Andy Ngo reports from Seattle: 'Hard for me to overstate the anarchy that is on the streets'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Post Millennial editor-at-large Andy Ngo told "The Story" Thursday that it was "hard for me to overstate the anarchy that is on the streets" of Seattle following the establishment of an "autonomous zone" by anti-police protesters in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood earlier this week.
"You have here a group of several hundred people who have laid siege to a territory and have claimed it as a separate political entity from the United States," Ngo told host Martha MacCallum.
"And, aside from images of then dancing and having a good time, they also have people going around who are armed and acting as security, and also border checkpoints. So to go through, you have to go through these physical barriers that have been set up, and it is complete anarchy, because the police precinct has been boarded up, the police have abandoned it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MacCallum noted that 30-year-old rapper Solomon "Raz" Simone appears to have become the zone's de facto enforcer, carrying a high-powered rifle and making announcements through a megaphone.
In an interview with Ngo, Simone said he wants the so-called "CHAZ" (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) to be "more positive than what it has been.
"This is the time when it comes out with different views that might be great, or might be a different agenda, or whatever," Simone said. "And we ... can figure it out as a community."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, Ngo told MacCallum that business owners and everyday residents are essentially left to fend for themselves.
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"If you happen to live in that area or happen to run a business in that area, you are on your own," he said. "According to what Seattle police said, they have been aware that some businesses are possibly being extorted for money inside there.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And, even those within the camp, the extremists, say that they have no leaders -- [but] in the absence of power, there will be those who will take advantage of the situation to elevate themselves," Ngo said. "And I think potentially that's what we are seeing with this one individual, and others as well."