Wait a minute.
We were under the impression that the businesses and people living within the “CHAZ/CHOP” were all happy and supportive of the “peaceful block party” that took over their neighborhood.
Apparently not.
Several CHOP zone businesses and individuals are suing Seattle city leaders in a class action lawsuit for the extensive harm they have suffered due to the city’s tolerance of the criminal CHOP Zone movement in their neighborhood.
The New American reported:
The plaintiffs argue that the city’s actions made them feel unsafe in their neighborhood as crime and violence have plagued the six blocks of the autonomous zone that has been virtually abandoned by the Seattle Police Department.
Calfo Eakes LLP, the law firm representing the group, released a statement saying that the lawsuit is “not a step [their] clients have taken lightly” and that they, in fact, support the Black Lives Matter movement as well as demonstrators’ right to speak and assemble peacefully.
“This lawsuit does not seek to undermine CHOP participants’ message or present a counter-message,” the lawsuit reads. “Rather, this lawsuit is about the constitutional and other legal rights of Plaintiffs … 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.”
Plaintiffs include Car Tender, Northwest Liquor and Wine, Sage Physical Therapy, and Tattoos and Fortune, along with the owners of local apartment buildings.
