A man is held on charges of defacing an object of public interest the day after the statue was installed on the capitol grounds in Little Rock.
LITTLE ROCK — Less than 24 hours after it was installed, a man is accused of driving his car into the Ten Commandments monument at the Arkansas state Capitol.
Michael Tate Reed, 32, drove through the statue early Wednesday morning while filming it on his cellphone and posting the video on Facebook, authorities said.
This isn’t the first time Reed, of Van Buren, Ark., has destroyed a Ten Commandments monument. Three years ago, he was arrested in the destruction of Oklahoma’s monument at its state Capitol, authorities said.
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Reed was booked into the Pulaski County (Ark.) Detention Center on charges of defacing an object of public interest, criminal trespassing and first-degree criminal mischief.
Authorities did not know whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf, and a video arraignment was set for Thursday morning, a Pulaski County, Ark., sheriff’s spokesman said.
Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office spokesman Chris Powell said officials believe a Facebook Live video posted on a Michael Reed’s Facebook account that depicted the destruction is authentic.
In the video, the sky is dark and the Arkansas Capitol’s dome is visible. Music is heard followed by a female voice, probably on the radio, saying, “Where do you go when you’re faced with adversity and trials and challenges?” The driver is then heard growling, “Oh my goodness. Freedom!” before accelerating into the monument. The vehicle’s speedometer is last shown at 21 mph and then a collision can be heard.
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Oklahoma County Sheriff’s spokesman Mark Opgrande told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Reed was arrested in October 2014 in the destruction of Oklahoma’s Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol. Opgrande confirmed that the suspect arrested Wednesday in Arkansas was the same person arrested in the Oklahoma case.
The controversial, privately funded monument was placed at the Arkansas State Capitol on Tuesday.
The 6-foot tall monument was installed two years after lawmakers voted to allow it.
Many in Arkansas have disapproved of the monument, saying it is offensive to those who are not Christian and that it violates the First Amendment’s religious liberty protections.
“This isn’ t a war on Christianity. This is just secular citizens of Arkansas upholding the Separation of Church and State, an idea that comes from our federal constitution, ” said Lee Wood Thomas with the Arkansas Society of Free Thinkers.
But state Sen. Jason Rapert who led the push for the monument, thinks the monument represents just the opposite.
“I think there are more people than Christians that are happy, ” he said, “because frankly, it is the mosaic code, which obviously was Hebrew, Jewish. So when you think about the Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments is not something that’s inherently Christian.”
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Many in Little Rock said they knew it was a matter of time before the monument was erected, because it went through all of its legal hurdles and passed through the Arkansas Legislature. However, they were surprised to wake up Tuesday morning to see the monument had been raised without any sort of public unveiling.
“Installations occur due to weather. Really, you don’t know for sure because at any day, you could have weather come up, and destroy an opportunity, ” Rapert said.
Rapert had said the monument has a place on the Capitol grounds, not for religious reasons, but because American law is derived from the commandments.
The American Civil Liberties Union had said Tuesday it planned to file a federal lawsuit challenging the monument, calling it an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
Rita Sklar, with the ACLU of Arkansas, said similar monuments and depictions of Christian imagery were allowed to remain in places such as Texas and Washington, D. C., because they have historic significance.
“To erect a religiously divisive monument in this day and age is really just to thumb your nose at everybody who doesn’t belong to a particular religious group and say, ‘You’re a second-hand citizen. You don’t belong here. You’re not as equal as the people who adhere to this religious faith, ‘ ” said Sklar.
Rapert vowed to move quickly to raise funds for the monument’s replacement.
“We will probably have the money as soon as we ask for it, ” Rapert said.
Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Kaitlin Barger and Winnie Wright on Twitter: @kebarger11 and @WinnieWrightTV
