Japanese reporter goes to CHAZ to prove it’s peaceful, leaves within 15 min with BLACK EYE

A Japanese artist, activist and reporter went to Seattle to cover the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) and to show that the protest was non-violent. He left within 15 minutes having been severely beaten up.

Oogesa Taro, the organizer of a collaborative social art project called ‘Without Borders’, travelled to the US to explore the ongoing protests that erupted in the wake of the George Floyd killing by Minneapolis police.

Reporting from the ground within the CHAZ, it didn’t take long before Taro was set upon and beaten up by some of the area’s less welcoming residents.

Despite the unsavoury encounter and hostility, Taro’s indomitable spirit led him back to the scene of the crime. 

“Im back. #CHOP. To prove that this is not a protest that affirms violence. To prove that this is not a violent protest,” he said. 

He returned undeterred to cover the civil unrest in the US as anti-racism activists and anarchists unite to create a police-free utopia, in which at least one person has been shot dead and several injured.

The plucky documentarian’s voyage into the heart of America’s civil unrest has generated a few chuckles online, with some sharing visual representations of Taro’s expectations versus reality.

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