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A Seattle-based ice cream company, Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, is suing for "extensive property damage" that it suffered from a BLM zone "CHOP" in 2020, according to a lawsuit shared by reporter Sam Campbell.
In the summer of 2020, rioters created an anti-police zone that was initially called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) but was later renamed the Capitol Hill Occupied protest (CHOP). As a result, KUOW reported, protestors took over a "10-block area surrounding a Molly Moon’s location."
Three years later, Molly Moon’s filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington to sue the city for ignoring its constitutional rights because police chose to "abandon" the CHOP zone to rioters, per the lawsuit.
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City crews dismantle the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) area outside of the Seattle Police Departments vacated East Precinct on July 1, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (David Ryder/Getty Images)
The CEO of Molly Moon's, Molly Moon Neitzel, told Fox News Digital that it did not want to undermine the message of racial equity through its lawsuit.
"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," Neitzel said.
The lawsuit claims that it "does not seek to undermine CHOP participants' message or present a counter message."
"Rather," the suit continued, "this lawsuit is about [Molly Moon's] constitutional and other legal rights of which were overrun by the City of Seattle's decision to abandon and close off an entire city neighborhood, leaving it unchecked by police, unserved by fire and emergency health services, and inaccessible to the public at large, and then materially support and encourage a hostile occupation of that neighborhood."
The lawsuit also alleges that the city of Seattle's failure to protect its residents from the protests "subjected businesses, employees, and residents of that neighborhood to extensive property damage, public safety dangers, and an inability to use and access their properties."
Molly Moon’s lawsuit comes after public and repeated endorsements of the BLM movement in Seattle and around the country. On the company’s Instagram page, there are multiple posts celebrating leaders in the BLM movement, including Nikkita Olilver, a lawyer who identifies as non-binary.
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Molly Moon has also shared posts on "voting with a felony," promoting access to "safe abortions" and in support of Pride Month.
The ice cream company is just one of multiple parties suing Seattle for its failure to prevent businesses and residents from damages, danger and even death resulting from CHOP back in 2020.
A father who lost his teenage son in Seattle’s CHOP zone also sued the city.
DAD OF TEEN KILLED IN SEATTLE CHOP ZONE SUES CITY: 'ENCOURAGED LAWLESSNESS TO REIGN'
A father who lost his teenage son in Seattle’s CHOP zone also sued the city. (Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In his suit filed with Oshan & Associates this month, Antonio Mays, Sr., said the city was well aware of the violence in CHOP but had abandoned it "without a working plan to provide essential services." His 16-year-old son, Antonio Mays, Jr., was fatally shot after he had traveled there from California for what he thought was a "peaceful protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement."
"Sadly, Antonio soon realized that there was nothing peaceful about CHOP," the suit states.
The city attorney's office did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
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Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
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