Wednesday Marks 1 Year Since Seattle's CHOP Formed
SEATTLE — Wednesday marks one year since the formation of an occupied protest zone on Capitol Hill, which captured international attention during its three weeks in existence and drew the repeated ire of then-President Donald Trump.
First known as Free Capitol Hill, then the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), and finally the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest or Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), the six-block area began to take shape on June 9, 2020, the day after police boarded up and abandoned the East Precinct.
In the week leading up to CHOP's creation, the precinct and its surrounding blocks became ground zero for Seattle's racial justice protests, as an escalating police response included nightly deployment of tear gas, blast balls and other "crowd control weapons" on demonstrators.
The evening before police left the precinct, a man was shot in the arm as he intervened to stop a driver speeding through a group of protesters. Shortly after midnight, a 26-year-old protester was hit in the chest by a police flashbang and temporarily lost her pulse.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wednesday-marks-1-year-since-seattle-s-chop-formed/ar-AAKQEyp