Hindsight 2020

Report reveals new details of last summer’s protests

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After George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Madison responded with a downtown rally and march on May 30, 2020, that was attended by thousands, including many leaders in the community. Like the many protests following the fatal police shooting of Tony Robinson in 2015, emotions were raw and anger towards the police was palpable, but the demonstration remained peaceful.

The Madison Police Department had expected the May 30 protest to be no different from the countless other protests the city has hosted in recent years. And for a time it wasn’t. The afternoon march concluded without incident and most people who attended went home by 4 p.m. But the protest, smaller in size, continued. And it was different.

By nightfall, downtown streets were in chaos, looting broke out throughout the city, and the police found themselves battling protesters with pepper spray and tear gas. The unrest lasted several more days and set the tone for future protests the rest of the summer.

One of the big questions at the time was how and why the peaceful protest turned violent. A new analysis from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Quattrone Center, which studied the Madison Police Department’s response to the months of protests over police violence, provides some answers.

To prepare the Center’s 137-page “root cause analysis,” experts on law enforcement as well as a group of local stakeholders reviewed more than 1,500 documents, nearly 750 hours of video and audio and 183 comments submitted by the public. The report concludes that the Madison Police Department — known for successfully managing peaceful protests — failed to live up to that reputation during the summer of 2020. Here are three examples.

How it started: Capitol Square and the City County Building, May 30

The Quattrone Center’s report pinpoints, for the first time, the moment when the Madison Police Department shifted from “crowd management” to “crowd control” during the first weekend of protests after the murder of George Floyd.

A peaceful march attended by thousands in Madison wrapped up around 4 p.m. on May 30. Most of the attendees had dispersed by then but a group of 100-150 protesters continued demonstrating on the Capitol Square at East Washington Avenue. A group of around 30 Madison police officers in standard uniform, observing from down the block, was confronted by a demonstrator with a bullhorn.

“The man walked over to the MPD officers and began to engage aggressively with them, giving special attention and invective to the Black officer for his continued affiliation with MPD as the crowd looked on with increasing agitation,” states the Quattrone Center’s report. The Madison officers began to leave the area, according to the report. But then a Wisconsin State Patrol squad car tried to exit the Square via East Wash and was surrounded by the group of protesters, who prevented it from moving forward.

“The crowd became increasingly agitated, one protester climbed on top of the police car while it was being operated,” the report continues. “[The Madison officers] physically surrounded the state police car to create a barrier between the protesters and the vehicle…. Eventually, the state trooper and the car made its way free from the crowd and guided safely out on East Washington Avenue — but not before it further agitated the protesters.”

Outnumbered, the Madison officers quickly returned to the Central District Police Station at the City County Building but were closely followed by the protesters.

“While all officers entered the City County Building safely, it was a close call, as officers had to wrestle with the crowd to close and lock the door behind them. The anger of the crowd began to boil over, and protesters began kicking and throwing projectiles at the door,” states the report. “The individual with the bullhorn led the crowd across the street, but circled back toward the City County Building moments later. He climbed up on an unmarked MPD vehicle parked on Carroll Street and began speaking to the crowd. As he did so, other protesters began to damage the vehicle, breaking its windows, puncturing its tires with a knife, removing its side mirrors, and denting its hood and roof.”

The group of protesters then headed towards State Street. It wasn’t long before the windows of Goodman’s Jewelers were broken — the first of many storefronts damaged that day.

Burning squad car: State Street, May 30

A Madison Police Department squad car set ablaze appeared on every local newscast the night of May 30. It was also reported that a police rifle was stolen out of the squad — further illustrating just how out of control the situation had become downtown. The Quattrone Center’s report documents how this happened and how it could have been worse if not for a man who happened to ride by on a bike.

Officers were responding to an “elderly person attending the protests who needed medical assistance in Peace Park” around 9 p.m. They parked at State and Gorham, leaving the squad car running with its flashing lights on but locked. No protesters were in the area at the time. Both officers had their standard issue rifles, but the squad car’s gun-rack, which locks, only fits one rifle. So one of the officers’ weapons was placed on the backseat.

After assisting the elderly person for about 25 minutes, officers returned to the squad but it was surrounded by a crowd.

“The officers did not feel they could safely approach the car in their regular uniforms, and did not think that they could put their protective gear on in time to avoid a dangerous altercation with protesters,” states the report. “They decided to leave the vehicle where it was, connect with other officers on the scene, and return when the car could be retrieved safely.”

But protesters soon spray painted the squad car and broke its windows. This allowed someone to take the unattended rifle out of the police vehicle. A fire was also set in the back seat. The Quattrone Center’s report notes how dangerously close the fire was to a building with upstairs apartments. But Madison Police Department command staff thought it was unsafe for police and firefighters to extinguish the blaze.

“Fortunately, the dilemma was solved by a good Samaritan. Eddie Long, who was riding through the protest area with his son, noticed the blaze as he rode his bike down Gorham Street,” states the report. “Long stopped, located a fire extinguisher, and tried to put the fire out. When that did not work, he got into the (still burning) car and drove it into the middle of the intersection of Gorham and Broom Street, where it could burn without endangering nearby residences and buildings.”

Undocumented use of pepper spray and tear gas: West Dayton Street, June 1 & August 26

The Quattrone Center’s report documents an example of use of force by Madison officers, captured on city surveillance video, that department leaders weren’t even aware of.

Around midnight on June 1, police in riot gear had largely dispersed protesters from the State Street area after using pepper spray, tear gas, and “less lethal” foam-tipped projectiles. At the intersection of State and East Dayton, a man driving the wrong way on the one-way street stopped his car and began dancing on the roof of his vehicle.

“Officers reported that the man was screaming obscenities at the officers, ignoring multiple orders (including several commands to leave issued over a squad’s public announcement system) from the officers to get off the car and leave the scene,” states the report.

Officers pepper sprayed the man several times and after a struggle, arrested him. While the man was surrounded by officers and lying on the ground, a van drove by the scene on Dayton.

“A Madison Police Department officer observing both the arrest and the van that had pulled over, walked towards the van and fired a burst of OC spray in its direction,” states the report. “It was unknown whether the spray affected the [driver], but the officer reported that the van quickly drove off.”

The use of pepper spray against the driver of the van “had not been known” to Madison Police Department leadership until they were shown the video at a presentation by the Quattrone Center.

“This deprived the Madison Police Department and the officers in question of an opportunity for learning and improvement,” states the report. “The Madison Police Department participants in the Stakeholder Group acknowledged that the footage of OC spray being deployed against the van that had been pulled over was troubling. Observing a police act is not illegal, and the driver of the 2nd vehicle, even if he was shouting obscenities at the officer, was unlikely to be seen as active resistance or the threat of active resistance towards the officer.”

Department policy calls for officers to submit a report whenever use of force is applied in the field — this includes use of pepper spray, tear gas, and when foam-tipped bullets are deployed. The Quattrone Center’s report notes how an audit after the first weekend of protests revealed that the tracking of chemical agents and less lethal munitions was “imprecise.”

“The Madison Police Department could not provide a document indicating what munitions were distributed to which officers at the start of May 31, nor which munitions were returned at the end of the day,” states the report. “Accordingly, it is possible that officers may have deployed munitions and not filed reports, or that officers lacking sufficient training deployed munitions incorrectly, or other irregularities occurred.”

During some of the unrest in Madison last summer, members of the Wisconsin National Guard, the University of Wisconsin Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol, Capitol Police, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, and other law enforcement agents from neighboring communities were called in to assist the Madison police force. These outside agencies took orders from Madison command staff located at a strategic operations center but it isn’t clear how or if these other law enforcement agencies documented when they deployed pepper spray, tear gas or less lethal 40mm munitions against protesters.

For instance, the Quattrone Center’s analysis makes no mention of an incident involving Dane County Sheriff’s deputies on Aug. 26, 2020. Last year, Isthmus reported that the deputies fired tear gas at fleeing protesters outside the Madison Concourse Hotel on West Dayton without authorization from Madison police command staff — a violation of protocol.

Dave Mahoney, who was the sheriff at the time, initially told Isthmus that his deputies acted because a “rock or brick” was thrown at them and there was an exigent threat to their safety. However, city surveillance footage obtained by Isthmus showed the deputies in riot gear weren’t attacked and that protesters were leaving the area when a tear gas canister was fired at their backs. The sheriff later admitted his mistake and that deputies acted without authorization “because of a communication breakdown.”