Ross: Is there a compromise to be found in the CHOP?

The protesters occupying that small neighborhood east of downtown Seattle — now known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) — are running into some practical considerations.

With the local police precinct evacuated – and protesters in charge of security – a representative of property owners in the CHOP area says some residents are moving out.

“For example, in this building right here, eight people moved out today — you’re losing support,” a property owner said in a recent forum with Converge Media.

A businesses representative said delivery drivers are intimidated just by the sight of the barricades, and won’t enter, which is killing small businesses.

“We have to make it so that the community doesn’t die,” she said in the Converge Media forum.

And it was actually a member of the protest security detail who made this observation:

“Many of the residents in this community are people of color, almost all of the business owners are people of color,” he described. “I can think of only one business on this block that isn’t owned by a person of color.”

And as the meeting concluded, one of the protest leaders said this:

“I want to remind you that we didn’t ask the police to leave, we didn’t ask the police to not service us, so we just would like a suggestion for that, please.”

Could that be the compromise – that the police return to their precinct next to a street that now has “Black Lives Matter” painted in 16-foot letters, while a peaceful protest continues next door?

That would confound everybody.

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