An occupation that began after the July 22 fatal police shooting of Corey Ruiz has entered its eighth day at the intersection of Williamson and Baldwin streets. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s administration is actively coordinating with protestors who are maintaining barricades that include nail-studded boards, tents, and checkpoints. City officials are busy delivering porta-potties, wood, and traffic barriers, ordering police to stand down and leaving 911 calls unanswered inside the zone, according to multiple local reports and social media accounts circulating Thursday.
Taxpayer-funded salt trucks now double as barricades to block vehicle access, and city crews, more interested in appeasing activists than protecting businesses, arrange garbage collection for the site. District 6 Alder Davy Mayer has confirmed the city is coordinating basic services with organizers.
Meanwhile, local businesses are bleeding. Lazy Jane’s Cafe is operating at roughly one-third to one-half of normal volume. The owner of Weary Traveler reported one of the slowest weekends in 18 years, requiring staff cuts and personal operation of the restaurant while facing upcoming rent and loan payments. Additional shop owners have described operating “in the red.” Employees of businesses affected by the protest shutdowns who had their hours cut have taken to begging on social media for financial assistance. The occupation is harming neighborhood residents and workers more than anyone else.
Residents in the blocked area have reported that they can’t even get to their homes or buy groceries. Neighbors describe feeling trapped amid trash, graffiti and barricades. One resident’s statement described the site as a “lawless zone and homeless encampment barricaded on all four sides with groups blocking local residences and businesses from surviving.”
Talk radio host Vicki McKenna reported Thursday that 911 calls inside the zone are going unanswered by order of the mayor, that officers have been told to stand down, and the city is providing “mutual aid” in the form of wood, barricades, and porta-potties. McKenna stated the officer involved in the Ruiz shooting has received threats to rape and kill his family and has been forced to relocate more than once. She said the city’s Independent Police Monitor is actively impeding investigations and that local media attention has largely ceased.
Many accounts on X have circulated images and videos of the nail barriers and the occupied intersection, along with complaints of intimidation. One post included photographs of nail boards and barricades, with the caption noting that residents report harassment while attempting to obtain food for children and that first responders use side roads. Another shared a resident video of exiting an apartment into the encampment. Additional posts displayed calls for more sandbags and described the zone as controlled by activists linked to progressive groups, with images of the occupied intersection and resident statements about property access.
Ruiz, who had a lengthy criminal record including prior battery and resisting law enforcement, was shot after police said he produced a knife and injured an officer during an attempted arrest. The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating. Activists have labeled the site the Corey Ruiz Autonomous Zone, or CRAZ, and have stated they will remain until charges are filed against the officer.
The street is still closed, with no end in sight, as city resources continue to flow to support the occupation, while the mayor’s office orders police to stand down. In Madison, surrendering public space to activist mobs is apparently the new normal.
