Unrest leaves businesses burned, looted.
State Capitol windows broken in Madison
KENOSHA - The anger and frustration that has shaken Kenosha after police shot a Black man in the back seven times at point-blank range has left a trail of smoldering destruction from the city’s government sector to its Uptown area.
A second night of unrest left at least a half-dozen buildings burned to the ground, including small businesses and a probation and parole office, with countless others suffering smashed windows, looted belongings and vandalized exteriors.
The state capital wasn’t immune to the chaos, either. Several buildings were vandalized Monday in Madison, including windows at the State Capitol, though Kenosha endured the most severe blows.
“This is numbing. This is our livelihood,” Christine Wallent said as she looked at the charred remains of B&L Office Furniture Inc. on 60th Street in Kenosha, which has been owned and operated by her family for 40 years.
One after another Tuesday, business owners and managers spoke with blank, unfocused expressions as they tried to clean and make sense of the mess.
Several related similar experiences of witnessing their buildings being damaged on Facebook livestreams, hearing their own alarms sound and watching their property be destroyed.
On Sunday evening, cars were set aflame and buildings were vandalized near the Kenosha County Courthouse after Jacob Blake, 29, was shot by police as he tried getting into a vehicle with his three children. His father has said Blake is in stable condition but is paralyzed from the waist down.
Police and the public again clashed outside the courthouse Monday, but the property damage increased in devastation and spread farther southwest, along a stretch of 60th Street and to the Uptown area of 22nd Avenue.
The Kenosha Police Department did not have a summary or estimate of the damages from Monday but said it received no reported injuries stemming from protests or the unrest.
Sunday’s unrest started with the car lot of Car Source, a dealership near the courthouse with dozens of cars out front. On Tuesday morning, it was a car graveyard. Every single one was charred.
A man who said he was the property owner shooed away several onlookers Tuesday morning and berated another reporter for trespassing.
Along 60th Street, B&L and the Community Corrections Division building were destroyed Monday night.
Kelly Towers lives along the street and sometimes helps out at Treasures Within, a thrift store. She said between 10 p.m. Monday and 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, people smashed windows tried to set fire to several other buildings, including her apartment building and that of Treasures Within.
She said she saw people dousing flames with red gasoline containers and was called white slurs when she tried to intervene.
“This neighborhood is not bad,” she said as she became emotional. “Hardworking, small businesses.”
The store’s owner, Jim DeGrazio, said he’s been on the block for 28 years. His front windows were smashed, an untold number of items were stolen and he found evidence of attempted arson. All told, he said, the business probably took at least $10,000 in damages. More than half of that came from the windows alone, which he said are not covered by insurance.
“I don’t really have a choice,” he said, after being asked if the business will recover. “This is my livelihood. I’m not a quitter. I’m just trying to figure out what we did to deserve this. I treat people well.”
Down the street, the frame of B&L was still standing Tuesday morning, but the interior had been gutted by fire.
Wallent said it will be difficult for the neighborhood to recover and could not fathom Kenosha residents being responsible.
“This isn’t a rich neighborhood,” she said. “This can’t rebuild easily. I don’t believe anyone in Kenosha would” do this.
Madison in cleanup mode
Madison police said Tuesday morning that the department had arrested six people during Monday night protests, including one person armed with a handgun, and continued to investigate the unrest to identify potential additional suspects.
One of the most high-profile organizers of Madison protests, Jordan King, was arrested Tuesday. King is the best friend of Tony Robinson, a biracial teenager who was killed by a Madison police officer in 2015, and has been a central figure in peaceful demonstrations in the five years since.
Police are holding King at the Dane County jail on charges alleging he damaged state-owned land, damaged a cemetery, caused property damage worth more than $2,500 and carried a concealed weapon, according to jail records.
Police said about 500 people attended the protests Monday, and arrests were made after some set dumpsters on fire and began throwing objects at officers. More protest activity was expected Tuesday, including a march for Black Lives Matter and subsequent candlelight vigil at the Capitol from 6 to 9 p.m., organized by Freedom Inc.
State Sen. Howard Marklein, RSpring Green, said that the damage to his office at the Capitol was similar to the damage of nearly two months ago when windows in his office were smashed during the protests after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The Coopers Tavern on Mifflin Street was among the Madison businesses to sustain damage during Monday’s unrest, with all of its front windows smashed.
The Tavern was at the center of protests earlier this summer when prominent Madison activist Yeshua Musa was arrested there after using a bullhorn to yell at patrons inside the restaurant. He was charged with extortion in late June after investigators said he threatened to bash in windows of businesses unless employees gave him money. The front of the building was also tagged with “free Yeshua.”
Among the most heavily damaged storefronts were Teddywedgers Sandwich Shop, the It’s Sugar candy store and Badger Liquor. Bottles from Badger Liquor were scattered along State Street, smashed and broken. A bus stop on State Street also bore damage from the night, with all the windows smashed out.
Several buildings along State Street were also tagged with graffiti, anti-police messaging and Black Lives Matter tags.
On Mifflin Street, the Merrill Lynch Wealth Management office had windows smashed in, with graffiti that read, “Here are your premiums.” The UW Credit Union on Mifflin was also damaged, with crews working Tuesday morning to sweep up glass and hang plywood.
The headquarters of one of the state’s most influential lobbying groups was also briefly set on fire by a Molotov cocktail and vandalized late Monday.
The crowd smashed the building’s windows and spray-painted “you have stolen more than we could ever loot” on its side.
‘Just stop it’
“I don’t really have a choice (on whether to rebuild). This is my livelihood. I’m not a quitter. I’m just trying to figure out what we did to deserve this. I treat people well.” Jim DeGrazio owner at Treasures Within
Back along 22nd Avenue, which many consider to be a main drag in Kenosha, at least four buildings were either burned to the ground or gutted by fires, with plenty of others vandalized and windows smashed.
A Jackson Hewitt Tax Service along the street was looted overnight. Lori Zetterberg, a tax preparer at the branch, said computers and a checkbook were stolen. Like many other business owners, she said those responsible were probably coming from outside Kenosha.
Still, Zetterberg couldn’t make sense of the shards of glass sitting on a desk as she spoke to a reporter Tuesday. She said her business services 1,200 people in the area and employs people who support the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I have employees that need me to rebuild,” she said. “This doesn’t get justice for anyone.”
A neighbor in the area, Sidney Ayers, 62, said he watched the destruction along 22nd Avenue after growing up in Chicago and seeing his neighborhood burn down during the racial turmoil of the late 1960s.
“I don’t like it happening, but the thing of it is, that man got shot seven times,” he said. “Look at the cause and effect. You stop doing this, this stop happening. Just stop it.”