Crowds outside the Wisconsin State Capitol tore two statues and allegedly attacked a state senator on Tuesday. Democratic Senator Tim Carpenter said he was attacked in Madison after taking a picture of the protesters.
"I don't know what happened," Carpenter told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "All I did was stop and take a picture ... and the next thing I get from five to six punches, is kick me in the head."
Earlier, statues of the Wisconsin emblem "Forward" and Colonel Hans Christian Haeg were pulled away from the state building. The newspaper said that the Hague statue, an anti-slavery activist who fought and died for union during the American Civil War, was beheaded and thrown into Lake Madison by protesters.
General Assembly President Robin Voss arrived on Twitter late Tuesday evening, describing the statue's tearing down as "extremely despicable".
The demonstrators, who released the arrested man, also chanted, smashed the windows of the Tommy Thompson Center and smashed windows and lights in the Capitol building. Early on Wednesday, police worked in riot gear to clear a crowd of about 100 people who remained in the area.
The protests arose after the arrest of a black man in a restaurant with a loudspeaker and a baseball bat.
A video clip posted by Madison Police Department shows the man speaking through a loudspeaker Tuesday while walking near the restaurant's outdoor patio. He goes inside and says it "upsets" the restaurant. CBS WISC-TV reported that the man, whom the police identified as Devonere Johnson, had entered into a conflict with officers while trying to arrest him.
In another video posted by the police, at least five officers can be seen trying to subdue Johnson. In the end, he was subjected and detained.