah, who've set their own rules up and interfered with the state's vital interests in child welfare. There have been cults in the south around enough religious fanatics -- including snake handlers -- to make me wonder at times whether there is a need for serious mental health help in some places.

The fact that some of CHAZ's leaders are beginning to strut around in AK-15s suggests this will not end well. Just ask the Davidians.

I don't think there is the total brainwashing and devotion in the CHAZ like Waco and Jonestown. Maybe closer to the Rajneeshpuram (great Netflix documentary, BTW), but I don't think they were willing to die for the cause. CHAZ is just a bunch of aggrieved white kids who built a playpen in Seattle for a "cause" they think sounds good. They were going to get bored eventually.

[GooooMarquette]

I don't think there is the total brainwashing and devotion in the CHAZ like Waco and Jonestown. Maybe closer to the Rajneeshpuram (great Netflix documentary, BTW), but I don't think they were willing to die for the cause. CHAZ is just a bunch of aggrieved white kids who built a playpen in Seattle for a "cause" they think sounds good. They were going to get bored eventually.

Agreed. This is dramatically different from the Waco and Jonestown situations, where there was a single leader who had managed to convince the flock that he was an extension of God, and followers who were willing to do anything he told them to. And I kinda doubt the kids will all drink poisoned kool-aid or burn themselves to death when the police come in.

[MU82]

If CHAZ were filled with black folks, would the national military already have been called in to give them the Lafayette Square treatment?

FWIW, my daughter lived in Capital Hill the first year or so after she moved to Seattle. She loved the proximity to downtown, and all the stuff there is to do in the neighborhood. She rented a furnished, one-bedroom apartment for something like $900. It wasn't all that long ago, 2011 I think.

She ended up moving to the other side of Seattle and now, after getting married, lives in the burbs, though she and her husband are talking about moving back into Seattle in a year or two. She grew up in Chicago and loves city life.