Wisconsin protesters toppled statues, vandalized buildings and are accused of assaulting a Democratic state senator on video at the State Capitol Tuesday night after daylong protests…
Wisconsin protesters toppled statues, vandalized buildings and are accused of assaulting a Democratic state senator on video at the State Capitol Tuesday night after daylong protests turned violent.
Both Gov. Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway condemned the violence and destruction Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the protest group issued a list of demands.
The violence began after a group of 200 to 300 protesters marched through downtown Madison, initially blocking intersections and obstructing driveways, Madison Police Department said in an incident report. The situation escalated when the group reached the State Capitol grounds.
Statues of Lady Forward, and Col. Hans Christian Heg, who fought and died during the Civil War on the Union side, were torn down and removed from the grounds. Both statues were later recovered, a city official told the Wisconsin State Journal, noting that protesters had removed the leg of Heg.
Protesters also broke the windows of multiple buildings on the grounds and tossed in a Molotov cocktail into the City County Building, police said. The group tried to break into the State Capitol building, but officers repelled them with pepper spray.
State Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, was walking to the Capitol building late Tuesday when he encountered the protesters and began recording them.
