Protesters hand out flowers to Madison police officers

MADISON, Wis. — A group of protesters Monday night gave flowers to the Madison Police Department’s Special Events Team.

According to an MPD Facebook post, the team was giving space to protesters Monday, but was ready to deploy to State Street in case looting or other violence started again.

One of the Special Events Team members said they were standing in front of three protesters, two were black men and one was a black woman. The woman told officers the peaceful protest was over and she was leaving.

She told officers she was headed to the top of State Street to encourage people to leave and tell them the protest was over. She went to the group to let them know and came back to the officers.

The post said, her group gave out flowers to the officers and many carried the flowers with them on State Street when looting broke out.

“Obviously, this week has been extremely challenging for so many. I thought it was incredibly brave for these three individuals to approach the police, and offer a gesture of kindness. This demonstrated to me what almost all of us recognize – many of those in the crowd wish to lawfully express their constitutional liberties, and only a small group of people are causing the chaos we have seen,” a member of the special events team said. “SET is absolutely committed to protecting lawful protest, and this commitment is why I joined the team.”

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