Seattle Residents and Business Owners Sue City Over CHOP’s Impact

Seattle authorities announced earlier this week that they would be taking control back of the six block area in the Capital Hill district known as the “CHOP”, but some residents and business owners inside the “Capital Hill Occupied Protest” are not yet satisfied.

The area, which began life as the “Capital Hill Autonomous Zone”, was founded by protesters after police in the Washington State capital abandoned the police precinct there.  Demonstrators were soon building barricades and instructing those who entered the space that they were “leaving the United States” in doing so.  (The CHAZ was soon transformed into the CHOP in order to clear up the confusion, with protesters insisting that they had no intention of seceding from the country).

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is now in the process of dismantling the area, and not a moment too soon according to some who work and reside within.

Numerous Seattle businesses – including an auto repair shop, a tattoo parlor and a property management company – sued the city Wednesday, alleging city officials were complicit in allowing an “occupied protest” that has made them feel unsafe in their neighborhood, according to reports.

Workers and residents also joined the lawsuit over CHOP, the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, which drew scorn from President Trump and other critics who accused Mayor Jenny Durkan, the city’s police chief and other city leaders of turning the area over to “anarchists.”

The language of the lawsuit was undeniably irate.

“(T)his lawsuit is about the constitutional and other legal rights of plaintiffs – businesses, employees and residents in and around CHOP – which have been overrun by the city of Seattle’s unprecedented decision to abandon and close off an entire city neighborhood, leaving it unchecked by the police, unserved by fire and emergency health services and inaccessible to the public at large,” the lawsuit says, Q13 FOX reported.

In addition to the lawsuit, several business owners have also stated that they are in the early stages of moving out of the city and the state, citing their lack of confidence in the leadership of their communities.