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Madison Shuts Down Autonomous Zone
Madison’s autonomous zone is going away.
City crews on Tuesday began removing the tents, mattresses, porta-potties, and trash that built up during the two-week occupation after Madison’s police shooting death.
Fond du Lac County DA, and Republican candidate for attorney general, Eric Toney, on Tuesday said there never should have been an autonomous zone in the first place.
“The solution to this is actually pretty simple, because it’s a violation of the traffic code to block an intersection like that,” Toney explained during an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN. “It’s a very simple way of trying to make sure we never see something like this happen in any Wisconsin city.”
Dozens of protesters moved in and took over the intersection at Baldwin and Williamson Streets the day after an officer shot and killed Corey Ruiz.
Video shows Ruiz fighting with officers. One officer said Ruiz had a knife; another officer then uses a taser, before a third officer shoots and kills Ruiz.
Toney toured the autonomous zone before crews dismantled it, and said he was shocked.
“You’ve got a bunch of tents. There were homeless people that are camping. People who are from out of state who were there to see what was going on,” Toney explained. “And I started to get messages that were sent to me from a business owner who didn’t feel they could open, and another customer who had to get snuck in the backdoor. And I thought about the residents that live in the area and the impact on their lives because the people in that autonomous zone had complete control over the area.”
Toney laid the blame for the occupation, the mess, and the eventual fallout from the autonomous zone at the feet of Madison’s mayor and city council.
“This is an example of the leadership in the city of Madison failing the Madison Police Department,” Toney added.
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