Arkansas’ Ten Commandments marker smashed
A man allegedly yells “Freedom!” as he crashes his vehicle into Arkansas’ new Ten Commandments monument outside the Capitol.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A man yelled “Freedom!” as he crashed his vehicle into Arkansas’ new Ten Commandments monument early Wednesday, authorities said.
The privately funded Arkansas monument had been in place outside the state Capitol in Little Rock for less than 24 hours before it was knocked from its plinth and smashed to pieces.
Michael Tate Reed, 32, of Van Buren, Ark., was booked in the Pulaski County jail shortly after 7:30 a.m. on preliminary charges of defacing objects of public interest, criminal trespass and first-degree criminal mischief.
A video arraignment was set for Thursday morning, a Pulaski County sheriff ’s spokesman said.
Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office spokesman Chris Powell said officials believe a Facebook Live video posted on Michael Reed’s account that depicted the destruction is authentic.
In the video, the sky is dark and the Arkansas Capitol’s dome is visible. Music is heard followed by a female voice, likely on the radio, saying, “Where do you go when you’re faced with adversity and trials and challenges?”
The driver is then heard growling, “Oh my goodness. Freedom!” before accelerating into the monument. The vehicle’s speedometer is last shown at 21 mph, and then a crash can be heard.
The monument fell and broke into multiple pieces as it hit the ground.
Oklahoma County Sheriff ’s spokesman Mark Opgrande told the Associated Press hat Reed was the same man arrested in October 2014 in the destruction of Oklahoma’s Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol.
In a 2015 email to the Tulsa World, Reed apologized for wrecking the monument and said he suffered from mental health issues.
“I am so sorry that this all happening (sic) and wished I could take it all back,” Reed said.
Arkansas’ granite monument weighed 6,000 pounds. It was installed Tuesday morning on the southwest lawn of the Capitol with little fanfare and no advance notice. A 2015 law required the state to allow the display near the Capitol, and a state panel last month gave final approval to its design and location.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who signed the legislation requiring the monument’s installation, wrote in a tweet that “resorting to property destruction is never the answer to a policy disagreement.”