Police shot and killed Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man, in Madison last week.
Protests immediately followed, as did calls for accountability from the community and politicians.
The incident has garnered national attention.
Brandi Grayson is the founder & CEO of Urban Triage, a non-profit in Madison that provides direct services in education, housing, and health to empower Black families.
She says there are no words to really capture Black people’s emotions surrounding the death of Ruiz at the hands of police.
"There's, of course, outrage, and also a lot of grief, which turns into outrage. Also, not knowing what to do and how to do it, very common for when this…when police murder Black people throughout our country. And also, this…dread feeling, like this knowing that justice will not be served," Grayson says.
Grayson says Madison Police Chief John Patterson’s attempt to reassure people that Ruiz’s death is being looked at as a homicide isn’t working.
"I think people thought that meant something, and it's important for us to understand that most…deaths are seen as a homicide until they’re investigated," Grayson says. "Very similar to the murder of Tony Robinson that happened here in 2015. So just disenchanted, don't know what to do, how to get involved. And the same kind of feeling like we know this is not going to work out on our side. And what do we do?"
Tony Robinson was 19 years old when he was killed by Madison police. The shooting was found to be a lawful use of force.
Grayson says these situations go the same way. She says traditionally white systems with people she says lack the proper understanding of structural racism will center Ruiz’s criminal history, and that he had a knife, to justify him being killed.
"We know that Corey had things going on psychologically. And how do we know this? Madison is small; Corey is someone who — he was part of that community. He was part of that neighborhood. People knew him. The police knew him. They got calls on Corey often because Corey needed additional care and support," says Grayson. "But we live in a city, in a county and in a society that does not invest in the resources required to help treat people's needs with care, and especially people known as Black."
Grayson adds that Madison already does not feel safe for Black people, who are about 7 percent of the population there.
She says the city is beautiful; there’s great nightlife and plenty of things to do for fun.
"[But] what lies beneath all of that is this disdain for Black people by not just police, but the entire community. It's just…it goes unnamed. But we feel it," she says. "You can feel it when you walk in a store. You can feel it when you're at work. You can feel it when you get stopped by the police. You can feel it, like at any moment this can go left."
Grayson added that when those situations do go left, or when racial injustice is present, there isn’t significant organizational power to fight back.
"We don't have a lot of Black organizing in Madison, or Black movement, or Black agenda items. We just don't have it. We have had people like me and other folks, you know, when Tony Robinson was murdered and George Floyd happened, we were the organizers," Grayson says.
"And I say 'we' because I used to have a team of people: Black people, non-binary people, white people that believed in holding systems accountable in addressing state-sanctioned violence. Since all of that unfolded, I would say, after George Floyd, those groups of networks and people and organizers went away."
Grayson says her organization, Urban Triage, is demanding several actions in the wake of Corey Ruiz’s death. They include the immediate public release of all dash-camera footage from the shooting. The officers were not wearing body cameras.
Urban Triage is also calling for an independent investigation by the city Office of the Independent Police Monitor, not an internal Police Department review. There is an investigation underway by the State Division of Criminal Investigation, and the officers involved are on administrative leave.
Grayson is also calling for activists outside of Madison to lend their expertise and support to organizing there.
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