A new protester group, calling itself "Black Collective Voices," announced that it would be holding the "space" at...
A new protester group, calling itself "Black Collective Voices," announced that it would be holding the "space" at CHOP, or Capitol Hill Organized Protest, if the people of Seattle called for it.
The group made a list of demands at a media briefing Thursday in Seattle.
"If the people of Seattle choose to hold the space at CHOP, Black Collective Voices will stay here," said Naudia Miller, a leader of BCV.
"Even if they force activists out of CHOP, it will not stop us or this movement," she continued, according to the Seattle Times. "We will not be bought off, we will not attend meetings where the goal is to buy us off, we are here to dismantle systemic racism."
Miller went on to say that they demanded the Seattle Police Department be defunded by half, that those funds be relocated to pay for social services, and that all protesters arrested be released.
By Thursday morning, most of the protesters had dispersed from the "autonomous zone" as it was previously known, and the CHOP encampment and movement had deflated.
Mayor Jenny Durkan (D), who had been supportive of the encampment, admitted it was time to shut it down after several shootings and one death.
Some Seattle residents and businesses fed up with the experiment filed a lawsuit against the city for encouraging the encampment.
BCV isn't the only group making demands — a different collective group says it will make its demands for CHOP known in an announcement on Friday.
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