Seattle anarchist zone warlord Raz Simone had a meltdown this weekend over the refusal of an ambulance squad to enter the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) to respond to a shooting incident early Saturday morning until police were allowed to accompany them.
Simone posted video of a Seattle ambulance squad being berated but promised protection for the squad. One man died and another was critically wounded in the shootings in CHAZ, later dubbed CHOP for Capitol Hill Organized Protest. The ambulance squad leader can be seen on the video talking to dispatch awaiting their permission to enter with police protection.
In comments posted to Twitter in response to critics, Simone backpedaled on CHAZ being an autonomous zone apart from the United States.
Medics refused to help even after people in the CHOP begged. They let our bro bleed out for 30 minutes till he died. Fuck politics. Fuck your currupt system. pic.twitter.com/PMwxU9yEzd
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
#nolivesmatter #blacklivesmatter #alllivesmatter pic.twitter.com/Nja8eFYe0u
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
Fake news. The media did that shit. We tore that down long ago. They brought it and got shots of it and ran.
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
It’s not a no go zone. Police can go and come as they please.
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
Did not. Still American.
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
Not autonomous.
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
Then speak to your political ass police friends who won’t do their job because their PR is so fucked & it’s election year.
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
No. I never did. I’m an American citizen. Why do you spread fake news?
— Raz Simone (@RazSimone) June 21, 2020
Excerpt from the Seattle Times report on the shooting:
…A video posted to Instagram by Seattle musician Raz Simone, who’s been a frequent presence at CHOP, shows fire department medics waiting a block away, despite the filmer’s desperate pleas for them to respond to the scene of the shooting.
“I want to be sure that we have not been cleared to move into the scene,” an ambulance driver says into the radio. “That’s negative,” comes the response.
Police arrived at 2:26 a.m., according to the timeline, but staged at 12th and Cherry, at least seven blocks away. Video shot by Omari Salisbury, a citizen journalist with Converge Media, shows police arriving at the shooting scene in a phalanx, guns drawn, behind shields. They were met by angry, yelling protesters, who told them the victim had already been taken to the hospital.
Body camera video released by police Saturday shows yelling protesters, many using profanities and several coming right up to the marching officers, as an officer says into a bullhorn, “Please move out of the way so we can get to the victim! All we want to do is get to the victim!”
Protesters can be heard shouting at the officers to “put your guns down!”