Dylan Brogan
State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) tells protesters, some of whom assaulted him, that he is their "ally."
Two protesters recognized me as a reporter for Isthmus at the top of State Street. Around a dozen people were putting a chain around the “Forward” statue and preparing to pull it down just before midnight on June 23. A number of people were filming on their cellphones.
“Dylan. We know who you are and the Black leadership [of this protest] doesn’t want anyone to film,” said one of the protesters, who was white and wearing a mask and a hat. “We aren’t going to let you do it. We will stop you.”
The young men enforced the “no filming” demand by following me around and, at several points, trying to pry my phone out of my hand. Minutes later, the Forward statue was toppled and dragged into the street.
Several hundred people protested for hours Tuesday night over the arrest of activist Devonere Johnson — known as Yeshua Musa by protesters — earlier in the day outside The Coopers Tavern. Videos showing Johnson entering the downtown restaurant with a megaphone and a bat, and being arrested by police, went viral and sparked protests that lasted from the afternoon until nearly 3 a.m.
In the early evening, protesters blocked a number of downtown streets. Numerous cars were stopped by protesters and told to turn around. Most people did, but there were at least four incidents on June 24, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, when drivers refused and pushed past protesters with their cars.
Around 1 a.m., there was a standoff between a wall of protesters and a line of police officers in riot gear on Hamilton Street. Madison police eventually left the scene after receiving reassurances from protesters that the crowd would disperse if police left first. But hours before the police confronted protesters, destruction started at the state Capitol.
“Free Yeshua. Free Yeshua,” chanted the crowd at the top of State Street as the Forward statue was knocked to the ground.
Then the crowd moved to the King Street side of the Capitol. There, protesters tore down the statue of Col. Hans Christian Heg, a Norwegian immigrant who fought and died in the Civil War and was a vocal abolitionist.
“Who even is this guy?” asked one protester while reading the pedestal’s inscription, after the statue had also been pulled down and dragged into the street.
A Black photographer was chastised by a different protester for trying to take photos from a distance of this scene. Some protesters complained that the media isn't covering the Black Lives Matter accurately. Others say posting images of protesters makes them vulnerable to law enforcement.
“I’m on your side,” said the photographer. “I’m not going to post photos that would get anyone in trouble.” But the protesters continued to shout him down.
Dylan Brogan
The Forward statue, which was stationed at the top of State Street, is a replica of Jean Pond Miner's original sculpture, cast in 1893.
Soon, the throng was on the move with the Heg statue in tow. It was dragged a half-mile on downtown streets to John Nolen Drive before being dumped into Lake Monona off the Machinery Row parking lot.
A protester wearing ski goggles and a mask aggressively pushed me into a utility box as I, from 50 feet away, attempted to capture a chain of protesters with linked arms near the spot where the Heg statue was tossed into the lake.
“No fucking media,” said the protester, who was also white. “If you aren’t with us, you’re against us, asshole.”
The protesters, still a few hundred strong, then went up Blair Street and up East Washington Avenue towards the Capitol Square.
“Left, left, left, right, left,” chanted the protesters as they marched in lockstep. Multiple times, organizers of the protesters warned the crowd that they were “in battle” and should consider themselves soldiers in a war.
After returning to the top of State Street, the protesters dragged Forward down the 100 block of State Street to the intersection of East Dayton. They then marched up Fairchild Street and some protesters started to break windows, including several at the Tommy G. Thompson state building on West Washington Avenue.
A block away, at the intersection of South Fairchild and West Main, the protesters stopped for a moment to wait for people to catch up before continuing to march to the Dane County courthouse. One organizer, again, told people not to film — a directive that state Sen. Tim Carpenter evidently did not hear.
Carpenter walked up to the front of the protest, just after midnight, and paused to snap a photo. Within seconds, a group of about 10 protesters rushed toward him, tossed his phone like a Frisbee into the street and started to assault him. He was punched in the face, forced to the ground, and kicked in the head.
The state senator, after retreating to his car parked nearby, pleaded with protesters as they hurled insults at him and demanded he leave.
“Where are my keys? I need my phone,” said Carpenter, as a small group of protesters continued to surround him and demand that he leave the area.
Carpenter tried to tell them he was a state senator. “You’re talking about being a state senator and you’re driving a Honda Accord?” said one protester. “You know that’s bullshit.”
After finding his keys, Carpenter proved to the group that he was indeed a state senator after showing them a piece of literature he retrieved from the trunk.
“I’m an ally of yours…. I’m your friend,” pleaded Carpenter. “I’ve never been assaulted before.”
One women barked back, “No one was fucking attacking you until you refused to put your fucking phone away.”
“I had no idea. I just drove up from Milwaukee,” replied the state senator.
“Don’t bitch at mobs, dude,” said another protester before leaving to join the crowd that was now in front of the courthouse.
“I’m sorry,” said Carpenter.
The state senator posted on Twitter the next morning that he had a sore neck and ribs, a possible concussion, and blurry vision in one eye because of being punched. WKOW reported that Carpenter had collapsed while walking to his Capitol office and an ambulance was called.
Dylan Brogan
The statue of Wisconsin abolitionist Col. Hans Christian Heg had stood on the Capitol grounds since 1925. It was pulled down by protesters June 23.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, in a June 24 statement, condemned the attack against Carpenter and the destruction of property. Evers said the actions by these protesters was “a stark contrast from the peaceful protests we have seen across our state in recent weeks.”
“Violence against any person — whether in the middle of the street in broad daylight, at home trying to sleep, going for a run, or happening upon a protest as was the case last night — is wrong. It should never be tolerated.” wrote Evers. “We are prepared to activate the Wisconsin National Guard to protect state buildings and infrastructure and are continuing to work with local law enforcement to understand their response to last night’s events and their plan to respond to similar events in the future.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington) held a press conference outside the Capitol Wednesday afternoon. He complained that protesters have not been prosecuted for previous acts of destruction, including the riots on State Street at the end of May.
“We are here to stand with the citizens all across the state who are sick and tired...where protesters are not held accountable,” said Vos at the press conference with other GOP leadership. “If people want to peacefully protest, that's their right as an American and that is how change happened. But as we have now watched this movement spiral from peaceful protests into doing things which are violent, that’s going to turn people in the opposite direction. And hurt the very reforms that people want to have happen.”
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway also released a statement vowing that protesters “will be held accountable” for engaging in violence and destruction of property.
“What happened last night in Madison was far from peaceful and exceedingly dangerous. People attacked a state Senator who championed workers’ rights in 2011, tore down a statute of an abolitionist who died trying to end slavery during the Civil War, and attempted to set fire to a building with dozens of people inside,” wrote the mayor. “We need to separate First Amendment protests from those engaged in criminal conduct.”
Dylan Brogan
Police in riot gear deliver multiple warnings that protesters might be "exposed to chemical agents" unless they leave the area. However after a 90-minute standoff, the confrontation ends peacefully.
Several dozen police officers in riot gear eventually confronted protesters around 1 a.m. at the intersection of South Hamilton and West Main, just off the Capitol Square. The same two protesters who confronted me by the Forward statue came up to me and warned that I “still wasn’t allowed to film, dude.”
But the men backed off as soon as it became apparent that officers seemed likely to disperse protesters with tear gas or other means of force.
“This is the police department. You are an unlawful gathering. Please leave the area.” boomed a recorded message over a loudspeaker over and over during the 90-minute standoff with protesters. “Be advised, those remaining may be exposed to chemical agents.”
“Fire Matt Kenny!” the protesters chanted back, referring to the Madison police officer who shot 19-year-old Tony Robinson in 2015.
After 20 minutes of back-and-forth between a line of officers with helmets, gas masks and shields, one organizer told people to go home “so we can fight another day.”
“You aren’t part of the movement if you stay here,” the organizer said over a megaphone.
Most of the protesters obeyed and promptly left. But around 50 or so protesters persisted and demanded the police in riot gear leave the area first. A police lieutenant took off his gas mask to tell protesters he was okay with that plan. Even so, the standoff persisted for another 30 minutes.
Initially, the line of officers moved about 100 feet back.
“That’s not good enough,” said one man on the megaphone leading the small group that remained. “Soon as you go home, we’ll go home.”
Not long after, the police left and so did the protesters, who vowed to return the next night.
