By admin 
Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.
Read more Palestinian Activist Mohsen Mahdawi Faces Threat of Deportation — Again
Hundreds of people demonstrated in Madison, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night following the police killing of a Black man in a popular commercial and residential area.
The Madison Police Department (MPD) has not yet identified the man, stating only that he was in his 30s. Local social justice organizations have identified the man who was killed as Madison resident Corey Ruiz.
The killing occurred early in the afternoon on Williamson Street in the near-east side of the city. According to police, officers were responding to calls about a man who had allegedly stolen bicycles and was “checking” vehicle doors in the neighborhood. After finding a man on a bicycle, police pursued him, eventually resulting in the man either falling off his bike or being knocked off the bike by police.
At least four police officers tackled Ruiz. MPD alleges that Ruiz “pulled out a fix-blade knife and injured an officer” during the struggle. It’s unclear from witness video if or when this occurred.
At one point in the video, an MPD officer shouts, “he’s got a knife,” after which a taser is used. MPD claims that the taser failed.
The officers eventually tackled Ruiz to the ground. Video shows one of the officers kicking Ruiz and placing his knee on Ruiz’s lower back. Shortly after, another officer who was involved in the struggle stands up and shoots Ruiz from above three times.
“It was basically point blank, three shots to the head, upper-chest area,” said Madison resident Michael Doubek, who witnessed the killing and recorded it on his smartphone. Doubek added that he didn’t see a knife until after Ruiz was shot.
Other witnesses yelled at the officers afterward. “I saw everything! You did not need to kill him!” one woman shouted.
Madison police do not wear body cameras.
Per state law, the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation will lead the investigation into the shooting. After the conclusion of its report (which may take several months), Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne will decide whether to prosecute officers involved in the shooting.
After police killed Ruiz, several onlookers and demonstrators marched from Williamson Street to downtown Madison, disrupting a “Concerts on the Square” event that happens weekly at the State Capitol during the summertime. Joe Loehnis, CEO of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, said the concert would be canceled in solidarity with Madison’s Black community. Many of those who were set to attend the concert joined the demonstration in solidarity.
Protests lasted throughout the evening and into the early morning hours. Williamson Street remained closed as of Thursday afternoon, with demonstrators occupying the intersection where Ruiz was killed, creating a small encampment there.
Read more House Republicans Subpoena Left-Wing Groups as Trump Admin Assembles Blacklists
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway responded to the killing, stating:
It’s understandable that people want answers now. I want them too. And in the days and weeks ahead, the Common Council and I, as your representatives, will do our best to get and share information.
Rhodes-Conway also announced that a listening session would occur on Thursday evening. That plan has been canceled and replaced by a community vigil for Ruiz.
Dane County Executive Melissa Agard also responded to the shooting.
“Our community is once again confronting the profound consequences that follow when a life is lost in an encounter with law enforcement,” Agard said.
In a statement responding to Ruiz’s killing, Urban Triage, a Madison-based racial justice organization, decried the actions of MPD, stating that Ruiz was “experiencing a mental health crisis,” and that police failed to take that into consideration during their interactions with him.
“This happened on Williamson Street — the same street where Madison police killed Tony Robinson in 2015. Eleven years later. Same street. Same system,” a Facebook post from the organization said.
“This is white supremacy operating exactly as it was designed to,” Urban Triage CEO Brandi Grayson added. “It meets our most vulnerable moments with force instead of care, then investigates itself, clears itself, and demands we accept its version of how our people died.”
Grayson added:
We are angry. We are heartbroken. We are exhausted. If you are too, that is not weakness — that exhaustion is part of the violence. These systems are counting on us to stop fighting. We refuse.
Freedom Inc., another Madison-based social justice organization, also responded to the police killing.
“How many more names before the city admits what we already know: The police are not here to protect us, they are here to control us,” the group said on Facebook. “And when they kill us they are protected by the very institutions that claim to represent us.”
Freedom Inc. added:
We demand that the officer who pulled the trigger be held accountable, not by the Department that protects them, but by the community they have terrorized. … [W]e demand what we have always demanded: community control over the conditions that determine whether we live or die. Not symbolic oversight. Not reform. Power. The people most affected by policing must have the power to decide what safety looks like, how resources are used, and the agency to hold those who cause harm and violence accountable.
Read more House GOP Approves $95B Budget Framework That Pumps More Money Into Iran War