Seattle’s Police-Free Occupied ‘CHAZ’ Zone Is Now Wasteland of Abandoned Buildings, Vandalism, and Homeless Doing ‘Fentanyl Flop’

In 2020, the area was ruled by a heavily armed rapper and became a hotbed of violent crime.

Jordan Esrig
The former site of Seattle's CHAZ police-free autonomous zone is now largely abandoned and decrepit. Jordan Esrig

SEATTLE — Amidst the national protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, far-left protestors at Seattle, Washington, managed to take over 14 square blocks in June of 2020, declaring the zone “autonomous” from police, in what would be known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — or CHAZ — and Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. 

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