Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best just spoke out to say that rapes and robberies are indeed occurring in the part of the city that has been taken over by Antifa protesters, but police officers are powerless to respond to them.

We previously reported that Antifa rioters had taken control of a six-block area of the city that has become known as the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” or CHAZ, an area that includes a police precinct. Officers have since surrendered the East Precinct and vacated the area. Chief Best said that since then, chaos has ensued. “Our calls for service have more than tripled,” Best said. “These are responses to emergency calls — rapes, robberies, and all sorts of violent acts that have been occurring in the area that we’re not able to get to.”

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Though President Donald Trump has demanded that city and state officials take action to disband the CHAZ, and the head of the Seattle police union has described the situation as “absolutely appalling,” both Mayor Jenny Durkan and Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) seem totally fine with continuing to let Antifa control the area. Inslee said this week that although the CHAZ is “unpermitted”  —as in an unlicensed operation— it will be allowed to continue for now since it is a peaceful protest, according to The Blaze.

“I spoke with [Durkan] and her team about the situation on Capitol Hill,” Inslee tweeted. “Although unpermitted, and we should remember we are still in a pandemic, the area is largely peaceful. Peaceful protests are fundamentally American, and I am hopeful there will be a peaceful resolution.

“What we will not allow are threats of military violence against Washingtonians coming from the White House,” he continued. “The U.S. military serves to protect Americans, not the fragility of an insecure president.”

Among their many demands, the rioters in the CHAZ want the police department to be abolished, ICE to be banned from the city, and some prisons closed down. They also want free college and the employment of black doctors and nurses.