In Madison, Wisconsin, two highly destructive groups of protesters — Antifa and Black Lives Matter — recently gathered at a popular intersection to protest the late July death of 38-year-old Corey Ruiz, a knife-wielding longtime criminal who was shot in self-defense after wounding a police officer while resisting arrest. Ruiz had a record of committing violent crimes, including strangulation, other bodily harm, and robbery.

Despite being Hispanic, court documents referred to Ruiz as African American, which is why BLM got involved. However, the ill-informed activists ultimately mobilized after a video circulated in which it appears that Ruiz was shot while being held to the ground. These revolutionaries saw their opening even though the police clarified that the viral video did not represent an accurate chain of events.

Within days of the shooting, protesters gathered at the intersection of Williamson Street and Baldwin Street, set up a memorial, and erected a barricaded encampment dubbed the Corey Ruiz Autonomous Zone (CRAZ), which harkens back to the 2020 Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, Washington.

CRAZ instantly turned ugly with graffiti, trash, and homemade barricades. The homeless population also joined the encampment. It stayed that way for almost two weeks, during which Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway tried to negotiate with the communist revolutionaries. Eventually, though, she was compelled to dispatch the police and city workers to clear things out.

In a statement Monday, Rhodes-Conway said, “There are too many residents and local businesses suffering because of the occupation, and it’s become increasingly clear that unsheltered people are being used as leverage for demands that, frankly, the City of Madison cannot deliver because we do not have the power to deliver them.” She added, “I’m increasingly alarmed that those supporting the occupation at the intersection of Williamson Street and Baldwin Street are either purposefully ignoring the harm being done, or deliberately hoping that the situation spirals further out of control.”

But here’s the thing: Communists are more than happy to let tinderbox situations get out of control. They want to destroy our institutions. They don’t have the people’s best interests at heart. They don’t care about the businesses they are hurting or the lives they are disrupting. The police shooting narrative fit their aim of stirring up chaos.

In addition to Antifa and BLM, one of the occupiers was a nonprofit group called Freedom Inc., which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in local grants and millions in federal funding. Freedom Inc. stood firm when the encampment was cleared out Tuesday and even tried to stage a protest later that evening. Though the group has not been accused of illegal activity yet, occupying an autonomous zone and refusing to leave when ordered to is against the law. Freedom Inc. should lose its funding for taking over public property.

Many have now heard about the leading Democrat candidate in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race, a radical socialist named Francesca Hong. Hong has worked with Freedom Inc. before on an education bill, and she vocally supported CRAZ’s illegal protest. Time will tell whether this episode helps or hurts her campaign.

During the clearing out of CRAZ, there was a violent incident in which a dozen or so protesters were arrested. Furthermore, protesters set two fires and threw rocks and other pieces of weaponized garbage at public workers.

Madison, Wisc. (Aug. 4) — City and state police had to be on scene at the autonomous zone to protect cleaning crews who faced violence from the occupiers. pic.twitter.com/I71feajqrV

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) August 4, 2026

The fact that this illegal protest was permitted for several weeks is ludicrous. Setting up an autonomous zone is not a “peaceful protest.” Indeed, businesses lost commerce and the community was disrupted while anarchy reigned supreme.

The people of Wisconsin deserve better. The question is this: Do they realize they are being sold down the river to placate the temper tantrums of communist revolutionaries? If they do, what are they going to do about it? We will see in the August 11 primary and again in the November general election.