Radicals establish police-free area in Seattle, publish list of demands
Citizens occupy police-free 'autonomous zone,' vowing to stay in their makeshift city until the government meets their long list of demands; reaction on 'The Five.'
Multiple media outlets are offering a positive spin while covering the turmoil that has taken place on the streets of Seattle, with one notable news outlet referring to it as a "festive zone."
Demonstrators have set up occupancy in s section of downtown Seattle and have renamed it “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” or CHAZ.
The Seattle Police Department has effectively abandoned the area during violent clashes with demonstrators calling to defund the police, leaving behind its own building in the East Precinct.
However, in a report about President Trump's tough talk on the situation, The Associated Press offered a positive spin on the situation with the headline: "Trump fumes as protesters stake out festive zone in Seattle."
"Following days of violent confrontations with protesters, police in Seattle have largely withdrawn from a neighborhood where protesters have created a festival-like scene that has President Donald Trump fuming," The Associated Press wrote.
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Other outlets, including ABC News and The Philadelphia Tribune, ran The AP's story and used the same headline.
CNN offered similar coverage, comparing the environment taken over by protesters to a "street festival."
"What you now have is about six or seven city blocks filled with protesters. Now, by all accounts, this is a peaceful protest. It has taken on the tenor and tone of a street festival where you have speakers and they're giving out free food," CNN correspondent Dan Simon told Wolf Blitzer.
The New York Times went with a vibrant approach with its report, "Free Food, Free Speech and Free of Police: Inside Seattle’s ‘Autonomous Zone.’”
Times reporter Mike Baker explained that police officers deserted their precinct, boarded up windows and let the protesters have “free rein” after days of nightly standoffs.
“The entire area was now a homeland for racial justice -- and, depending on the protester one talked to, perhaps something more,” Baker wrote. “What has emerged is an experiment in life without the police -- part street festival, part commune. Hundreds have gathered to hear speeches, poetry and music.”
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Baker said people gathered to watch a film about the criminal justice system in the area that has everything from “a makeshift health center set up on the patio of a taco restaurant” to a designated smoking area.
“People could pick up a free LaCroix sparkling water or a snack. No currency was accepted, but across the street, in a nod to capitalism, a bustling stand was selling $6 hot dogs. It was dealing in U.S. dollars,” Baker observed. “The protest zone has increasingly functioned with the tacit blessing of the city.”
Fox News' Brian Flood and Vandana Rambaran contributed to this report.
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