zlacker

>>obilgi+(OP)
A friend lives in Seattle and texted me today about his visit last night:

> I was there last night and it's such a cool pseudo utopian place

> The media coverage of it is WILD

> People on the internet are convinced it's protected by armed guards and people are dying of hunger and instead its...like a music festival campground

> There are speakers, musicians, art walls. I took a group pic for a bunch of black guys last night and they were so proud of what was built because they felt like they fought for it, which in a sense, they did.

>>conroy+fz1
> The media coverage of it is WILD

I live 7 blocks away from "the zone" and can confirm, I have never in my life seen anything alike in this regard. The scale of the misinformation being spread in social networks and news media reached a level I couldn't believe possible before. Seriously, it's beyond absurd.

If anyone is interested, I have been taking some pictures of the ongoing protests (including a few of the zone): https://www.flickr.com/photos/peramides

>>pera+gF1
Seattle police chief said on TV [1] that "Rapes, robberies and all sorts of violent acts have been occurring in the area and we're not able to get to [them]."

Doesn’t sound very utopian

[1] https://twitter.com/mrandyngo/status/1271291958296604675?s=2...

>>drevil+IP2
How, after all the events of the last two weeks, is anyone still willing to take a police-person’s word as truth?

>>iron00+2d3
Because some people are still rational enough to treat individuals on an individual basis.

>>Fellsh+wo3
And this particular individual has already had to walk back false statements: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-area-prote...

> The Seattle Police Department walked back its claim, widely repeated in the news media, that denizens of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone are extorting businesses.

> "That has not happened affirmatively," Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best in a news conference Thursday afternoon, adding that the police department had based earlier claims on anecdotal reports, including in the news and on social media. "We haven't had any formal reports of this occurring."

> That contradicts earlier statements from the police.

>>rideon+IC3
That's an individual, correct.

My response, if you look, was to a post that posed the question:

> How, after all the events of the last two weeks, is anyone still willing to take a police-person’s word as truth?

That is not speaking of an individual, but of a group, and then asserting claims regarding all members of that group.

>>Fellsh+RE3
Government agency spokesperson says something => most people automatically give it higher credibility.

Of course technically that's a logical fallacy but in practice I don't think most people are used to questioning the truthfulness of official positions by the police.

In fact if we were to start questioning police truthfulness more, there'd be pretty big changes to how police testimony is treated in legal cases.