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Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters have blockaded two trendy blocks in downtown Madison, Wisconsin a week after armed serial felon Corey Ruiz was shot and killed by police — erecting barricades similar to the infamous 2020 “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) in Seattle
And the city of Madison — home to the state capitol and the University of Wisconsin — is helping them by providing portable toilets and other resources.
Neighbors have had enough, telling WMTV 15 News they feel “trapped” by the rapidly expanding protest zone.
“I feel the protest has turned into a very disrespectful occupation focused on punishing Willy Street for the incident,” one local told the outlet on condition of anonymity.
“It is now a lawless zone and homeless encampment barricaded on all four sides with groups blocking local residences and businesses from surviving.”
Some protesters have already declared it the “Corey Ruiz Autonomous Zone” — or “CRAZ” — a nod to the lawless Seattle CHAZ or Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP).
Footage captured by local reporters shows the corner of South Baldwin Street and Williamson Street — known locally as Willy Street — typically a bustling, mixed-use thoroughfare in the heart of downtown, strewn with piles of trash and marred with graffiti.
The two-block section of Williamson Street near where the fatal July 22 shooting took place has been officially closed off, a large statue of the Black Lives Matter fist erected in the middle of the intersection surrounded by what appears to be a community garden.
Banners and signs reading “Justice for Corey” and “Say his name” could be seen draped over the fronts of local businesses, which include a bar, a beauty salon, a jewelry shop, and a handful of other small shops.
Journal Sentinel reporter Laura Schulte wrote on X that she’s heard the cordoned off area referred to as CRAZ, eerily similar to CHAZ, a violent takeover of city streets in Seattle protesting the murder of George Floyd.
CHAZ lasted more than three weeks in June and July 2020, which then-Mayor Jenny Durkin gaily called “a summer of love.”
That encampment was finally cleared by Seattle police after its fourth shooting, in which a 16-year-old was killed and a 14-year-old was left in critical condition.
As was seen with CHAZ, city leaders in Madison have fallen all over themselves to be accommodating, setting up portable toilets for the protesters holding sit-ins on shabby lawn chairs or milling about the desecrated city center.
Alder Davy Mayer, a self-described activist whose District 6 encompasses the area, told WMTV 15 News the city was also bringing in salt trucks to replace the barriers the protesters threw together from stolen trash cans, wood palettes and nails.
Asked how long the takeover will be allowed to continue to fester, Mayer refused to offer a definitive timeline.
“I don’t think the city wants to see a permanent takeover of this intersection,” Mayer said.
“But we also don’t want to see a violent clearing of it either. So it’s working with all these parties to find a resolution, which is difficult, which takes time.”
Mayer meekly acknowledged the local homeless population’s migration into CRAZ has caused “disruption.”
Ruiz’s caught-on-camera shooting has become a national flashpoint as local Black Lives Matter activists have seized on the killing, sparking protests that have roiled the state capital’s central business district on a nightly basis ever since.
Prison records show that Ruiz was Hispanic, and not black — though court records listed him as African-American.
He had recently been released from prison, and had knifed a cop moments before he was fatally shot, according to authorities.
Online court records show at least 25 criminal cases for Ruiz dating back to 2007, several of them related to violent encounters with police.
In 2023, he was convicted of battery to a law enforcement officer and resisting a law enforcement officer. He most recently was convicted in 2025 of retail theft and resisting police.
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