New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcast

The 2020 Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) in Seattle began as a police-free utopia centered on mutual aid and racial justice, but it ultimately collapsed into violence and tragedy. While the occupation aimed to protect Black lives following intense anti-police brutality protests, the experiment took a dark turn when self-appointed security forces, fearing right-wing attacks, opened fire on a vehicle. This incident resulted in the death of 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr., a Black teenager whose father maintains he was there to support the movement. Investigation into the unsolved case reveals a complex narrative of tactical escalation, mistaken identity, and the failure of an autonomous community to maintain the safety it promised. New evidence, including witness accounts of high-speed chases and previously unseen footage of firearms, highlights the contradictions of a movement that sought to end state violence but ended up replicating its most lethal outcomes.