After a 76-year-old man attacked the facade of the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle using a sledgehammer, the Washington State Department and the city have donated $100,000 to the museum for repairs, according to KOMO News.
The funds will also help the museum upgrade its security and support the mental and emotional health of its staff.
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The attack took place at around 6 p.m. on September 14. Craig Milne, who had been accused of hate crimes in the past, took a sledgehammer to the museum’s windows while a group was inside touring an exhibition. All the while, Milne shouted racist slurs. After he was arrested, Milne told the police that he did not regret the damage he’d caused to the museum, which is the only “pan-Asian Pacific American community-based museum in the country,” according to KOMO News.
Charging documents show that even after he was arrested, Milne continued to make racially charged statements and told the police that “the Chinese have tortured and tormented me for 14 years.” He was charged with a hate crime and first-degree malicious mischief.
The museum’s executive director Joël Barraquiel Tan told KOMO News that while the attack brought out the best in the community, he was still shocked someone could harbor such hate against Pan-Asian Pacific Americans.
“There’s considerable damage but we are demonstrating as a neighborhood and as a museum that while our glass is breakable, we are an unbreakable community,” said Tan.
Source: artnews.com