The city of Seattle, Washington, agreed to pay $3.65 million to settle a lawsuit over its failure to end the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone in 2020. The protest zone was deemed a “no-cop zone,” leading business owners and investment group Hunters Capital to sue Seattle for “depriving them of their rights to their property” after businesses saw property damage and violence.
From Daily Caller:
“This lawsuit does not seek to undermine CHOP participants’ message or present a counter-message,” the original lawsuit states. “Rather, this lawsuit is about the constitutional and other legal rights of Plaintiffs—businesses, employees, and residents in and around CHOP—which have been overrun by the City of Seattle’s unprecedented decision to abandon and close off an entire city neighborhood, leaving it unchecked by the police, unserved by fire and emergency health services, and inaccessible to the public at large.”
