Good luck finding it in Apple News' archives, but an article from I read (probably from The Guardian or BBC, maybe a WSJ freebie) basically said "Rumors of protection rackets were started on right-wing sites, then passed along as hearsay by police, but every business owner we contacted said that was a lie."
Def not the article I was thinking of earlier today, but
here's one from Politico that also sums things up fairly nicely.
Are they using plumbing, electricity, internet, etc? If so, they kinda need to leech off of the country that surrounds them no?
I might be wrong, but this seems like crazy anarchists mixed with crazy socialists to me.
I'm sure all the meters are still running, and eventually the residents and business owners will pay for what they used/provided. As for the "types" taking part in the "festivities," all the articles I've read which aren't breathlessly screaming about chaos or
doctoring photos have been pretty much in line with the above Politico... hippie commune, sure, but hardly anarchists and socialists (which, in America, is code for "Dirty pinko commie scum!").