Update: The protests appears to be over. Police say that almost everyone in the crowd has dispersed.
A rally protesting the Dane County district attorney’s decision to not prosecute a white police officer who fatally shot a black man earlier this spring is underway in Madison.
The rally began on Madison’s near east side, but has since made its way to outside the Dane County Courthouse. A large number of protesters had occupied a nearby intersection for a few hours, before the police ordered the streets clear. Thirty people who refused to leave the intersection were then arrested.
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A dwindling group of protesters remain congregated around the courthouse as of 4:45 p.m.
People began gathering on Madison’s near east side early on Wednesday morning, near the apartment building where 19-year-old Tony Robinson was fatally shot on March 6. Community members, along with leaders of the Young Gifted and Black coalition — the black rights group that organized the rally — took turns addressing the crowd, before commencing a march toward the city’s downtown.
The protesters stopped in front of the county courthouse. Before occupying the nearby intersection, YGB leaders staged a “trial” in which protesters declared Matt Kenny, the officer who shot Robinson, guilty of murder.
A group of six protesters have also staged a sit-in, blocking the entrance to the county jail. They said they plan to sit there for three hours and 50 minutes, symbolizing the YGB coalition’s demand that 350 black people be released from the jail.
While there is no official crowd size estimate as of yet, the rally appears to have comprised a few hundred people at its largest.
Police blocked off streets to facilitate the earlier march, much as they did with previous Tony Robinson protests.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said 15 people had been arrested for blocking an intersection near the county courthouse. That number has since been revised to 30.
Editor’s Note: Gilman Halsted is contributing reporting to this article, which will be updated as the story develops.
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