MADISON — Wisconsin’s capital city was awash in violence Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning as “peaceful” Black Lives Matter protesters toppled iconic, progressive statues and beat up an openly gay state senator.
Wisconsin is out of control, and it is reaping the lawless fruit that pandering liberals have sown.
Long after the carnage quieted, and state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) was recovering from his many injuries by the mob that badly beat him, the feckless Gov. Tony Evers “warned” that he would send in the National Guard to protect state buildings.
Too late.
By the time Tony decided he might get tough, protesters had torn down and destroyed the two legendary statues that have long guarded the state Capitol. They ripped down and soiled the famous, 7-foot-tall Forward statue, a proud symbol of progress created by a Wisconsin female artist nearly 130 years ago. Then they proceeded to drag down and decapitate the statue of Hans Christian Heg, a Union colonel who fought and died in the Civil War in large part because he abhorred slavery. They dumped what was left of the statue into Lake Monona.
All in the name of “social justice”?
The trouble began when police dared to arrest a Black Lives Matter “activist” who decided to charge into a downtown Madison restaurant with a baseball bat and a bullhorn, screaming at white patrons and accusing them of being racist.
“Devonere Johnson, 28, was arrested after causing a disturbance in a restaurant on the Capitol Square, according to Madison police and video of the incident. Videos of the arrest — some circulating on social media and others provided by the Madison Police Department — show as many as five officers taking Johnson to the sidewalk and carrying him to a police squad car after Johnson initially resisted arrest,” the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
Johnson, a black man who identifies as Yeshua Musa, has been a constant presence at the disorderly and, at times, violent protests against police brutality, racism, capitalism and whatever else the radical left activists/anarchists feel like protesting.
Soon after Johnson’s — or Musa’s — arrest, protesters assembled outside the Dane County Jail demanding the suspect be released. The State Journal reported that some 300 protesters blocked traffic, yelled at drivers and demanded they join the demonstration. One man was apparently injured when a few drivers attempted to pass through the crowd. They evidently could not be drafted into the protest — and the bedlam that was to come.
Protesters quickly disabused the media and liberal Madison of the quaint notion that the radical movement was “peaceful.”
“This is not a peaceful protest, so if you came out here for a peaceful protest, you missed it,” one organizer said, according the State Journal. “We’re done being peaceful. Now we’re demanding justice.”
Apparently “justice” means tearing down iconic progressive statues, setting city buildings on fire and beating the hell out of a gay liberal senator.
Carpenter was attacked by several protesters because he attempted to film the destruction. He posted an 11-second clip on Twitter early this morning.
“I took this pic (and) it got me assaulted and beat up,” said the senator, who has been a leading proponent of the Black Lives Matter movement. He said eight to 10 people punched and kicked him in the head, neck and ribs.
The newspaper reported that protesters set a small fire on one of the windows of the City-County Building Downtown, which also houses the Madison Police Department's Downtown station. A group shattered the front entrance windows of the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership, which houses several state offices, and others knocked down street cameras or spray painted over the lenses, the State Journal reported.
The demonstrators washed down their night of violence with a Molotov cocktail thrown into the city engineering office, a city council member told the State Journal.
They attempted to break into the Capitol, according to multiple reports, before law enforcement officials showed up in riot gear and warned the group to leave or face arrest. Some still chanted “Free Yeshua” between obscenities screamed at police.
Liberal mayors and city councils in Madison and Milwaukee have often excused the unruly crowds, pandering to radical activists who have made clear they will use whatever means necessary to make their point — whatever that may be.
Evers has done the same.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) criticized the Democrat this morning for failing to protect the public and public property.
“Enough is enough. Governor Evers has all of the tools at his disposal to stop this. He commands the State Patrol. He commands the Capitol Police. He commands the National Guard. The governor must step up and immediately put an end to this violence. He cannot allow this to continue,” Fitzgerald said.