by John F. Di Leo –
In Seattle this week, a group of assorted Democrat activists (some Antifa, some BLM, some veterans of earlier radical groups like Occupy, and of course some garden-variety looters and thugs) took over an eight block section of Seattle and declared it the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone, imagining themselves a new and independent country.
The establishment of CHAZ has naturally inspired an endless number of jokes, from comparisons of the area to Sonny and Cher’s daughter of the same name, to humor at their first action: shameless begging for vegan food and comfortable pants for today’s fashionable radical.
But this is a serious issue, one that requires our full attention. Unlike the legitimate residents and governments of a town or state severing ties with the national government (like our own Civil War or our War of Independence), this is a criminal band, gathered together from other places, to take over (squat on) other people’s land, kidnap its residents, and declare an overthrow of the rule of law over their captives. They have fenced it in, and stationed armed guards along the perimeter (meaning that they obviously do have heavy funding, despite their pretense at poverty and hunger).
It is the obligation of the city and state to maintain order and to protect their citizens. Seattle and the state of Washington are being openly dared to end this crime, and they are standing down, pretending that it’s some kind of simple political demonstration, instead of admitting that it is in fact a series of intolerable crimes against the residents and the community they have been chartered to protect.
The CHAZ goons have, however, provided one actual service: a list of demands that does more to clarify the position of today’s Democratic Party than anyone else has provided.
Politicians give speeches and present formal platforms, all with a great deal of public relations factored in. They use euphemisms; they are guided by knowledge of human nature and an understanding of their target voters, so they refrain from saying how they really feel. Abortion is “women’s choice;” mandatory groupthink is “intersectionality.” Normal, inoffensive idioms and tastes are “microaggressions;” confiscatory, crippling taxation is an “investment.” Understanding the average modern liberal politician’s intentions has become a research project worthy of a doctoral candidate.
But CHAZ has done away with that. Their list of demands enables us to fully understand the intentions of the modern American left (politically represented by the Democratic Party) if they ever manage to get the power to do what they really want.
Let’s just concentrate for a moment on CHAZ’ published demands on criminal justice matters (they addressed several issues, but their criminal justice demands alone are telling):
- They demand the immediate closure of the police department, all trial courts, jails and prisons for both adults and juveniles… even to the point of specifically saying that they want both salaries and pensions eliminated for current and past employees.
- They demand a lot of specific exemptions to the law for their kind of people – in short, retroactive pardons for the rioters and looters who have been destroying their city for weeks now.
- They demand that whatever replaces the police department and justice system must be completely ineffectual; they are not to replace guns with batons, or unpleasant jails with nicer jails. Oh no. Future peace officers must be unarmed. Resisting arrest must be allowed, and there can be no imprisonment. At all. For anybody.
- They demand that convicts have full voting privileges (expanding the franchise to those who would vote their way is always a key for the left).
- And they demand that their city and state ban the federal immigration agency, ICE, from catching and dealing with the many gang members, drug dealers, and other international criminals who infest the city (as they do most American cities, in fact; much of our domestic crime is actually foreign-run, thanks to the widespread reach of Central American and other foreign crime organizations).
There’s more, but this gives the flavor of it.
What does this mean, in practice?
When our Founding Fathers rebelled against Great Britain, it was a careful, reasoned effort in support of civilization. They demanded fairer trials and honest juries, while fully recognizing the need for punishment of the guilty. Our Founders knew that society depended on the rule of law. Even in wartime, General Washington never simply commandeered land, food, or other supplies; he ensured that provisions for the Continental Army were purchased, and he stayed politically active after the war to ensure that such debts were paid.
By contrast, this crowd is knowingly demanding an end to the rule of law. An end to armed police, an end to national borders, and an end to imprisonment. All this can only add up to anarchy.
And what happens in anarchy?
Jobs disappear as employers flee, so the people are quickly impoverished. The weak or vulnerable are beaten, robbed, raped and killed by the stronger and tougher. Society devolves into Somalia.
They know this. They brought guns, not flowers, to this takeover. They are issuing demands, not seeking dialogue. They are using force and displaying power, because they know that violence works, and weaklings like their city fathers won’t stand up to it.
In fact, the “city fathers” – the local and state government politicians whose job it is to prevent such things – cannot stop it because these are their own constituents, their own brothers in the cause of the modern left. Aldermen and legislators also want the power that CHAZ has declared, but have never dared assume it. Rather than recoiling in horror from these radical destroyers, the local pols respect them.
Instead of being sickened at such extreme actions and demands, Seattle’s politicians are awe-inspired.
We are watching a repeat of the Paris mob in 1789. It must be put down – locally – not by federal forces from Washington DC, but by the local police and state troopers who have the legal and moral authority to do so.
And what must the rest of us do?
Just watch and learn… and remember in November.
America’s enemies are unintentionally doing a public service: they are revealing themselves for what they are. We must learn from that.
Copyright 2020 John F. Di Leo
John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international trade trainer, writer and actor. A former county chairman of the Milwaukee Repubican Party, his columns have been published in Illinois Review since 2009.
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