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Man Deliberately Destroys 10 Commandments Monument At Arkansas State Capitol

   DailyWire.com

Less than 24 hours after a Ten Commandments monument at the Arkansas Capitol was installed on the Capitol grounds, a 32-year-old man deliberately smashed his car into it.

The Arkansas Times reported that Michael Tate Reed, 32, of Van Buren, Arkansas, was charged with defacing objects of public interest; criminal trespass on the Capitol grounds, and first degree criminal mischief.

According to the secretary of state’s office, a Capitol police officer on patrol saw Reed drive past the monument before executing a U-turn and driving into the monument, which fell from its plinth and shattered. The officer took Reed, who was “cooperative,” according to police spokesman Danielle Fusco, into custody.

Tulsa World reported that a Facebook Live video posted on a Michael Reed’s account showed the destruction of the monument. Tulsa World reported, “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 collision can be heard.”

Michael Tate Reed II, who is possibly the same man who drove into the Arkansas monument, was taken in for mental evaluation after he crashed his car into the Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on October 24, 2014. As Tulsa World reported, he stated in a letter “that his psychotic breaks led to getting inspiration from a Dracula movie, thinking Michael Jackson’s spirit was in meat, believing he was the incarnation of an occult leader and attempting to contact Lucifer’s high priestess he called Gwyneth Paltrow.” He added, “I was hesitant on writing this, but I think it would be a good way to share with others what happened to me back in October … I am so sorry that this all happening (sic) and wished I could take it all back.”

In 2013, Reed locked himself in one of the CityPlex Towers, one of the large buildings near Oral Roberts University; he was taken to a mental health facility, then released later into his mother’s care in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Weeks later, he drove to Kentucky to escape from a storm he thought was evil and following him. He started hallucinating as he returned; he acknowledged later, “The voice had told me if I didn’t stop the cars, people would die. The voice told me the cars were all carrying meat that was infected with the spirit of Michael Jackson and it was a killer virus.’

Resisting the impulse to crash into the cars, Reed released the wheel and ended up in the median, where he was arrested and held for 10 days in jail on drug charges. He was admitted for a 30-day stay in a mental health facility in Arkansas.

Reed was released from an Oklahoma hospital in January 2015 “under an agreement with Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater for continued treatment, therapy and family support. He is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.”

Sen. Jason Rapert, who sponsored legislation to erect the monument, which was built with private funds by the Heritage Foundation and opposed by several groups, called the smashing of the monument a “premeditated act of violence against the people of Arkansas.”

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