Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (Part 1/3) - Intro, White Body Shields, and David Lewis Raw Interview
Added 2025-02-28 19:15:04 +0000 UTCHey guys,
Here's the first installment of our Patreon-exclusive C.H.O.P series, which covers a protest action that took place in my hometown of Seattle, Washington in the Summer of 2020. For reasons that I'll explain in this video, I've chosen to keep this footage on ice for over a half a decade but now believe that it's the right time to drop.
When it comes to the raw interviews that I'll be premiering with David Lewis, BB-Sun and Raz Simone (three HIGHLY controversial individuals), I'm making the choice to keep the interviews as unedited and raw as possible for you guys to avoid any sort of spin. It might require a bit more patience as a viewer but I don't wanna splice up or misrepresent anyone's viewpoints .. after all, I'm from the town!!!
Best
AC
Comments
part 2 and three when? Would love to see this.
Tanner Govin
2026-01-10 04:37:09 +0000 UTCPart 2 pleeeaaase ! The lack of resolution is so disappointing after that intro from Andrew
Lily DeSantis
2026-01-03 22:13:49 +0000 UTCPart 2?
Thomas Madsen Jørgensen
2025-05-21 06:06:09 +0000 UTCWhen are the next two parts coming out? I work at the apartment building that is right next to Walgreens on Broadway & E. Pine, I subscribed specifically this footage! Please release.....thanks Andrew!
KV Anon
2025-04-26 04:10:10 +0000 UTCVery true, makes me lose respect for the channel. Being honest with your audience is important. I understand waiting a month to drop the second installment but just leaving us hanging completely is whack
Charlie
2025-04-14 14:34:40 +0000 UTCYeah one thing I don't like on the Patreon is it seems like we get a lot of first parts and rarely finish it also some things feel like they get trimmed bad at the end (cock fighting for example), or there's so many different versions (anti Elon rally, 3 different versions counting the YouTube as well). You don't know what to watch or you get left hanging.
Nat
2025-04-10 02:33:59 +0000 UTCWhen are we getting the second installment?
Charlie
2025-03-24 20:14:13 +0000 UTCfaAAAG
Dasha
2025-03-22 12:44:03 +0000 UTCYES PLEASE! The video player is SO BAD! It really sucks to have to watch content that I pay for on this piece of crap.
who, me
2025-03-14 12:48:14 +0000 UTCAgree! I can't cast onto my TV from patreon and it burns me up
Virginia Hanna
2025-03-13 11:55:34 +0000 UTCSame larp-energy as the Jan 6 crowd except these guys are non violent and actually were treated like violent criminals by law enforcement
James
2025-03-11 01:07:06 +0000 UTCCaught it too and made me laugh. I was there and worked security. There was a major debate about it at the time, and it rather quickly settled into the Capitol Hill Organized Protest. It was originally CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) which was then changed to the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. Everyone quickly switched away from that name to its final name out of respect to Native American groups. "The original land was __," so they didn't want to say we were occupying it. That's genuinely the whole story.
Ethan Wolfe
2025-03-10 04:52:37 +0000 UTCI was at CHOP and worked security on the barricade at 13th and Pine the whole time, sometimes switching when there was police/fed activity and the Proud Boys showed up. I think this is an okay first insight. The "black out with a white line" is genuinely ridiculous, and I wasn't aware it happened. However, it was an extension of pre-existing practice at CHOP: white people were generally the ones working security and when altercations happened, the sentiment was that if you were white, you should hold the frontline if you were able/comfortable. It was interesting to hear David speak on his thoughts in this. Separate, but I will say -- CHOP was incredibly complicated and complex, with a lot of different stakeholders involved for a variety of reasons, and it ultimately failed due to a lack of centralized leadership and organization. There's more to say, but that's the crux. CHOP had a lot going on: huge gardens built; a food kitchen (which was incredibly useful to me, as I was living in my car/on the road at the time); mic spaces where anyone could speak and a crowd would listen; conversation areas; massive art projects; full medical teams; legal observers; and a full security apparatus. We were at risk of neo-nazi militias that wanted to shoot the space up, massive federal activity under Trump, and incredibly violent police activity. Many people died at CHOP. I think the total was 6. A driver killed two girls while we were on the highway (that was blocked off by police - he drove around them to hit the crowd), and an individual within CHOP (not associated with security, but there were only a few people that were armed at the event) shot two black kids who joyrode through the barricades one night. Others were mugged by the Proud Boys, and early on a white supremacist drove through the barricades and shot someone in the crowd. I'm honestly forgetting the other people that passed at the site. All to say is, CHOP was a serious event that altered the lives of many people permanently. I hope this is reflected in later coverage, and, if its not, it will ultimately be a poor representation of what happened there in 2020 --- as almost all of the coverage of the space is. However, this feels like it could be something great. I subbed just to see your footage (had no idea you were there at the time) and want to see the rest of it. I'm currently involved with various organizing efforts in NYC, and CHOP was hugely influential to me in how I understand efforts to affect change --- both successfully and unsuccessfully. It also changed the credentials I have sought returning to college and more broadly how I think about social movements. It's easy to dismiss --- or highlight the absurdities of --- some aspects of the movement (as you alluded to), but every movement has it's... peculiarities; which, ultimately, is one thing I have always loved about Channel 5s coverage. The absurdity of people. I do hope the harsher reality of CHOP in some instances also shows its face in later coverage.
Ethan Wolfe
2025-03-10 04:43:53 +0000 UTCThis is the legitimate, honest journalism we need. All journalists have bias whether they admit or not. Explaining why you’ve come to that reasoning through reporting is the right way forward, and what all news outlets should be doing.
Will Hooper
2025-03-09 03:50:40 +0000 UTCHow did that person use the phrase "white shield" without cringing into oblivion.
elnombre91
2025-03-07 12:52:43 +0000 UTChe's not condoning trump, he's merely trying to understand the phenomenon. besides, he's talking about the tens of millions of moderates that have been alienated from the left by a consistent trend of cringey misguided activism and ideologies at odds with the values of rural and suburban america. Not about the Q anon crazies that were predisposed towards extremism. The moderates see trump as a reckoning for these out of touch ideologies and for the perceived corruption and inaction in the government. He gives them hope in a way no politician has in a long time. They vote for him for their families, for their way of life, for their country that they love. Not because they're all sexist racist pieces of shit. Misguided from my perspective, but understandable. Make an effort to understand them, or you will not succeed in changing their minds.
ThatGameGuy
2025-03-06 21:20:56 +0000 UTCAndrew and channel 5 bringing us real journalism all the way from the past. Love it.
Ryan Vandenhaak
2025-03-06 17:29:51 +0000 UTCMy main problem is that it's slow as hell and a *massive* memory hog. Youtube and Gmail are both pretty bad at around 300MB, but then Patreon clocks in at almost 700MB. It's no wonder my computer starts huffing and puffing whenever I open the site!
Matt
2025-03-05 21:19:32 +0000 UTCYeah I think I'd rather do a YT membership. The comments section on here isn't nearly as good as well. (Even though YT's is nowhere near perfect.)
SmolPotato
2025-03-05 21:13:00 +0000 UTCOnly joined it for Channel 5, but I don't think I will renew, this platform is terrible!
Mohammad Abu Saleh
2025-03-05 20:48:06 +0000 UTCfor real, it is the worst video platform i have ever used and i would never endure it for anyone else's content
Josh Malin
2025-03-05 03:55:47 +0000 UTCAndrew your videos are amazing but Patreon's video player, and their website in general, SUCKS. Is it possible to make it a paid subscription through YT or something?
Matt
2025-03-04 22:35:05 +0000 UTCTake your meds
Ruben Garcia
2025-03-04 21:01:27 +0000 UTCTake ur meds
Ruben Garcia
2025-03-04 21:01:23 +0000 UTCYea that shit is cringey asf lmao I hate the cringey whites 😂
Ruben Garcia
2025-03-04 20:56:30 +0000 UTCGet fucking ratio’ed buddy
Ben Hardy
2025-03-04 17:35:06 +0000 UTCits feels like both parties have become radicalized and extreme especially in terms of how they treat the opposite party. So at the end of the day its just a bunch of "Adults" treating each other like complete shit and basically wanting the other to hate themselves for being who they are which doesnt really inspire anyone to action
BlankStare
2025-03-04 16:07:46 +0000 UTCi understand the electoral point of view of this, but the real underlying issue imo is that ppl want so hard not to recognize the problems and then grab at whatever straws they can to make it seem like cringy liberals is the real issue. and i dont think u can get those ppl on ur side just by admitting theres stupid ppl on the left; they will find other things to point at to deflect from the systemic issues they dont want to have to think abt in the first place.
rivvvver
2025-03-04 12:14:57 +0000 UTCwe love c5 also fuck custers
Christian
2025-03-04 05:47:19 +0000 UTCComments like this seem to miss the point. If you want people to vote for your side then they have to like you, and refusing to acknowledge that there are stupid people on the left too doesn't help with that. Saying that as someone who also hates Trump but wants the left to do better.
John Jones
2025-03-04 02:43:21 +0000 UTCits the most accurate way to talk about the underlying aspect of phenotypic racism, i.e. colorism.
Jamie
2025-03-03 21:26:58 +0000 UTCHe didn't say it was "a reasonable response", only that it's why he believes there was an extreme pivot in the first place.
Rex
2025-03-03 21:08:38 +0000 UTCi heavily disagree with the sentiment that when seeing "cringey" performative actions like the white line in this video, voting for a racist sex offender is somehow a reasonable response. and when a majority vote for a known rapist, perhaps its time to accept that we have a problem with misogyny in the US. who gives a fuck whether this particular symbolic gesture is effective or reasonable. it is at least an earnest attempt at doing good. contrast that to the racist prick who is now in the oval office, making things worse for everyone who isnt rich, white, and cisgender
rivvvver
2025-03-03 19:21:44 +0000 UTCNeed to talk to David again in 2025 see where he’s at if you guys don’t already in the next parts, great video! I spent over 3 weeks around the seattle protests, at Chaz, westlake and a lot of time at the future crystals tent. What a time lol.
Carson Brooks
2025-03-03 17:11:15 +0000 UTCThe comments section for this video is wild. I live a mile from Cap Hill but didn’t really follow what was going on and I found David Lewis’ interview informative and even inspiring. Seattle is a very white city so it takes real bravery to stand up as a small minority and organize.
Dikke Noot
2025-03-03 06:10:42 +0000 UTCWhite guilt is a funny thing. That's for sure.
Its Proxy
2025-03-02 15:19:27 +0000 UTCI think you're telling him to start an argument? When it's just an interview? This isn't some talk show where the host is gonna interject some bs or try and sway the other person. At least not in the way you're hoping.
Its Proxy
2025-03-02 15:18:44 +0000 UTCwe're bringing back segregation folks
Rexxon Tillerson
2025-03-02 15:03:45 +0000 UTC"Melinated individuals" is wild.
Jacob Ames
2025-03-02 13:59:19 +0000 UTCI was working blocks away on a retirement apartment near 7th and james and had no idea that this was happening. I am VERY thankful you were able to document all of this.
Tito Quinones
2025-03-02 08:42:08 +0000 UTCLove you Andrew.
Andrew Vukich
2025-03-02 08:32:40 +0000 UTC"Performance" is the key word there.
Taylor Fredrickson
2025-03-02 08:15:12 +0000 UTCLoves to hear his own voice.
Taylor Fredrickson
2025-03-02 08:04:25 +0000 UTCBlack people fool
The Hollywood Hater
2025-03-02 02:26:37 +0000 UTCDamn, real af Ge.
joshua tait
2025-03-02 01:31:28 +0000 UTCtake ur meds gilena
Avery Spellman
2025-03-02 01:11:30 +0000 UTCI think it's cringey because there's really no point to it. You can actively create a "black space" by not being racist and treating black people as people, not an endangered species that needs a sanctuary from poachers. And standing around without actually doing the thing that's on your sign doesn't seem like activism. It all comes off as seeking approval, especially since they're all white, and it's perfect for the media to paint activism like this as a childish tantrum.
Avery Spellman
2025-03-02 01:09:02 +0000 UTCof only ~63% of eligible voters* which is also important to note.
Inkbox
2025-03-02 01:01:46 +0000 UTCDavid at 8:48 sounds like a complete idiot
John
2025-03-01 21:40:53 +0000 UTCFINALLY
Jason Brown
2025-03-01 18:12:24 +0000 UTCAndrew is a very good journalist
Adam Dev
2025-03-01 16:07:49 +0000 UTCwhat do you mean by "us" I wonder
Tyler Barton
2025-03-01 14:53:01 +0000 UTCLooking forward to parts 2 & 3
Circumnavigate
2025-03-01 14:46:45 +0000 UTChope everyone is listening closely to what dude is saying at ~10:00
Tyler Barton
2025-03-01 14:28:51 +0000 UTC17:43 so did you actually utter yes a maaser or was it just displayed through your weak pussy body language. And your commitment to disband. Shame on you. Loser. Speak for yerself. I highly doubt anyone is willing to surrender in the face of such sadistic bullshite, other than a masochist like yerself. No time for compliance, son. Ask Mr John Lewis and educate yerself what it means to be a pioneering hero. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:48:47 +0000 UTCSorry luv! Meant that to be a general comment lol. Grammie technophobic me meant no harm. Cheers! 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:46:37 +0000 UTCLewis. Ya ain’t auditioning for a spot at Harvard. And all yer yes ma’am ing a complete insult to those oppressed around our world. Grow up, angel. Yer 15 minutes or less to justify yer non actions is up. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:45:53 +0000 UTCYes. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:43:21 +0000 UTCWord. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:41:56 +0000 UTCLewis. No one benefits from diplomacy with haters. Please reallocate your strong passions and align with those with more stamina and skill at focusing such fury in productive ways. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:40:59 +0000 UTCRead yer bible Lewis. There was a time for peace. And always time for war. You are outnumbered in your naively peaceful approach. Just like them democrats wanting to make change with sing alongs. Buenos Suerte. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:39:12 +0000 UTCYup. Mr Floyd’s tragic murder did cause demands, as it should have. Duh. Maybe go to yer safe space Lewis. Surrounded by white hypocrisy. Mr Floyd forgives your ignorance and is inspired by those not so much so. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:37:01 +0000 UTCQuestion to Mr Lewis. Have you seen the movie Get Out? Yeah. Like that. Que lastima pobrecito. Todas las verdad. Dios mio. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:34:40 +0000 UTC👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:32:14 +0000 UTCRalph for president!!! So awesome and impressive how he navigated such complete bullshite. I know I couldn’t. 🇬🇧
Gilena
2025-03-01 11:31:20 +0000 UTCIt's clear that Lewis (and his group) had a very negative/simplistic view of anarchists, even though he admits it's thanks to them it turned into something more than street protests. Saying "self-proclaimed anarchists", and "we're not terrorists", as well as the name change from CHAZ to CHOP shows the rift they had there. I hope we get an interview with the other way of thinking!
Alan Elwood
2025-03-01 10:23:38 +0000 UTCFantastic
Austin Coombs-Perez
2025-03-01 10:11:38 +0000 UTCOoooh man. Looking forward to the rest of this series. Also happens to be my neighborhood, so I'll be searching for my 14 year old self and ex-best friend in the background.
5 Kal
2025-03-01 10:08:37 +0000 UTCThank you Andrew for being a white ally and giving him space to pontificate for 11 min straight.
Taylor Fredrickson
2025-03-01 09:34:46 +0000 UTCInteresting that the spokesman almost called it an "occupation", twice, before correcting himself both times ("protest" and "space"). I guess there might have been some internal debate about terminology among the organizers, probably reflecting the different attitudes and varying demands across the group that he described. Could have been good follow up question to tease out
Oliver Sangster
2025-03-01 08:25:54 +0000 UTCDon’t get it confused, Andrew. It wasn’t an overwhelming majority. The popular vote was 49.8% to 48.3%.
Jackson M.
2025-03-01 07:58:49 +0000 UTCIronic af. That's literally the same argument for segregation
homebrew901
2025-03-01 04:55:25 +0000 UTCI was involved with Occupy a few years before this and it was rife with this kind of performative politics. I remember planning meetings basically getting shut down so people could scream about their identity and shame all white people for existing, it was such a toxic culture that it was impossible to decide upon or plan anything. If you stood up to it, you ran the risk of being "outed" as a "rapist" or a rape apologist, a tech bro, or whatever else. Though obviously people did engage in shady behavior, a lot of baseless accusations would fly at the drop of a hat among tiny cliques who were sabotaging every step in the right direction. Eventually it all imploded. When CHOP started it just looked like Occupy pt 2 with no real lessons learned but injected with swaths of inexperienced white activists pulling cringe shit thinking it was radical. No thanks.
mtzfox
2025-03-01 04:54:43 +0000 UTCI hope they at least gave you a free burrito.
Desert Rat Explorations
2025-03-01 04:51:55 +0000 UTCEver notice how all of these "autonomous zones" all start out as these cutesy, cringy play pens for white adults suffering from arrested development? They have all these stupid, childish things in them like 4 different stages for poetry readings and these pathetic looking DIY gardens. Then after a couple days they just degenerate into "whoever has the guns has the power" and then the homeless in the area come steal all the food.
homebrew901
2025-03-01 04:47:01 +0000 UTCI totally agree with you about the woke left and trump hatred derailing the real left
Cody Hefty
2025-03-01 04:37:27 +0000 UTCThese people have never seen true oppression or discrimination so they particapted in these events for a sense of self-importance. True inclusion of 2020.
Chad williams
2025-03-01 02:55:08 +0000 UTCI think most people see it as cringey because its incredibly tone deaf. someone who actually wanted to help the black community would do literally anything else besides standing around doing nothing so people can see how supportive they are. This is liberalism infecting leftism and it weakens our cause.
luxy
2025-03-01 02:18:26 +0000 UTCweird behavior, interesting to see but hard to watch the white body shield stuff. I enjoyed hearing some of what they were actually trying to do though and clearly change should happen within the police force.
Daniel Robert Blackburn
2025-03-01 01:02:20 +0000 UTClol I lived in Atlanta through most of my 20s so I was incredibly poor and exclusively lived in the worst neighborhoods in the city. I got my car stolen twice but never robbed. But that was because of exactly what you said, I was cool and friendly with my neighbors and stayed safe and connected, etc. this was also from like 2008-2016, so a lot has changed in a lot of different neighborhoods, maybe, idk. I was mostly joking but I’m sure that if I went to some area in the bluff and stood there calling myself a white shield, it wouldn’t be far fetched that I would be robbed. I think pretty much anyone would regardless of race. Maybe the bluff has changed since then though, idk. I spent time in the bluff but never in a manner that would make me a target or anything. My whole point was kind of that when you have such a high black population like in Atlanta, race and black vs white, becomes way less of an issue in many ways. We’re all just people living trying to make it. I worked at multiple fully black businesses as the only white person (customer or employee) and they just thought it was funny that I was willing to work there lol. There was no real racial tension about it. I appreciate you addressing me though and giving me the chance to provide a little clarity. I personally lived in really bad areas in Atlanta and the only reason I survived as well as I did was precisely because I got out and became friends with my neighbors and became part of the community. I’ve always lived in poor black neighborhoods my entire adult life. You can’t do that and *not* meet black people lol
ge
2025-03-01 00:48:46 +0000 UTCGood natured yes but lacking in understanding and somewhat patronizing. Not like thats the worst thing in the world though.
joshua tait
2025-03-01 00:41:30 +0000 UTCHi Ge, as someone who is also an Atlanta native I can agree this is really not something you would see down here. Robbed is pretty crazy, you might want to get out and actually talk to the black people around you most of us dont bite.
joshua tait
2025-03-01 00:37:00 +0000 UTCI don’t really have a point but as someone from Atlanta. This is wild stuff. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a store or job and am the only white person. More than often occurrence. If I ever tried to act like this in my neighborhoods, I would be laughed at and then robbed
ge
2025-03-01 00:27:54 +0000 UTCHell yeah. I grew up in Minneapolis, lived in Seattle until 2019 and been in pdx since. Your coverage of all three in this moment is stellar
TheCasualRoadie
2025-02-28 22:32:41 +0000 UTCIts interesting to get some facts backed up about the CHOP it seems like there was definitely an anarchist element to the protest and it even sounds like they started the CHOP and people like David came in to PR the whole thing up, throughout his recounting you can tell that there were contentions on what the movement was even about but its kinda crazy the demands were 50% - 100% abolishment of the police force and they called it "reform" lol.
Ryan Stiltz
2025-02-28 22:18:32 +0000 UTCClearly just Andrew's buddy who was nearby. He barely differed from Andrew's interview style. Still completely on-brand. Head over to CNN if you want uber-sanitized and drawn out blabber for news content bud.
Ben Hardy
2025-02-28 21:41:41 +0000 UTCI don't see this as cringey, except inasfar as sincerity is cringey. The line of white people around the "black healing space" obviously isn't solving racism forever, but it seems kind of like a piece of performance art. It has an idea in it that's good. Also there's obviously a number of black people who were into it.
Amy Cahoon
2025-02-28 21:41:38 +0000 UTCThank you, Sal.
Austin
2025-02-28 21:41:17 +0000 UTCWhy you send a slurring drunk black dude to represent us tho? That shit was weird af and borderline disrespectful.
The Hollywood Hater
2025-02-28 21:12:23 +0000 UTCYou can't convince me that David Lewis Raw is not actually Donald Glover doing a Derrick Comedy bit.
Avraham Moskowitz
2025-02-28 20:55:47 +0000 UTCAre we dropping each part in a once a day format?
Jovany Velazquez
2025-02-28 20:48:13 +0000 UTCDo you think that a silently large portion of people in the autonomous zone staying overnight were Cap Hill's homeless population? People in Cap Hill I've talked to seem adamant it was protestors taking up that space, but the protestors would have either been local with place to sleep, or have traveled to Seattle themselves, mainly by car. Furthermore, do you think some of these protestors deliberately used Cap Hill's homeless population to 'claim land' for their movement? It's interesting to see how movements like this can have a lasting impact for more than a few days with a constant presence, but one could argue that's the nature of Cal Anderson park anyways.
Calvin Little
2025-02-28 20:21:28 +0000 UTCMemology 101 and MG 101 news was were i got the footage that was unbiased. I appreciate it, yet this feels very late posting this
adrian houston
2025-02-28 20:18:18 +0000 UTCYou got a real short attention span
Sal Giordano
2025-02-28 20:17:02 +0000 UTCSooo many of these cringe lords with their white savior, main-character, khaleesi ass bullshit ruin every possible serious protest. Same with their larping antifa counterparts. I wouldn’t doubt for a second if some of these people were sponsored to destroy the image of these little movements. Get the news viewerships up
Daniel
2025-02-28 20:09:45 +0000 UTCGreat showcase of both sides of the internal workings of the CHAZ/CHOP, can't wait for the next parts. Never seen so much raw footage of the toddler nod either.
Adam Cade
2025-02-28 19:59:21 +0000 UTCWhy are white people so weird man WTF. We went from Nirvana and Metallica to this⁉️
Austin
2025-02-28 19:57:07 +0000 UTCTHIS is our praxis? 😭
Adam Cade
2025-02-28 19:40:54 +0000 UTCCan't wait to watch this. Living on Capitol Hill during that time was a wild experience.. Thanks Andrew for this.
funcrush
2025-02-28 19:20:14 +0000 UTCVery much looking forward to watching this when I get home from work. Thanks for keeping it real.
soph
2025-02-28 19:19:56 +0000 UTC
