In Statue of Hans Christian Heg, how is the 2020 vandalism discussed?
On June 23, 2020, the statue was vandalized by protesters, incensed by the arrest of a member of Black Lives Matter, as demonstrations in Madison turned violent. Vandals used a towing vehicle to pull the statue down. It was then vandalized, decapitated, and thrown into Lake Monona. The words "black is beautiful" were spray-painted on the plinth, just above Heg's name.On the morning of June 24, someone painted "Fire Matt Kenny" on the base of the Heg statue. (This was a reference to the 2015 shooting of Tony Robinson; the police officer was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, and is still employed.) Another Capitol Hill statue toppled on the same night, Forward, is of a female figure representing Wisconsin's "Forward" motto. Both statues were later recovered by the authorities, though Heg was said to have lost a leg.Unlike Confederate statues removed during the George Floyd protests, this statue was of a Union soldier and abolitionist, The Associated Press reported that "it seems likely that few Wisconsinites know Heg's biography". Protester Micah Le said the two statues paint a picture of Wisconsin as a racially progressive state "even though slavery has continued in the form of a corrections system built around incarcerating Blacks." Two protesters interviewed by the Wisconsin State Journal said that toppling the statues was to draw attention to their view of Wisconsin as being racially unjust. Black student activists had called for the removal of the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in early June 2020, and repeated those calls after Heg's statue was toppled.In an internal memo obtained by The Nation, the toppling of the statue was listed as one of the contributing factors in creating the federal riot control program Protecting American Communities Task Force.In light of legislative attention from within Wisconsin as well as both chambers of the U.S. Congress, and amid public calls for the statue to be restored, the State Capitol and Executive Residence Board (SCERB) on July 20, 2020 voted unanimously to repair the Colonel Heg and Forward statues. As of that date, the Wisconsin Department of Administration was still compiling a cost estimate, and the Wisconsin Historical Society planned to start a fundraising drive to raise $50,000 to offset the insurance deductible. The SCERB signed off on that effort unanimously as well. At the time of the vote, the head and the spur of the right boot of the statue were still missing, and photographs of the statue showed the left leg as still removed as well. The Wisconsin State Department of Administration planned to build a new head by recasting the head of a similar Heg statue near the town of Norway, Wisconsin. The state of Wisconsin received a grant of $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities the following October towards the expense of repairing of both the Heg and Forward statues. The statues were taken to Detroit for restoration by Venus Bronze Works Inc. with reinstallation on the Capitol grounds then anticipated by July 2021.On June 25, 2020, in response to the vandalism, U.S. Representative Bryan Steil introduced a bill to rename a post office in Muskego the "Colonel Hans Christian Heg Post Office," though the bill did not become law.The police charged Rodney A. Clendening of Beloit with felony theft of Heg's head in January 2021. According to the complaint, a city street camera captured Clendening on the night of the vandalism with two other men at the Heg plinth and carrying Heg’s head. One of the men put the head into the trunk of Clendening's car. In a Madison Court on December 7, 2021, Marquon Clark pleaded guilty to two charges of criminal damage to property; namely that he helped pull down the Forward and Hans Christian Heg statues on the Capitol square June 23, 2020, contributing to between $60,000 and $95,000 in damage. He was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by two years of extended supervision. The plea agreement also involved returning the statue head which is being stored in the State Archive Preservation Facility.
Bryan Steil Forward Associated Press Norway, Wisconsin Norway 2015 shooting of Tony Robinson The Nation Union Lake Monona Wisconsin Historical Society abolitionist Black Lives Matter Abraham Lincoln National Endowment for the Humanities U.S. Congress black is beautiful Hans Christian Heg Wisconsin State Journal Confederate statues removed during the George Floyd protests Muskego Beloit Protecting American Communities Task Force George Floyd protests University of Wisconsin–Madison Wisconsin