The Seattle Times reports:

On a sunny Monday morning, after a weekend that saw two nighttime shootings, the streets and fields of CHOP (Capitol Hill Organized Protest) were mostly deserted.

Just a few days ago, the 24/7 protest, which occupies several blocks around Cal Anderson Park and a recently abandoned police precinct, had been bustling with life: activists; rubberneckers; reporters; volunteer security guards, some openly carrying guns; masked medics.

But after two bursts of gunfire on successive nights — two men wounded, one man killed — almost everyone seemed to have disappeared.

Almost.

Sitting in a small circle of sun-drenched couches at the Decolonization Conversation Café, on the southeast corner of Cal Anderson Park, a handful of demonstrators debated CHOP’s future — later that afternoon, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan would announce the city’s intent to shut down nighttime activity in a “phased” way.

“It was thriving,” said Keely, who didn’t want to share her last name, but helps run the Café — where, for the past two weeks, strangers have gathered in small circles for raw, nuanced conversations about race, some lasting late into the night.

“CHOP is a beautiful thing,” said Chris Thompson, who has been there every day, since before the police deserted the East Precinct on June 8.

“When it works, the community watches out for each other, and for people in the lower income brackets; there are free supplies, water, food,” Keely said. “And I don’t feel like a Black woman in this space. It’s not the first thing people notice about me. I’m ‘the woman who’s always in the Café,’ not ‘the Black girl on the couch.’ That’s what Black people want — to be seen for who they are.”

Keely acknowledges that CHOP, pre-shootings, was working through some internal issues — particularly who was there, and why.

“But,” no matter what happens next, “this has been a life-changing experience. For all of us,” she said. [Continue reading…]