SUNDAY

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway declared a state of emergency and instituted a curfew on the isthmus during a tense night of protests.

The curfew is in effect tonight and continues until 5 a.m. on June 1. The moves were announced in a press release published on the city's website just before 1 a.m. Sunday.

"I do not take this action lightly, and I want to be clear that this is in response to a number of people endangering themselves and others by shattering glass, destroying property, and engaging in widespread, systematic looting of local businesses," Rhodes-Conway said. "This is NOT in response to the peaceful and legitimate protests that took place earlier today."

The mayor signed the order at 11:30 p.m. Saturday. It took effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday and lasts until 5 a.m. The curfew continues Sunday night from 9:30 p.m. until 5 a.m. June 1.

The curfew applies mostly to areas of the isthmus around State Street. The full order can be found here.

Rhodes-Conway put the state of emergency in place until June 3. The city council will have a chance to review the measure at its June 2 meeting.

About 75 businesses on State Street were damaged, some were looted, on Saturday night into Sunday morning. An MPD squad car was broken into, driven a short time and set on fire. Several other cars were damaged too.

The Madison Police Department said officers were pelted with hard objects, like rocks, bottles and chairs. One officer was hurt.

Businesses in other parts of Madison were looted including East and West Towne Malls.

Three arrests were made and officials said they are working to identify, arrest and prosecute others who were involved.

MPD said groups dissipated early Sunday morning.

A GoFundMe has been set up by the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County to assist local businesses. You can find that here.

Madison city leaders held a news conference Sunday morning to talk about the violence and destructiont hat erupted Saturday afternoon after a protest for Geroge Floyd.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway condemned the people who started the riots and escalated the situation in downtown Madison.

"We will not ever be able to say 'all lives matter' until we can say 'black lives matter,'" she said.

She said she appreciates the people who tried to de-escalate the violence and those who came together to clean-up the community.

"Our community is wounded, people are hurting, businesses are harmed," said the mayor as she got choked up. "We must work to heal, but I need everyone to understand that papering over the problems of racism and injustice does not bring healing."

Council President Sheri Carter also spoke at the news conference. She urged people to contact local lawmakers to end the violence and injustice that is happening across the country, including Minneapolis where Geroge Floyd was killed while in police custody.

"When your son goes out, you expect them to come back. that's not true for many African American mothers," said Carter. "George Floyd has to be the last one. We have to go into action."

Police Chief Vic Wahl took the podium to give a rundown of the events that unfolded Saturday afternoon.

"We saw a significant disturbance up and down State Street and really throughout the entire city, over the course of the night we were required to request mutual aid not only from other police agencies in Dane County but from surrounding counties," he said. "It was a number of hours before we had control of the State Street area."

Approximately 75 businesses were damaged, three people were arrested and one officer was hurt in protests that spanned hours in downtown Madison.

Read more from WKOW 27:

State of Emergency Declaration: Click Here

Curfew and State of Emergency Statement: Click Here

Gov. Evers seeks empathy, compassion from protesters: Click Here

75 businesses damaged; several looted in Madison: Click Here

GoFundMe to assist Madison-area businesses: Click Here

Madison-area businesses targeted in looting sprees Saturday night: Click Here

Cleanup begins on State Street Sunday morning: Click Here

Business owners describe scene on State Street morning after: Click Here

Janesville holds peaceful protest in memory of George Floyd: Click Here

National Guard to assist Madison PD Sunday night: Click Here

Madison News