January 1, Inside Seattle’s ‘No-Cop’ Autonomous Zone

This Day in History | 1966

The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Miranda v. Arizona, establishing the principle that all criminal suspects must be advised of their rights before interrogation.

Good morning Middle Americans, 

I’m sure most of us wished we were driving through an ‘autonomous zone’ when we saw those blue and red lights behind us. Going a little too fast? Trouble with the police? Well this is something entirely different. We all have been wondering what life would look like if police departments were defunded or disbanded. Well, now we kinda know. In Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, they’ve created a police free zone and the results are exactly what you’d imagine. Picture a Phish concert with racial justice overtones.

Speaking of tones, as in tone deaf, the Trump campaign has wisely decided to shift the date of his comeback rally to June 20th from June 19th. Juneteenth as it’s called, has become a holiday to mark the end of slavery. Now, about the president’s decision to do the rally in Tulsa Oklahoma? Home of one of our nation’s worst ever race riots, Tulsa? Yeah, that Tulsa. Someone is being cute. Probably too cute. 

Also today we have stories about the CDC warning us about the prospect of implementing strict quarantining measures, should we see a significant spike in COVID-19 cases. Also, sponsors are fleeing Tucker Carlson after he discounted the black lives matter movement during his opinion show on Fox News. God forbid someone has an opinion. 

Read all about it. 

-Fraser Dixon

Here’s What Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone Looks Like

(USA Today) – In Seattle, a group of peaceful protesters have cornered off several city blocks and established the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone – a sort of protest haven where artists paint murals, speakers discuss topics of racial equity, snacks are handed out for free and virtually no police are in sight.

President Donald Trump has branded the protest society as a group of “ugly Anarchists” and “Domestic Terrorists,” but the city’s mayor says Trump doesn’t get it. It’s a group of people gathering lawfully and exercising their First Amendment right of free speech, said Mayor Jenny Durkan.

“It is patriotism,” Durkan added.

The group gathered after Seattle police abandoned a precinct in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on Monday and effectively handed the area over to the protesters they had clashed with for days. 

According to media reports from around the area, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, has a festival-like energy where people are peacefully gathering and discussing how to better the world in an experiment of a society without police amid calls around the country to “defund” departments. 

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Trump Shifts Date of Oklahoma Rally to ‘Respect’ Emancipation Holiday

(Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Friday he would shift the date of an Oklahoma rally from June 19th, the date of the “Juneteenth” holiday, to June 20th out of respect for a day commemorating the end of U.S. slavery.

Amid protests against racial injustice, Trump had faced criticism for scheduling his first campaign rally in months on a day known by African Americans as Freedom Day and in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city where white mobs massacred African-Americans a century ago. 

“Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday,” Trump tweeted. “I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests.” 

Trump, seeking re-election on Nov. 3, scheduled the Tulsa rally on June 19th, the date in 1865 when Texas became the last of the pro-slavery Confederate states forced to comply with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War declaring all people held as slaves free.

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CDC Warns U.S. May Reimplement Strict Coronavirus Measures if Cases Go Up ‘Dramatically’

(CNBC) – States may need to reimplement the strict social distancing measures that were put in place earlier this year if U.S. coronavirus cases rise “dramatically,” a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Friday.

“Right now, communities are experiencing different levels of transmission occurring, as they gradually ease up onto the community mitigation efforts and gradually reopen,” the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, Jay Butler, told reporters during a press briefing. 

“If cases begin to go up again, particularly if they go up dramatically, it’s important to recognize that more mitigation efforts such as what were implemented back in March may be needed again,” Butler said.

He said the decision to reimplement measures will have to be made locally and based on “what is happening within the community regarding disease transmission.”

The “pandemic is not over” and it’s important to recognize that Covid-19 is still making headlines everywhere, he added.

There is a concern by public health experts that some states are opening prematurely, but there is also a desire to mitigate economic hardships as U.S. job losses mount, keeping up the pressure on state leaders to allow people to go back to work. Texas, for example, was among the first states to relax its statewide stay-at-home order, allowing it to expire April 30. This week, the state reported new highs in cases and a series of record-breaking coronavirus hospitalizations.

Get the latest here

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Loses More Advertisers

(New York Times) – Disney, Papa John’s, Poshmark and T-Mobile backed away from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after the host’s comments about Black Lives Matter protests.

On Monday’s segment of his prime-time show, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson cast doubt on the reasons behind the worldwide unrest prompted by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

“This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through,” Mr. Carlson said. “But it is definitely not about black lives, and remember that when they come for you. And at this rate, they will.”

Since he made those statements and others, prominent companies including the Walt Disney Company, Papa John’s, Poshmark and T-Mobile have distanced themselves from “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” joining other businesses that have backed away from the show in recent years.

The flight of advertisers accelerated on Tuesday, when the watchdog group Sleeping Giants tagged T-Mobile in a Twitter post, saying that Fox News had aired what amounted to an “extremely racist segment scaremongering about the Black community.”

Read more here