The dark reality of Seattle's 2020 CHOP zone
Remember when Seattle protestors took over a few blocks, called it CHOP, and tried to build a utopia? A new podcast just dropped to remind us how fast that dream turned into a nightmare.
In the chaotic summer of 2020, sixteen-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. drove a thousand miles to Seattle. He wanted to be part of history at the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. Instead, less than a week after arriving, he was shot and killed there.
Here is the kicker: the very people who claimed to "keep us safe" without police ended up presiding over a lawless block where a kid was gunned down, and the crime scene was immediately contaminated. No one was ever arrested, and the case remains completely unsolved.
Now, NPR, KUOW, and The Seattle Times have teamed up for a podcast called "We Keep Us Safe" to dig into what actually happened. It turns out, replacing the police with untrained, armed volunteers who immediately start acting like a paranoid militia isn't the foolproof solution some thought it was.
Turns out, pretending the real world has no rules works great until the shooting starts and everyone suddenly realizes they have no idea who is in charge.
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