A Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestor in Seattle, who was also a part of CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), has been charged with hate crimes against Asian American women. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was a Left-wing occupation of a six-block area in Seattle in order to establish a “socialist utopia”.
According to a local Seattle news outlet, BLM activists and organizers in the area did have a recollection of the suspect, Christopher Hamner. One describes his “creepy stares”, another says that his actions seemed “out of left field”.
Hamner was arrested last month for three counts of malicious harassment against three different Asian-American women. According to court documents, on March 16th, Pamela Cole and her two children were driving when Hamner, aged 51, approached her vehicle, which was stopped at a traffic light. He started walking towards her vehicle and yelled at her, using explicit profanity and anti-Asian hate speech.
“He just opens his door and starts yelling at me. ‘F’ you, you Asian ‘B’. ‘F’ you kind of thing,” Pamela Cole said. “And then he pulls in the parking lot and comes charging at us.”
According to investigators, Hamner committed similar anti-Asian harassment to two other women just days later.
Last summer, during the Geroge Floyd protests/riots, Christopher Hamner was an extremely active BLM activist, often seen in BLM protests. According to Hamner’s social media activities, he was also part of the anarchist Left-wing CHAZ, which was a police-free autonomous zone controlled by BLM activists and Antifa.
He recorded a video of himself in the zone where he was holding an anti-Donald Trump and anti-police sign. His social media accounts are filled with posts expressing hatred of Trump and Republicans. Hamner is also a loyal supporter of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “progressive” causes. He had even uploaded multiple posts condemning anti-Asian hate crimes and white supremacy.
When informed about his BLM past, Pamela Cole said, “Of course it strikes me as hypocritical, but I wasn’t surprised to be completely honest, I wasn’t shocked about it.”
BLM leaders from last year’s wave of protests tried to distance themselves from Hamner, saying that he always seemed to be on the fringe.
Christopher Hamner is presently in custody, with a court date tomorrow. However, Pamela Cole does not think that prison will solve Hamner’s issues.
“At the end of the day if he goes to jail, he still comes out as a racist full of hate,” Cole said. “Nothing’s changed. He didn’t learn anything. There was no rehab in it so to me it’s pointless.”
King County prosecutors charged the 51-year-old with a felony hate crime for targeting multiple Asian victims on two separate occasions in March. Currently he is being held at the King County Correctional Facility for the felony hate crime charge plus three additional counts of malicious harassment, and his bail is set at $75,000.
In February, A Black Lives Matter leader was arrested in connection with the vandalism of an Abraham Lincoln statue in Boise, Idaho.