#Seattle police walk back claim of business extortion in cop-free zone

Seattle police walked back its claim that businesses located within the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone were being extorted by protesters.

“That has not happened affirmatively,” Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said Thursday, according to the Seattle Times. “We haven’t had any formal reports of this occurring.”

At a news conference Wednesday, Assistant Chief Deanna Nollette said police had heard “anecdotally” that businesses located in the CHAZ — an autonomous zone taken over by protesters in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood — were being forced to pay in order to operate in the area.

The claim was widely reported by news outlets.

But some restaurant owners denied the rumor.

“This protest has not hurt us at all,” Brian O’Connor, co-owner of Bok a Bok Chicken, told the Seattle Times.

The CHAZ was set up by protesters earlier this week after the Seattle Police Department abandoned its East Precinct. The police-free zone has since spread to about a six-block radius, with demonstrators hosting teach-ins, movie nights and doling out free food.