The illegal occupation that activists have branded the “Corey Ruiz Autonomous Zone” has now squatted on Williamson Street for over a week after a Madison police officer fatally shot a knife-wielding career criminal. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway has done little more than watch from the sidelines, apparently content to let chaos reign.
Protesters continue to barricade the busy intersection of Williamson and Baldwin streets with wooden pallets, trash cans, and boards studded with nails. Tents, couches, and a self-described “communist library” have turned a public roadway into a semi-permanent encampment. Residents report being forced to navigate the chaos daily, while one self-proclaimed zone leader has been publicly soliciting Venmo donations.
City officials have not merely failed to restore order to the area — they have actively facilitated it. The city parked trucks to help seal off the intersection, provided portable toilets, and arranged trash collection as if this were a city-sanctioned festival rather than an illegal occupation. In a statement Thursday, Rhodes-Conway acknowledged the situation is “not sustainable or safe,” yet offered no timeline or plan to reopen the street to traffic or remove the barricades. In her first television interview since the shooting, the mayor estimated the financial hit to the city at “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
This is no longer a protest. It is an occupation. And progressive leadership in Madison is treating it as a protected community project rather than a violation of the law.
The shooting that triggered the takeover occurred July 22 when officers confronted Corey Ruiz, 38, a man with dozens of prior convictions including robbery, strangulation, battery of a public safety worker, and resisting arrest. Police say Ruiz stabbed an officer during the encounter. Activists immediately labeled the shooting an “execution,” and the intersection quickly became a base for continuous occupation.
Enter state Rep. Francesca Hong, the socialist frontrunner for the Democrat nomination for governor whose Assembly district includes the site. When asked this week whether the encampment should remain, Hong refused to call for its removal. “Protest is a form of direct democracy,” she said, “and I haven’t yet talked to some of our folks there.”
“Our folks.”
That is not the language of a candidate who prioritizes public safety or the rule of law. It is the language of a politician who favors abolishing the police and views an illegal street takeover as an extension of her own political network. Hong has previously called the shooting an “execution.” She has shown no urgency in demanding the zone be dismantled even as her own constituents deal with the disruption.
Madison has seen this movie before. Progressive cities that coddle “autonomous zones” in the name of social justice end up with vandalized streets, intimidated residents, and eroded trust in basic governance. Seattle’s CHOP experiment ended in shootings and chaos. Madison’s sequel is still being managed with taxpayer resources and political cowardice.
Rhodes-Conway’s administration has chosen accommodation over enforcement. Hong has chosen solidarity with the occupiers over solidarity with the people who actually live and work on Willy Street. Neither has shown the spine needed to shut down the lawless encampment and restore order to a public street.
Wisconsin voters watching the governor’s race should take note. When a candidate sees an illegal, nail-studded occupation in her own district and calls the ringleaders ‘our folks,’ she is telling you everything you need to know about the kind of leadership she would inflict on the state.
