Police in Seattle have admitted to inventing a group of right wingers in a series of radio transmissions during the 2020 riots in that city. Officers held radio discussions about a supposed group of Proud Boys members carrying weapons and indicating that they were preparing for an attack on the notorious Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, a much-derided leftist attempt to set up an independent commune in the middle of Seattle.
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone has gone by several different names, though the CHAZ acronym is probably the most well-known of the lot.
Anarchists and communists in Seattle decided to take advantage of the violent BLM riots in the Summer of 2020 to declare that an independent microstate had been founded in downtown Seattle.
The results were fascinating, as police were largely told to obey the aspiring communards and stay out of the zone. This allowed a brief period of true anarchy and a wonderful social experiment.
Along with waving guns at locals and extorting businesses in the area, the inhabitants of the zone made a hilarious attempt to grow crops before realizing that reading Marx and Lenin had not taught them anything about urban farming.
Later a warlord allegedly took over, as is the fate of all anarchist experiments, and several teenagers were shot and killed by a self-appointed police force.
After the shootings city authorities finally moved in and cleared out the leftists, probably needing gas masks to escape the stench.
Officers discussed fictional group of Proud Boys
Before CHAZ was cleared though, police tried one strange tactic which involved the creation of a fictional armed threat to the commune.
The officers involved claim that the radio transmissions about an armed group of Proud Boys making their way towards the zone, which were heard by the public, were part of an effort to respond to limited resources.
The police apparently hoped that the imaginary threat would distract occupants of the zone or scare them into dispersing on their own.
The department has admitted that the officers were being dishonest and misleading the public but none have been punished for the incident thus far.
Critics claim that their actions heightened tensions in the otherwise peaceful zone and put people on edge watching for an attack, a state which led to the subsequent shootings.
In reality, the zone was always a crime-ridden mess and it was always fated to end badly. It is, however, very pathetic that the Seattle Police Department felt the need to invent an imaginary group of right-wingers to scare the leftists rather than clearing out the domestic terrorists themselves.
