Church of Satan member urinates on and destroys statue of Ten Commandments

A man who claimed to be a Satanist recently drove to a Ten Commandments monument outside the Oklahoma City legislative building in the United States; got out of his car and urinated on the monument before smashing the car into it, thereby destroying the six-foot-tall monument.
 

The destroyed monument

According to Secret Service agent, David Allison as quoted by the Associated Press, the man said “Satan told him to do it, and that he was a Satanist.”

He was detained on Friday after showing up at a federal building in Oklahoma City, rambling and heaping insults on President Barack Obama and admitting to destroying the monument as directed by Satan.

The man has been placed under mental evaluation and according to a statement Oklahoma police, “investigators will continue to look into the case and coordinate with the Oklahoma County district attorney on Monday, for any possible criminal charges”.

According to NBC News, the Republican-controlled Legislature in the state known as the buckle of the Bible Belt in 2009 authorized the privately funded Ten Commandments monument.

The monument before it was destroyed

Mike Ritze, a Republican state representative, whose family spent nearly $10,000 to have the monument erected, was quoted as saying: “We consider this an act of violence against the state of Oklahoma,”

"We are obviously shocked and dismayed, but we're not discouraged," he said, vowing to have it rebuilt.

Gov. Mary Fallin was quoted as calling the suspect’s act as an "appalling" act of vandalism and volunteered to help raise private funds to restore it.

The statue, which was erected in 2012, has been a source of protest from the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma (ACLU) who wants it removed. They argue that it violates the Oklahoma Constitution and could be seen as a state endorsement of a religion. But last month, a judge ruled that the monument does not violate the Oklahoma Constitution. The ACLU attorneys have filed an appeal with the state supreme court.

 A group of satanists uninvolved in the vandalism also protested against the monument last year, demanding the erection of an equivalent monument that represents to their faith beside it. They proposed the erection a goat-headed statue

The statue proposed by the satanists to be erected near the Ten Commandment monument