Meet ‘CRAZ’: Bombshell Report Showcases BLM Activists are Back Out With One City’s Help

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A journalist found himself surrounded and threatened with death while trying to escape a section of downtown Madison that protesters have now claimed as their own territory.

Independent reporter Nick Sortor was covering unrest on the ground when activists blocked his path to his vehicle and issued direct threats against his life. Sortor documented the encounter in real time, posting details of the confrontation on the social media platform X.

“Black Lives Matter rioters in the new ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Madison, Wisconsin tell me they will KlLL ME if I don’t immediately leave. Only problem is, they were BLOCKING me from getting into my vehicle. THIS IS NOT AMERICA,” Sortor wrote.

The zone Sortor referenced did not exist a month ago. It sprang up after Madison police shot and killed Corey Ruiz on July 22. Officers opened fire on Ruiz, a convicted felon, after he allegedly attacked an officer with a knife during the encounter.

In the aftermath, activists rebranded a stretch of downtown Madison as the “Corey Ruiz Autonomous Zone,” shortened by occupiers to “CRAZ.” Protesters barricaded streets using couches, chairs, spike strips, and stacked wooden pallets pulled from nearby construction sites.

Tents soon lined the blocked-off streets as demonstrators settled in for an extended occupation.

The scene drew immediate comparisons to Seattle’s 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, when activists similarly claimed several city blocks as independent of police jurisdiction, as reported by Gateway Pundit.

Unlike a spontaneous standoff, the Madison occupation has received logistical support from local government. City crews delivered portable toilets to the area to accommodate protesters who have camped there for days, according to WMTV15 News.

District 6 Alder Davy Mayer confirmed the city’s involvement in sustaining the encampment.

Mayer said Madison has supplied basic services to the zone, including positioning city salt trucks as makeshift roadblocks in place of ordinary barriers.

Mayer also revealed that homeless individuals have moved into the occupied area, adding another layer of complication to an already volatile situation.

“There certainly have been poor interactions like that,” Mayer said. “There’s also a large number of our homeless neighbors have come in and have been taking up living in this area too. That’s something that causes disruption.”

For Sortor, the danger came directly from the protesters themselves rather than from any breakdown in the broader environment. He said a group of activists surrounded him and issued a specific warning as he attempted to leave the scene.

According to Sortor, the group told him, “Hurry up and leave before your life ends out here. There’s a whole team of us.”

Sortor described the ordeal as representative of a larger pattern facing reporters who cover unrest in cities run by Democratic leadership.

“I can’t think of a better example of what it’s like being an independent reporter in a blue city nowadays. I literally have to beg for mercy while people threaten to kiII me,” Sortor wrote.

Even as he condemned the protesters who threatened him, Sortor took care to separate their conduct from that of Madison’s police department. He offered praise for how officers handled the tense scene.

“And for the record: Madison, Wisconsin police have been INCREDIBLY helpful tonight. MUCH better than any other blue city police force I’ve ever dealt with. So this isn’t on them. They need additional resources. Which is why I’m calling for federal government to get involved,” Sortor wrote.

Sortor’s account arrived weeks after a separate demonstration drew hundreds of protesters into Madison’s streets. That earlier march, organized in direct response to the Ruiz shooting, saw participants chanting slogans hostile to law enforcement.

Organizers behind the march appeared to be working to reignite the kind of nationwide anti-police demonstrations that erupted across the country in 2020. Footage of the Ruiz shooting circulating online served as the spark for that gathering.

Ruiz’s confrontation with officers, which activists say began after he brandished a knife, has since become the rallying point around which the newly formed autonomous zone was built.

The occupied territory remains active as of the latest reports, with barricades, tents, and a rotating population of activists and homeless residents continuing to hold the contested blocks. No timeline has been given for when the zone might be cleared.

Comparisons to Seattle’s 2020 occupation continue to circulate, given the similarities between the two events. That earlier zone lasted for weeks before authorities eventually moved in to dismantle it and reopen the area to normal city function.