Madison, Wisconsin, Mayor Condemns Violence as ‘Peaceful Protest” Turns Riot

Satya Rhodes-Conway (Eugene Kim / Flickr / CC)
Eugene Kim / Flickr / CC
Joel B. Pollak

A “peaceful” protest in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday night turned violent as hundreds of demonstrators marched against the shooting of Jacob Blake, 29, by police in Kenosha, then set fires and began rampaging through the state’s capital city.

Local news outlet Channel 3000 reported:

Hundreds of people gathered peacefully on the Capitol Square starting at about 9 p.m. Monday before marching down State Street. After that group returned to the Capitol, police reports claim they were joined by more people, with police estimating the entire group to be about 500 people.

At that time, police say the group again marched around the downtown area, with some people starting fires in dumpsters and breaking windows around the Capitol Square and State Street. Police reported multiple businesses were also looted, including one that saw people trying to pour gasoline inside to start it on fire.

Police say they arrested six people.

The Blake shooting has become the latest rallying cry for Black Lives Matter protests — and riots — nationwide. There were riots in Kenosha and renewed demonstrations in other cities, including Milwaukee; Portland, Oregon; and Los Angeles, California.

The mayor of Madison, Satya Rhodes-Conway, scolded protesters on Tuesday morning.

“Our city honors the First Amendment and peaceful protests, but we draw the line on arson, theft, and criminal damage to property that puts people’s lives in danger,” she said, as the city struggled to clean up the damage. “This behavior does not build a movement, it undercuts the movement, and in Madison, it divides a community that largely supports change.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden had condemned police in Kenosha on Monday, calling the shooting “systemic racism.” He did not condemn the violence, looting, and arson that had erupted in Kenosha the night before.

The riots in Democrat-run cities were a point of criticism during the Republican National Convention on Monday night, which formally nominated President Donald Trump for re-election in November.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Photo credit: News 3 Now / Channel 3000

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