Hundreds gather to clean up after “provocateurs”

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    About 500 people turned out in downtown Madison Sunday morning to help clean up after a small group of what Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway called “provocateurs” broke windows and ransacked about 75 businesses in the State Street area.

    The property damage and thefts occurred hours after a loud, raucous, nonviolent protest brought an estimated 2,000 people downtown to express outrage over the death of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Tony Robinson and many more at the hands of police. That protest wound its way from the Capitol Square to the County jail to Williamson Street, where Robinson was shot and killed by a Madison police officer in 2015, over the course of four and a half hours without incident.

    After that group wrapped up back at the Capitol, Acting Police Chief Vic Wahl said he was about to send his officers home for the night when a much smaller group started “escalating” and committing violence against property, beginning with a police car parked nearby and moving down State Street. Police in tactical gear used pepper spray and other tactics to control the crowd, and called in other agencies to help regain control of State Street, but only made three arrests, Wahl said.

    When all was said and done, about 75 businesses had sustained damage.

    “I want to thank Freedom Inc and Urban Triage for organizing a successful, justified and peaceful protest yesterday,” Rhodes-Conway said in a press conference Sunday. “I want to make sure everyone in the media and everyone in our community understands that this was not a case of a protest turning violent. This was a case of a protest successfully concluding peacefully, and then a relatively small group of people coming in to cause violence and property damage. I’m not here to tell anyone how to express their anger, particularly not Black people, who have been harmed for centuries and are legitimately angry. I am here to support Black leadership in our community. I am here to condemn provocateurs and people trying to incite violence and trying to divide us.”

    Rhodes-Conway said on days like this one, it’s important to be angry about the right things.

    “Our community is wounded,” she said. “People are hurting. Businesses are harmed. We must work to heal. But I need everyone to understand that papering over the problems of racism and injustice does not bring healing. If you are angry about property damage, be more angry about the unjustified deaths of Black people. Property can be repaired, but we can’t bring people back to life. If you are angry about looting, be more angry about the systemic disinvestment in Black communities over decades and centuries.”

    Boys and Girls Club of Dane County (BGCDC) CEO Michael Johnson said he heard from Rhodes-Conway last night that an effort would be needed to clean up downtown and raise money for businesses affected, to cover deductibles and other losses not covered by insurance. In partnership with Madison365, Johnson put out a call for volunteers to gather on Library Mall at 7 am Sunday, and started a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of raising $50,000.

    As of 1 pm Sunday, it had raised over $95,000.

    BGCDC Chief Development Officer Laura Ford Harris, who led the organization of the cleanup event, said BGCDC will not take any administrative fees from that money, and that it will all go directly to support local businesses that were damaged.

    BGCDC Board member Scott Resnick, a former downtown Madison alder and executive director of StartingBlock, said it hasn’t yet been decided how the money will be distributed, but that conversations with the Downtown Madison Business Improvement District were already underway.

    Meanwhile, those 500 or so people spent a good portion of the day scrubbing graffiti, sweeping glass off the sidewalk, replanting flowers and helping organize ransacked merchandise.

    “I feel that the State Street area is a place a lot of people from all over the city come to congregate,” said Anthony Esealuka, 29, while scrubbing spray paint of the side of the Walgreen’s at the corner of State and Lake Streets. “And it really is a place that people appreciate. So I definitely wanted to come back and I feel like after all this, people are going to want to continue to appreciate the shared space.”

    “A lot of the businesses down here are minority-owned, female-owned small businesses, and we know what this impact is going to have for them,” Ford Harris said.

    That impact will be especially hard in the age of COVID19, which has forced many of these businesses to be closed, or mostly closed, for months, Resnick said.

    “In some cases you’re already starting two steps backwards,” due to the pandemic, Resnick said. “And then to be open for one week to face this type of damage? So that’s why the Boys and Girls Club is raising money that will go directly to those businesses to try to help out particularly for some of the new shop owners. This is a pretty devastating one-two blow. So we do want to make sure our local businesses can thrive on State Street.”

    “It’s been fantastic to have this level of support here from concerned individuals who are here to really support and assist this community and our businesses,” Ford Harris said. “This is our Madison.”

    For his part, Esealuka, who works in IT for the United Way of Dane County, said he understands where even these more violent protesters are coming from.

    “People (are) trying to vent,” he said. “I’m sure, as we see the next couple nights, things will be a little bit different and people will find other ways and be more peaceful and less damaging to property. There are a lot of people (who) have a lot of things to say right now. Speaking with words hasn’t always worked in the past.”