Name: 'I did the right thing:' Man arrested on suspicion of painting Arizona Confederate memorial speaks out
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'I did the right thing:' Man arrested on suspicion of painting Arizona Confederate memorial speaks out

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Arizona RepublicView CommentsA man who was arrested on suspicion of throwing paint on a memorial to Arizona Confederate troops at the state Capitol on Friday says he acted alone and that he did it to protest racism and to inspire protesters.&nbsp;, according to authorities. The 29-year-old now faces charges on suspicion of&nbsp;felony criminal damage and abuse of monument, a misdemeanor, according to court documents he shared with&nbsp;The Arizona Republic.The stone statue was doused with red paint about 30&nbsp;minutes before&nbsp;people&nbsp;gathered at the state Capitol Friday evening to protest&nbsp;against the&nbsp;killings of men and women by police, according to Brennan. He said while&nbsp;he was in police custody,&nbsp;demonstrators began gathering around the statue, where they encouraged&nbsp;others to post&nbsp;photos with the hashtag #tearitdown."I don't want anyone to think that it was, like, the protesters who did it and take it out on them," he said. "It was done before them, certainly, but not by them."While Brennan has&nbsp;participated in some protests in the Phoenix area over the past few weeks, he said he did not on Friday.&nbsp;He&nbsp;knew, however,&nbsp;his handiwork would likely&nbsp;be seen by protesters and possibly celebrated, he said.&nbsp;"I knew that eventually&nbsp;protesters, whether it was Friday or not, would have eventually seen it and it would&nbsp;kind of motivate them, which it appears to have done so," Brennan said.&nbsp;Brennan said he first thought about dousing the statue in paint&nbsp;about a week ago. He only became serious about his plan days before, even scoping the area out for potential exits and cameras, he said.&nbsp;He arrived at the state Capitol about 4 p.m. Friday, intentionally&nbsp;"It was a calculated risk, and I knew that there&nbsp;was a 99% chance that I was going to get caught," he said.After dousing the statue in paint, Brennan said he was quickly&nbsp;arrested by&nbsp;Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers&nbsp;after crossing the street to&nbsp;catch a bus home. Through social media he learned protesters&nbsp;arrived at the Capitol soon after his arrest and gathered around the statue, he said.&nbsp;Brennan, who said he's&nbsp;never been arrested before, said the experience&nbsp;gave him insight into the justice system. He said he was released on his own recognizance about 12&nbsp;hours later with a court date scheduled for early July.&nbsp;Several people have reached out to Brennan since his arrest to offer legal assistance, he said, adding that he's not yet chosen anyone to represent him. He said he intends to challenge the charges against him, specifically the&nbsp;felony charge."I did the right thing, I did the moral thing, it just wasn't the&nbsp;legal thing."The statue at Wesley Bolin&nbsp;Memorial Plaza&nbsp;was&nbsp;a&nbsp;gift from the&nbsp;United Daughters of the Confederacy in the early 1960s, nearly a century after the end of the Civil War.&nbsp;It was power washed on Saturday to&nbsp;remove the red paint from the statue, according to authorities.&nbsp;Brennan, who says he lives about 10 minutes from downtown Phoenix,&nbsp;claims the statue represents racism&nbsp;— an issue at the&nbsp;heart of protests across the&nbsp;country in recent weeks.&nbsp;"We cannot memorialize racism," he said. "A&nbsp;lot of people, one thing that they say to me, they push back on, is that we cannot forget our history, which is a fair point, but that's what history books are for.""If you need this monument in downtown Phoenix&nbsp;to&nbsp;teach you about racism then something's&nbsp;clearly wrong with the education system," he continued.&nbsp;Statues memorializing the Confederacy are coming down across the nation amid ongoing protests and a national reckoning with the legacy of the Civil War. Some protesters have even taken matters into their own hands, toppling Confederate statues and monuments in various cities. to decide the statue's fatebut&nbsp;.Ducey did not elaborate on what such a public process should entail. His statement marked a slight adjustment from previous years in his position on the issue of Confederate monuments."Doug Ducey, I&nbsp;believe he last week said that he was going to leave it to the public, whatever that means," said Brennan. "I guess&nbsp;that means this and so the public has spoken.""In a way, that's a vote," he continued about the removal of Confederate statues. "There is actually no vote that I'm aware of to participate in so this is a way of saying, 'This is what we want, this is what we agree on,' and, again, it was me acting alone&nbsp;doing it, but just&nbsp;the protesters who eventually got to the park and rallied around it and&nbsp;most of the support that I've seen has been overwhelmingly positive."Ducey's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.&nbsp;Arizona Republic reporters&nbsp;BrieAnna J. Frank,&nbsp;Andrew Oxford and&nbsp;Grace Oldham contributed to this report.&nbsp;Reach the reporter at &nbsp;or follow her on Twitter&nbsp;.&nbsp;Support local journalism.&nbsp;today.View Comments

Arizona RepublicView CommentsA man who was arrested on suspicion of throwing paint on a memorial to Arizona Confederate troops at the state Capitol on Friday says he acted alone and that he did it to protest racism and to inspire protesters.&nbsp;, according to authorities. The 29-year-old now faces charges on suspicion of&nbsp;felony criminal damage and abuse of monument, a misdemeanor, according to court documents he shared with&nbsp;The Arizona Republic.The stone statue was doused with red paint about 30&nbsp;minutes before&nbsp;people&nbsp;gathered at the state Capitol Friday evening to...

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Chelsea Curtis

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'I did the right thing:' Man arrested on suspicion of painting Arizona Confederate memorial speaks out

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