Photo: Police protect a driver who ran into protesters. The driver was escorted away and released.

Madison Police have begun making arrests of prominent Madison protesters, using weak charges and suspect information, including surveillance footage taken at demonstrations.

At the same time, there have been many incidents of agitators looking to harm peaceful protesters, and the Madison police are nowhere to be found, or have been slow to react.

We need to tell MPD to arrest the violent individuals, NOT peaceful protesters!!

On Sunday, a man in a pickup truck was caught on camera running over Alize Carter, a young black woman downtown. When MPD arrived on scene they pepper-sprayed her family. Carter survived and is recovering. Madison police also refused to arrest drivers of other vehicles that ran into protesters downtown, and have not pressed charges against a man they detained who hit multiple protesters with a pickup truck on Monday.

In addition, a hate crime occurred in Madison last night, where a woman was called a “n*****,” had lighter fluid poured on her through her open car window, and a group of white men lit the fluid. She now has third degree burns on her face. MPD said they couldnt take a statement for her because they were busy preparing for a protest response, the victim said.

And yet, Yeshua Musa and Kelsey Nelson, who have participated in #GeorgeFloyd protests, were detained Tuesday and Wednesday respectively in Madison. MPD has stated that they will be making “as many [arrests] as possible,” using surveillance footage, as they did in Nelson’s case. 

No driver has been held accountable as of yet. It is unclear whether the bar for probable cause was cleared in either Musa or Nelson's case, and in videos officers are seen  violently arresting Musa while peaceful. In other videos, they are seen breaking protocol by forcing Nelson’s car door open. Nelson’s passenger was also interrogated and harassed by an officer who claims the passenger was involved in a homicide. It is unclear whether the passenger was also arrested.

The police in Madison are aggressively pursuing arrests for protest related activity. We must make sure that any arrests made by the Madison Police Department are based on sound, tangible evidence and transparently clear the bar for probable cause, and are in line with their mission of community protection and serving the people of Madison taking to the streets.

Please sign this petition demanding that MPD stop making arrests for protest related activity, and pursue charges for offenders in violent incidents perpetrated against protesters!!