National Guard activated in D.C. and Wisconsin after statues targeted
Steel fences with concrete bases outside the White House on Wednesday after a failed attempt to topple a statue of the late President Andrew Jackson at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
The National Guard was activated on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin in response to anti-racism protesters' attempts to topple statues.
Driving the news: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) took the action after unrest in Madison on Tuesday night saw demonstrators pull down two statues and hurl a "Molotov cocktail into a government building" in a bid to enter the state Capitol, per AP. State Sen. Tim Carpenter said he was assaulted by protesters as he filmed the unrest.
- One of the statues toppled in Madison was of Col. Hans Christian Heg, "an abolitionist who died trying to end slavery during the Civil War," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes.
- In Washington, D.C., officials said the Army deployed some 400 unarmed National Guard members to "prevent any defacing or destruction," the Washington Post reports. The move comes after protesters tried to tear down a statue outside the White House of Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. president who enslaved dozens of black people, on Monday evening.
Go deeper: Confederate monuments become flashpoints in protests against racism