MADISON, Wis. — Hundreds of people protesting the shooting of an unarmed biracial man by a white police officer linked arms and blocked traffic for nearly an hour Wednesday, but otherwise maintained the peaceful demonstrations called for by the man’s family.
“My son was never a violent man, and I don’t want to see violence in his name,” Andrea Irwin, Tony Robinson’s mother, said to marchers before they started on a route that included a stop at the state Department of Corrections headquarters to protest black incarceration rates.
As they reached those offices, protesters blocked three lanes and an entrance ramp to a nearby highway.
They chanted, “The whole damn system is guilty as hell!” and demanded the state put less money into prisons. They then marched to the gates of the governor’s mansion, with police estimating their number at 800 to 1,000.
The protesters tied a banner across the gates that read “black lives matter” and also posted a list of demands.
Meanwhile, a separate rally to show support for police drew hundreds of people to a law enforcement memorial at the Capitol. Some wore shirts that said “We stand with the Madison Police Department,” and they observed a moment of silence for officers killed in the line of duty.
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