Nation

‘CHOP’ Falls: Seattle Police Disband Autonomous Zone, Reclaim Precinct

Published

1 year ago

July 1, 2020

Staff Writer

Seattle Police are reclaiming their east precinct after nearly a month of an anarchist takeover of the City’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The force began moving into the area Wednesday during the early morning hours, making 10 arrests, according to reports.

Formed in the wake of the tragic death of George Floyd, the area, known as ‘CHOP,’ or the ‘Capitol Hill Organized Protest’ was created to establish autonomy from the police. Since it’s founding, however, the area has been the scene of four shootings that resulted in two fatalities and has reportedly seen multiple incidents of sexual assault, violence, and robberies.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who once hailed the area as the “summer of love” ordered that the “unlawful assembly” be dismantled and instructed law enforcement to take immediate action Wednesday.

BREAKING: Seattle Police retake CHAZ pic.twitter.com/GOb9JKigIG
— Handbrake Poso (@JackPosobiec) July 1, 2020

“As I have said, and I will say again, I support peaceful demonstrations. Black Lives Matter, and I too want to help propel this movement toward meaningful change in our community. But enough is enough,” said Police Chief Carmen Best in a response to the Mayor’s decision.

A reported Twitter account for ‘CHOP’ has also been suspended. However, an earlier tweet showed that the leaders of ‘CHOP’ had acknowledged the end to their experiment saying, “Over the last two weeks, we achieved what no one thought possible. We successfully built a self-governing community and convinced city leaders to enact meaningful police reform, including substantial budget cuts to the SPD.”

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Nation

Boston Celtics Player Legally Changing Name to ‘Enes Kanter Freedom’ to Celebrate U.S. Citizenship

Published

3 days ago

November 29, 2021

Staff Writer

Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images

Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is celebrating becoming a U.S. citizen in an incredible way. The 29-year-old athlete from Turkey is having his citizenship oath ceremony Monday, and will legally change his name to Enes Kanter Freedom.

Kanter is an outspoken human rights advocate who had his Turkish passport revoked in 2017 after he criticized Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mediaite reports “he has also criticized NBA stars Michael Jordan and LeBron James for not doing enough to help the Black community and not speaking out against exploitative labor practices in China respectively.”

Celtics head coach Ime Udoka told the Boston Globe the team is “all for” the player’s name change. Kanter’s manager says the player will complete his legal name change to have Kanter become his middle name and Freedom be his new last name at Monday’s ceremony.

“We congratulated him as a group for getting his American citizenship last week,” Udoka said. “That’s who Enes is, we’re proud of him. Enes is who he is. He’s passionate about his stances and the name change; you look at [Ron] Artest [who changed his name to Metta Sandiford-Artest in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak] and guys that have done it in the past. It’s something he wants to express and we’re all for it.”

Kanter has already changed his official Twitter account to Enes Kanter FREEDOM with his new last name in all caps. Freedom made waves when he tweeted the following on November 18: Money over Morals for the ‘King’. Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice. They really do ‘shut up & dribble’ when Big Boss [inserted Chinese flag] says so. Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?”

The tweet included photos of basketball shoes he wore painted with human rights depictions and phrases such as “hey still researching and getting educated?” as well as “I am informed and educated on the situation.”

The statement is with regard to his criticism of LeBron James’ partnership with Nike. “Nike remains one of the NBA’s biggest sponsors as both organizations feed off their partnerships with China” reports Mediaite. Kanter Freedom also made an offer to take Michael Jordan and Nike co-founder Phil Knight to China in order for the men to “visit these slave labor camps and you can see it with your own eyes.”