Trump spars with Seattle Mayor over ‘Autonomous Zone’
(KYMA, KECY, CNN)- Seattle police want to resume operations at a downtown precinct they left empty as protesters began occupying the area around it.
The area around the precinct is now occupied by protesters, some of whom are calling it the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
According to CNN affiliate KOMO, police boarded up the East Precinct building in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and left it unoccupied during protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Protesters have also hung signs on the East Precinct, KOMO reported, some of which read "Seattle People Department" and "The Property of the People."
But Seattle's Mayor Jenny Durkan says the city will not be accepting federal troops to move the protesters out.
"The threat to invade Seattle -- to divide and incite violence in our city -- is not only unwelcome, it would be illegal," Durkan said at a Thursday press conference. She added that the majority of the protests have been peaceful.
Her comments come as a response to President Donald Trump's tweets earlier in the day.President Trump had tweeted to Durkan and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, "Take back your city NOW. If you don't do it, I will."
But Durkan responded by saying, "One of the things this president will never understand is that listening to the community is not a weakness. It's a strength."
Meanwhile, the Seattle police chief is openly criticizing city leaders for evacuating the Third Precinct building in the city's Capitol Hill district.
"You should know, leaving the precinct was not my decision," Police Chief Carmen Best said in a video addressed to the members of the department.
The video was posted on the police department's YouTube page on Thursday.
Chief Best added that the city "had other plans for the building and relented to severe public pressure," and expressed her anger at how all this came about. She said officers spent days protecting the building before the city boarded it up.
