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Twenty-two people have been arrested since the city of Madison began clearing out a protest encampment on the city’s near east side, officials said Wednesday after a night marked by clashes between protesters and police.
After city workers approached the encampment around 5 a.m. Tuesday and some of those occupying the space did not leave, a police spokesperson said the demonstrators threw rocks and set fires. Police moved in, and the street reopened to traffic just after 9 a.m.
For close to 13 days, the area had been blocked off by a memorial to Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man. That memorial morphed into an encampment spanning several city blocks, as people brought tents, mattresses and grills to the site at South Baldwin and Williamson streets, known as Willy Street to Madison residents.
Around 8 a.m., city street sweepers moved in to clean the area. City workers placed memorial objects into boxes that were later taken to Demetral Field, a nearby park.
“For nearly two weeks, I and City staff have been working day and night to peacefully resolve the occupation of Williamson and Baldwin without law enforcement intervention,” Mayor Satya-Rhodes Conway said in a video message on Tuesday, adding that city officials plan to work with the Ruiz family and other community members to create an ongoing space to grieve. “But that work could not begin while city streets were occupied, local businesses were on the verge of closing, and residents in the Marquette neighborhood were caught in the middle of an increasingly volatile situation. ”
The operation to clear the streets started at roughly 5 a.m., according to Madison Police Department spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. She told WPR that the city initially sent in non-police staffers to tell people to clear the area. She said that the city sent in its Community Alternative Response Emergency Services and that street division workers walked through the encampment with a megaphone “essentially telling people now is the time to begin grabbing your belongings and leave.”
Fryer said police got involved after people started starting fires and throwing objects at Streets Division workers.
“We also had been told that they were taking candles that were lit for the memorial and also throwing those in the air, trying to start fire that way,” Fryer said.
Two people protesting were injured while the encampment was being cleared, according to Fryer. One person was evaluated by medical staff and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the other refused treatment. Fryer said a city employee was taken to the hospital after suffering a “medical event.”
Fryer emphasized that one’s personal property from the site was being thrown away.
“The only things that were removed and actually thrown away were the items that obviously were started on fire or actual trash in the area,” Fryer said.
Samuel Brooks of Portage was among those cited. He said he was handcuffed, taken downtown and later released by police after being at the encampment early Tuesday. Brooks says he previously spent more than a decade living in the Willy Street neighborhood, and he had been at the encampment overnight.
“We saw city vehicles moving around, and then we got word that the police were massing nearby, and yeah, they just circled up,” Brooks said.
Brooks said city officials arrived some time before dawn. When that happened, he said he was among the people trying to wake up a couple who were sleeping in a tent and who he believed to be homeless.
“Bulldozer was coming straight for their tent,” Brooks said. “People were trying to get things under his wheels so we could get these people like out of the way before they came through.
Brooks’ arrest report showed that he was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest. It listed a $449 fine from the city. He said he wasn’t worried about the citation.
“I’ve got resources,” said Brooks, who is white. “I think my skin is a shield against police violence in a lot of situations.”
Chaous Riddle of Madison said she was also at the encampment when it was forcibly cleared early Tuesday.
“The whole thing was actually horrific,” Riddle said, as she recalled seeing heavy machinery and construction equipment plowing through the encampment. “They came in with their ToolCats. They barely missed people because it was dark.”
A sculpture of a raised fist that had been part of a memorial for George Floyd in Minneapolis had been brought by protesters to the Madison site. That sculpture, flowers and signs were also moved to the nearby park.
The encampment started as a protest site following the death of Ruiz in a struggle with police. It has blocked a busy thoroughfare and shut down traffic to businesses and residences in the neighborhood since.
Police said Ruiz, who was homeless, produced a knife during a struggle with police, injuring one officer. Police used a Taser that they said was unsuccessful, and then an officer fatally shot Ruiz. The shooting, which was captured on video by bystanders, is being investigated by the state Department of Justice.
Protesters have called for a permanent memorial to Ruiz as one of their demands following the shooting.
Devon Snyder, a civil rights activist who is part of Madison’s Police Civilian Oversight Board, said he found the city’s move to clear the site “hypocritical.”
“This is disheartening,” Snyder told a WPR reporter at the scene. “Something that was a tragedy, built a beautiful community. And they come and do this? … They want to call this an unlawful assembly. If this was an unlawful assembly, then why did the city support this for the last week?”
The move to clear the encampment comes after days of escalating warnings by the mayor.
On Sunday, she said the city would issue tow orders for vehicles blocking the street. On Monday, she signaled that city action was imminent.
“Countless efforts have been made to convince people that the occupation of Williamson Street and Baldwin Street is counterproductive,” Rhodes-Conway said in a statement Monday. “A huge amount of patience has been given because the last thing Madison needs is a large-scale police operation. That’s why those occupying the area need to leave immediately.”
Madison’s Common Council will be meeting Tuesday night for the first time since the shooting. That meeting will be in virtual format only. A city spokesperson previously said that decision came out of an abundance of caution after threats against multiple elected officials.
Editor’s note: WPR’s Sarah Lehr and Jenny Peek contributed reporting.
A version of this story was originally published by WPR.
Madison police clear encampment at shooting site, arrest 22 is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
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