August 22, 2026

On Friday night, August 21, while peacefully protesting the murder of Corey Ruiz at the State Capitol, Madison police arrested Hope Vang and Zon Moua, two Freedom, Inc. leaders, deployed pepper spray against protesters, and arrested a third protester, whose name we are not releasing.

Hope and Zon were charged with resisting and obstructing, which is a catch-all charge used to stop protests. We are grateful that the Free the 350 Bail Fund answered the call and bailed our leadership out immediately. The movement takes care of its own, even though the state does not.

18h

• Pt.2 The protesters were demanding the arrest of Kiel Baitinger-Peterson, the Madison police officer who shot and killed Corey Ruiz last month. But the City of Madison responded by arresting the people protesting the murder, while the murderer remains free. This is not justice or safety; this is not serving or protecting. This is the police protecting its own through selective prosecution and silences those who demand justice for the dead. The murder of Corey Ruiz, the razing of the encampment and the arrests of Hope and Zon demonstrate exactly why Freedom, Inc. calls for community control over police. The same department that will not arrest a killer moved within hours to arrest the people demanding the killer be held accountable.
  
  When police hold the power to decide who gets arrested and who goes free, Black and Southeast Asian people are the ones who pay the price. Let no one misunderstand the symbolism or the substance of this turn of events: two Hmong leaders, Zon Moua and Hope Vang, standing for a Black man murdered by the police and protected by the state. This is what Southeast Asian–Black solidarity looks like. Our communities share a single struggle, facing one system, fighting one fight.
  
  We demand justice for Corey Ruiz. We demand the arrest of the officer who killed him. We demand Community Control Over Police. We demand that the charges against Hope Vang, Zon Moua, and everyone arrested for the crime of speaking Corey’s name be dropped.
  Freedom Inc. has a long history of struggle against injustice, and that struggle continues. The arrests will not silence us and the pepper spray will not scatter us. We will keep showing up for Corey, for our people, and for the world we deserve: a world where police do not kill with impunity, and do not arrest those who
  demand accountability.
  
  We will not be moved.
  — Freedom Inc. & Freedom Action NOW