Protesters tear down statue of Norwegian born, anti slaver

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Protesters in Madison tear down statue of Norwegian born, anti slavery, Union Colonel Hans Christian Heg, a man who died at the battle of Chickamauga fighting the South during the Civil War.

Are these people just tearing down random statues at this point? What's the point of this, to be destructive just for fun?

Fury exploded outside the Wisconsin State Capitol on Tuesday night as protesters smashed windows at the statehouse, attacked a state senator, and tore down two iconic statues — including one of an abolitionist who died trying to end slavery during the Civil War.

The unrest began earlier Tuesday following the arrest of a Black man who was arrested after bringing a megaphone and a baseball bat into a Capitol square restaurant. It followed weeks of mostly peaceful protests of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white police officer

During the melee late Tuesday, Democratic state Sen. Tim Carpenter was assaulted after taking a photo of protesters.

"I don't know what happened ... all I did was stop and take a picture ... and the next thing I'm getting five-six punches, getting kicked in the head," Carpenter told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter following the assault.

Protesters, chanting for the release of the man who'd been arrested earlier, also broke glass at the Tommy Thompson Center on West Washington Avenue, smashed windows and lights at the state Capitol, and set a small fire at the Dane County jail before police arrived just before 1 a.m.

In Madison, statues of Wisconsin's motto "Forward" and of Col. Hans Christian Heg were dragged away from their spots guarding the statehouse. Heg was an anti-slavery activist who fought and died for the Union during the U.S. Civil War. His nearly 100-year-old sculpture was decapitated and thrown into a Madison lake by protesters.

The original Forward statue was first placed in front of the Wisconsin State Capitol in 1895. Protesters tore down a replica that was commissioned in the 1990s.

Forward is "an allegory of devotion and progress," according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Tuesday night's violence drew the fury of the Republican leader of the state Assembly, who called the protesters who knocked down the statues "thugs."

"This is absolutely despicable. I am saddened at the cowardice of Madison officials to deal with these thugs," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, tweeted as the statues were being torn down.

Vos also questioned why Gov. Tony Evers hadn't intervened in the destruction of the statues, given it took place on state Capitol property. Protesters also broke windows of a state building near the Capitol which houses the state jobs agency, among other state offices.

Hans Christian Heg (December 21, 1829 – September 20, 1863) was a Norwegian American journalist, activist, politician and soldier, best known for leading the Scandinavian 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment in the American Civil War. He died of the wounds he received at the Battle of Chickamauga

Background
Heg was born at Haugestad in the community of Lierbyen in Lier, Buskerud, Norway on December 21, 1829. He was the eldest of the four children of an innkeeper. His father, Even Hansen Heg (1790–1850), moved his family to America in 1840, settling in the Muskego Settlement in Wisconsin. Hans Heg was eleven years old when his family arrived in Muskego. He soon earned a reputation for himself as being a gifted boy.

At twenty years old, lured by the discovery of gold in the Sacramento Valley, he and three friends joined the army of "Forty-Niners". He spent the next two years prospecting for gold in California. Upon the death of his father, he returned to the Muskego area in 1851. He married Gunhild Einong, daughter of a Norwegian immigrant.

Heg became a rising young politician who found slavery abhorrent. He naturally became an ardent member of the Free Soil Party.[3] Heg was a major in the 4th Wisconsin Militia and served as Wisconsin State Prison Commissioner. He was the first Norwegian-born candidate elected statewide in Wisconsin.

He soon joined the recently formed Republican Party. He was an outspoken anti-slavery activist and a leader of Wisconsin's Wide Awakes, an anti-slave catcher militia. During this time, he sheltered Sherman Booth, who was made a federal fugitive after inciting a mob to rescue an escaped slave.

In 1860, Heg was elected commissioner of the state prison in Waupun, and served there for two years. Heg spearheaded many reforms to the prison, believing that prisons should be used to "reclaim the wandering and save the lost"

Are these people just tearing down random statues at this point? What's the point of this, to be destructive just for fun?

Yes. Also yes.

BLM was founded by Marxists, so not left enough I imagine.

Outrage is addictive, and these people are addicts on a massive bender.

The man died fighting to free the slaves.  These people are the definition of :"Dickheads".

^ Well, she certainly does identify herself as a Marxist...
but there was a distinct lack of any core Marxist themes in what she was saying.

Curious.

What has she got to say about the realisation of surplus value via manipulation of power imbalances inherent to the class dynamic of contemporary capitalism?

Think I’ll have to do some research... after baking some bread and a cake

Well, I'm not whatever a "trained Marxist" is, but I'm sure she'd have an exhaustive and highly thought out answer to that question. I, however, do not.

Best of luck with your own conquest of bread.

But you do agree that they are still "Dickheads, right?

10/10 for the Kropotkin pun.