CoronaQuarantine, Day 92: Seattle Protests, Day 13
I keep thinking about how this "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" thing can possibly last, and I frankly don't have a lot of hope or expectation that it will be for very long. I'm endlessly fascinated by it and eager to see how long it does last, though, and both when and how it will end. There is a lot of apparent desire to turn the East Precinct into some kind of community center, and if that ever actually happens, I'll eat both my shoes.
That said, I do think there is a lot of allowance for what's happening right now, specifically because of the Seattle Police Department's massively tarred reputation in the wake of their despicable behavior in response to protests for a week and a half prior to this development in the ongoing story of Black Lives Matter in local context specific to this city. Without the police ultimately being ordered to retreat, I don't think the "CHAZ" would ever have been allowed at all. But now, the police department has to make concessions in order to preserve peace.
And there are some police back at the East Precinct now. I walked down there again yesterday, initially with only one goal in mind: to get a picture of the "LOVE ONLY" repainted over the left-hand TURN ONLY southbound on 12th Avenue at the intersection with Pine, which is basically the "Town Square" of the CHAZ. I went shortly after lunch, taking a brief break from work, knowing I would have a better chance of an unobstructed shot without people sitting on it during more crowded times in the evenings.
I did indeed get that shot, as you can plainly see, and I thought I would just be coming right back home after that, but then some other things distracted me. First, I noticed the East Precinct Station had its entryway open again. I saw at least one small camera crew, nothing on or around them to identify who they were, and a small crowd of people around as though waiting for something. There were cops inside, but not a lot. The most important thing to note here was that there was zero open hostility between the police and the people outside, which is something the frustrating media representation has thus far willfully ignored—and this applies to both local and national media coverage of the CHAZ. Reporters of both kinds keep repeating unsubstantiated claims that organizers are demanding fees from businesses within the zone, or giving air time to some local dipshit (white, of course) calling the organizers "domestic terrorists." It's creating this insane picture to the rest of the country that it's a neighborhood of lawless anarchy, never mentioning that by far the most chaos over the past two weeks has been at the hands of the police, and the "Autonomous Zone" has actually turned the area into a place far more peaceful than it has been since before all this began. It's driving me crazy, and that kind of shit really gives me a dispiriting look at how the election will go down in November.
That said, politics as well as community building start at the local level, and all that national misrepresentation bullshit is just white noise when it comes to what's actually happening on the ground. Functionally, right now, it's just a cashless commune of activists and hippies. It's somehow at once both harmless and revolutionary, and I for one would love to see it last, even for longer than the Occupy Wall Street tents were at Seattle Central Community College in 2011 (which lasted roughly six weeks). If nothing else, they should stay there until a workable compromise can be reached between the activists and the police that everyone involved can live with moving forward.
We had a "Zoom checkin" for the Merchandising department this morning, for about half an hour starting at 8:30. The leadership at PCC has been very supportive of any staff, including office staff, who want to take part in the "Statewide Silent March and General Strike" today. Participation has apparently varied by store; Darrell mentioned in the Zoom meeting that at least one store had been short staffed enough that they could not open.
There is another "Juneteenth" march happening Thursday next week, starting at 23rd and Union—the day after the Central District store opens, at the very intersection of its location. I guess some staff will be on hand to hand out water and fruit to demonstrators, which I think is good.
Staff were also invited to participate in a nine-minute "silent remembrance," where they can "kneel or stand in unified silence" for eight minutes and 46 seconds, in honor of George Floyd. Office staff were invited to join in a Zoom call to participate virtually if they want, which I found odd and possibly weirdly performative, but whatever. Had I been awake early enough to participate, I probably still would have joined the meeting; the only reason I didn't was because I was still in the bathroom getting ready at that time.
Anyway, having walked half a block further west to get a closer look at the entrance to the police station, I then noticed that, much like they did in "the other Washington" (D.C.), someone painted BLACK LIVES MATTER in huge lettering on the pavement of Pine Street between 10th and 11th. Of course I had to go over and try to get some pictures of that, although the letters are so huge there is no good angle on them without using a drone.
I then noticed a bunch of cyclists with bicycles over in Bobby Morris Playfield, listening to someone speak whose words I could not make out. Were it later in the evening, I would have stayed longer and gotten closer to learn more, but I needed to get back to work. But, not before I snapped a shot of the five Black Lives Matter demands posted to the fence—something far simpler and more reasonable than that "Free Capitol Hill" document with endless demands of increasing specificity which will never bet met—although, as I said before, I still fully support them making those demands. Reach for the stars and you might get the moon. I really mean that: you don't start a negotiation with the minimum of what you will expect; you start aiming way too high.
In any case, that brief little jaunt yesterday yielded six new photos for my CHAZ photo album on Flickr, bringing the total number of shots to 26.
As for the rest of yesterday, my "weekly checkin" with Eric wound up being only a regular phone call and not a video chat; it was the first one we had in two weeks as he had taken Thursday and Friday off next week; and unsurprisingly, he still has not had time to finish my annual review. Next week! It's been punted for about four weeks straight now, I think, but I don't really care.
Between the time I finished work and Shobhit getting home, I watched the Ava DuVernay documentary 13th, which I found to be imperfect yet vital viewing. Once Shobhit was home, we binged through another two episodes of season two of Ozark, which got us halfway through the season within two days.
I just finished my FaceTime lunch with Karen, having postponed it from yesterday due to a scheduling conflict she had. This was our first "virtual lunch" in two weeks—exactly, in fact; the last one had to be bumped to the next day as well—and between all the protests, "CHAZ," and the changed plans for Shobhit's and my anniversary trip, we had a lot to catch up on.
Karen had been the one to suggest to begin with that we rent a yurt at Kayak Point Park in Snohomish County, which I had done all this work to research and get ready to book for us, only to wind up deciding at the last minute that we would go to Long Beach instead. Karen was still excited for us and seemed to think it sounded like a lot of fun. Yep, I'm really looking forward to it—even though we aren't leaving this weekend, which is when our literal anniversary actually is, but a week later instead. But whatever, that's fine. I would much rather deal with a quick trip to the coast postponed a week than not go at all.
[posted 1:14 pm]