SEATTLE (CN) — Two Seattle businesses asked the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to revive their lawsuit accusing the city of worsening conditions inside the police-free, autonomous protest zone created during a summer of civil unrest five years ago.
“The city took several actions that fueled a dangerous, unlawful environment that had a serious and devastating impact on the plaintiffs,” said Angelo Calfo, attorney representing the two Seattle businesses suing the city, Hugo Properties and Oma Bap.
In 2020, amid widespread protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota police, Seattle protesters barricaded off a 12-block portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and police withdrew from the precinct. The area became known as CHOP, which stands for the Capitol Hill Occupying Protest…