Madison protesters block street outside jail after encampment is cleared
CBS 58 MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) — Demonstrators blocked the street outside the Dane County Jail on Wednesday, shifting their form of protest two weeks after a police officer shot and killed a man in one of the city's most popular neighborhoods.
The demonstrators had set up an encampment at the intersection of Williamson Street and South Baldwin Street, where an officer fatally shot Corey Ruiz.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway allowed the encampment to remain for days before authorizing police and public works crews to dismantle it Tuesday morning.
About 150 to 200 demonstrators retook control of the intersection Tuesday night before police cleared it again Wednesday morning.
Instead of returning to the shooting location, demonstrators led by Freedom Inc. and the Free the 350 Bail Fund rallied outside the county jail.
They said they were using donations to pay people's bail with the goal of securing the release of 50 people. That included people arrested at the encampment site Tuesday and others whom organizers described as victims of a system that is failing them.
"We are out here making sure that our people are freed, and they're welcomed home," Zon Moua, an executive leader with Freedom Inc., said outside the jail. "We have Black people who are locked up in prison right now for crimes of poverty because the city refuses to actually provide quality health care, quality housing."
Since 2020, Freedom Inc. has received millions of dollars through government contracts, primarily from the City of Madison and Dane County.
While demonstrators rallied at the jail, the former encampment site was mostly empty.
As rain fell Wednesday morning, three protesters stood on one corner, watching over a circle of flowers placed in the street.
Four police officers stood across the street. Street sweepers later passed through the area, appearing to leave the flowers untouched while clearing other parts of the road.
"What I found down here was community, being together in a time when they needed each other, you know?" Fable Fitzgerald, one of the three demonstrators, said. "There were people from all walks of life — homeless, rich people, in between — just existing together and sharing the resources they had."
Fitzgerald said he was there to make sure people did not forget about Ruiz and to help amplify Black people's voices.
"I'm just here for now, and then I'm gonna go about my day," Fitzgerald said. "The flowers are gonna wash away, but I'll be back tomorrow."
Police said Ruiz was armed with a knife and cut one of the officers who was trying to arrest him. Cellphone videos showing an officer shooting Ruiz three times from close range prompted the nearly two-week occupation of the intersection.
Madison police officers do not wear body cameras. The Madison Common Council has repeatedly voted down measures that would have provided them.
Protesters outside the jail said their movement predated Ruiz's death, citing what they consider to be unacceptable racial disparities in Madison's arrest numbers.
Jewel Adams of Free the 350 said she also wanted to raise awareness about conditions inside the jail, issuing a challenge to local elected leaders.
"If Mayor Satya [Rhodes-Conway] and anybody else in power could tour or take a night, take a bed one night inside of the Dane County Jail," Adams said. "See, is that living conditions?"
