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As my RedState colleague Nick Arama reported earlier, Democratic politicians including Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan have just been flat out gaslighting people about what’s really going on behind the so-called “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) walls in Seattle.

The mainstream media have been steady gaslighting as well, including the Associated Press, which bizarrely characterized CHAZ as a “festive zone” in spite of reports of “warlords” patrolling the perimeter, shakedowns of local business owners, and vigilante “street justice” taking place.

In an address to her fellow police officers Thursday, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best had no interest in sugarcoating what was happening. In the video below, she talks about the reports of armed people patrolling the zone, the alleged shakedowns, the demands for ID, and threats to burn down the police precinct:

Even more alarmingly, she told reporters Thursday that the police were not able to respond quickly to 911 calls for violent crimes, including rapes, because of the zone barriers:

On Wednesday, the Seattle Police Department said it would try to reopen the East Precinct, and Best was able to visit the location on Thursday. “Our calls for service have more than tripled,” she told reporters. “These are responses to emergency calls — rapes, robberies, and all sorts of violent acts that have been occurring in the area that we’re not able to get to.”

At the press conference with Durkan, who claimed the occupants of the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) were engaging in an act of “patriotism,” Best remained noncommittal on a when police might return to the area, but explained that the evacuation had come after reports the precinct could be burned down.

“We were asked to do an operational plan, in case we needed to leave,” Best said, not saying who exactly gave the order to withdraw. “We got an update that there was the potential for fire — of course if the precinct goes down in fire, the whole block could potentially burn up.”

Watch:

Seattle Police Chief: "Rapes, robberies and all sorts of violent acts have been occurring in the area and we're not able to get to [them]." #capitolhillautonomouszone #antifa #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Oe5YfVz3uL

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 12, 2020

I cannot emphasize enough how despicable and dangerous it is for the mainstream media and Democrats like Seattle Mayor Durkan and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to be falsely painting this place as a utopian “summer of love” safe haven for so-called peaceful social justice warriors.

What’s happening there is not a First Amendment-protected protest. It’s anarchy, anything but “peaceful”, and it needs to be stopped immediately.