Crowds tear down statues, apparently attack Wisconsin state senator
Crowds outside the Wisconsin State Capitol tore down two statues and allegedly attacked a state senator on Tuesday. Democratic state Sen. Tim Carpenter said he was assaulted in Madison after taking a photo of protesters.
Carpenter sent video of the incident to CBS News and also posted it on Twitter.
I took this pic- it got me assaulted & beat up. Punched/kicked in the head, neck, ribs. Maybe concussion, socked in left eye is little blurry, sore neck & ribs. 8-10 people attacked me. Innocent people are going to get killed. Capitol locked- stuck in office.Stop violence nowPlz! pic.twitter.com/Zw2hdfYG66
— Tim Carpenter (@TimCarpenterMKE) June 24, 2020
"I don't know what happened ... all I did was stop and take a picture ... and the next thing I'm getting five-six punches, getting kicked in the head," Carpenter told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Earlier, statues of Wisconsin's motto "Forward" and of Col. Hans Christian Heg were dragged away from the statehouse. The statue of Heg, an anti-slavery activist who fought and died for the Union during the U.S. Civil War, was decapitated and thrown into a Madison lake by protesters, the newspaper said.
Forward Statue has been brought down. #News3Now pic.twitter.com/GBydth5ZkZ
— Stephen Cohn (@stephen__cohn) June 24, 2020
State assembly speaker Robin Vos took to Twitter late Tuesday night, calling the tearing down of the statue "absolutely despicable."
This is absolutely despicable. I am saddened at the cowardice of Madison officials to deal with these thugs. @GovEvers are you going to finally do something about these protestors committing crimes on state property? https://t.co/HUx13e460B
— Robin Vos (@repvos) June 24, 2020
Protesters chanting for the release of the man who'd been arrested also broke glass at the Tommy Thompson Center and smashed windows and lights at the state Capitol. Early Wednesday, police in riot gear worked to clear a crowd of about 100 people that remained in the area.
The protests unfolded after the arrest of a black man who was at a restaurant with a megaphone and a baseball bat.
Video released by the Madison Police Department shows the man talking through the megaphone Tuesday while walking near the restaurant's outdoor patio. He goes inside and says he's "disturbing" the restaurant. CBS affiliate WISC-TV reports that the man, identified by police as Devonere Johnson, got into a struggle with officers as they tried to arrest him.
In a second video released by police, at least five officers can be seen trying to subdue Johnson. He was eventually subdued and taken into custody.