Protesters Topple Statues, Beat Up State Senator in Madison, Wis.
Joe Barrett, Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2020
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday he was prepared to deploy the National Guard to protect the state capitol and other sites in Madison after a night of protests led to the toppling of statues, an attack on a state senator and attempts to enter the capitol building.
State Sen. Tim Carpenter, a Milwaukee Democrat, tweeted out a video at 4 a.m. Wednesday and said he was kicked and punched by protesters as he took a video of them.
{snip}
The group toppled two statues on the capitol grounds, including that of Hans Christian Heg, an anti-slavery activist, and threw one in a nearby lake, police said. {snip}
Tuesday evening, about 200 to 300 protesters took to the streets demanding the release of a man arrested earlier in the day who had been using a bullhorn and carrying a baseball bat as he berated lunchtime diners in a downtown restaurant. The protesters blocked traffic, stopped the towing of a car, and later broke windows, threw a Molotov cocktail into a city-county building and attempted to enter the capitol, police said.
{snip}
The protest was apparently sparked after officers tried to arrest the man, identified as Devonere A. Johnson, 28 years old, as he walked away from the restaurant, police said in a statement.
“I am disturbing the f— out of this restaurant and I have a f—ing bat,” Mr. Johnson said at one point in a cellphone video that was linked to on the police department’s website. {snip}
He called at least one diner racist and said that Jesus wasn’t a white man with blue eyes and blond hair, according to the cellphone video.
{snip}
