Chopped: Seattle’s Molly Moon Sues Over Autonomous Zone that the Ice Cream Shop Once Heralded

Seattle-based ice cream company, Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, is in a dilemma. It wants to continue to support Black Lives Matter but it wants to recoup loses from the “CHOP” zone created by BLM activists and others in 2020. It is suing the city over the abandoning of part of the city to the groups to form the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) but was later renamed the Capitol Hill Occupied protest (CHOP). While first supporting the autonomous zone as part of a “summer of love,” Democratic politicians like then Mayor Jenny Durkan later distanced themselves from the massive damage and crime in the zone.

Molly Moon is now suing over its abandonment by the city to these groups. However, it has struggled to maintain that it supports those groups. Conservatives have also objected that Molly Moon previously advocated defunding police and supported the creation of CHOP.

At the time, the shop reportedly posted:

“This is a photo of #CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) Seattle – a part of Capitol Hill near our shop taken over by peaceful protestors. It’s in the process of transforming into beautiful Black Lives Matter art, now that the police barricade is gone, and is another way our community is standing up for Black lives in our city and country.”

Molly Moon maintains that the lawsuit “does not seek to undermine CHOP participants’ message or present a counter message.” CEO of Molly Moon’s, Molly Moon Neitzel, told Fox News Digital:

“At Molly Moon’s we hold race equity at the top of our list of our priorities for how we want to make the world better. Black Lives Matter. The lawsuit filed on Wednesday, June 7 is not meant to undermine that important message. It’s seeking compensation for the significant revenue losses and team morale impacts we experienced during and for many months after CHOP caused by the City of Seattle’s decision to affirmatively create and assist the CHOP occupation of Capitol Hill, to abandon the police precinct and to stop responding to public safety needs in our beloved Capitol Hill community.”

Many of us were shocked when the local officials decided to abandon the area, including a police station. They then watched from a safe distance as extensive property damage occurred and violent crime spiked in the absence of any law enforcement. It was just politically too difficult to confront these groups so leaders like Durkan joked about it and the media portrayed the zone like a “block party.”

That block party is now the subject of this lawsuit and it could come down to what is considered discretionary decisions by government officials.  In ice cream parlance, they could be in for a Rocky Road.