Seattle’s mayor scolded President Donald Donald Trump for calling protesters occupying the city’s autonomous zone “domestic terrorists,” and instead labeled them patriots.
Since Monday, a band of protesters have occupied a fenced-off section of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, after clashing with police during protests over George Floyd’s death.
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — or CHAZ — consists of tent, free food, art-making, and film screenings, and has remained peaceful, as Insider’s Isaac Scher reported.
In a Wednesday tweet, Trump said: “Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!”
And on Thursday, Trump called occupants of the “autonomous zone” and “ugly Anarchists” who “must be stopped IMMEDIATELY.”
Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle has since taken issue with Trump’s characterization.
“It’s clear @realDonaldTrump doesn’t understand what’s happening on five square blocks of our City,” Durkan said in a series of tweets published late Thursday.
—Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) June 11, 2020
“Lawfully gathering and expressing first amendment rights, demanding we do better as a society and provide true equity for communities of color is not terrorism — it is patriotism.”
“CHAZ is not a lawless wasteland of anarchist insurrection — it is a peaceful expression of our community’s collective grief and their desire to build a better world,” she added.
Durkan continued her attack on the president, tweeting “one of the things the President will never understand, is that listening to community is not a weakness, it is a strength.”
“Seattle is passionate, we demand justice, and I believe we will be at the forefront of true, meaningful change. Nothing will distract our city from the work that needs to be done.”
A sign marks the edge of the so-called “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” in Seattle. Toby Scott/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In his Thursday tweet, Trump also addressed Inslee and Durkin, saying: “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game.”
Durkan addressed that threat, tweeting: “It is unconstitutional and illegal to send the military to Seattle. We will not allow this to happen.”
Inslee also responded to Trump’s tweet, saying: “A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business.”
On Thursday, Seattle police walked back a claim that protesters were extorting local businesses.
The East Precinct station of the Seattle Police Department which is now abandoned and insider the autonomous zone. Toby Scott/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Other politicians have attacked Trump over his Thursday tweet, pointing out that the president hid for an hour in the White House bunker as peaceful protesters amassed outside.
“Don’t you have a bunker to be in?,” congresswoman Pramila Jayapal tweeted.
Some of the zone’s occupants have released a list of demands.
“We do not request reform, we demand abolition,” Free Capitol Hill, an anonymous collective, wrote in a blog post Tuesday.
“We demand that the Seattle Council and the Mayor defund and abolish the Seattle Police Department and the attached Criminal Justice Apparatus.”
