July 13, 2020 at 2:36 p.m.
Arbor Vitae restaurant building vandalized
Business has been closed since early 2019
Arbor Vitae restaurant building vandalized
The former supper club, originally built in 1937, has been closed since early 2019.
The spray paint graffiti left on the front of the building and on a sign in its front yard is "BLM," which stands for "Black Lives Matter."
Vilas County sheriff Joe Fath said there were two occupants in a vehicle seen at the time of the incident and photos of the vehicle's license plate were being enhanced Friday in an effort to make an identification.
"It's still under investigation," Fath said late Friday morning.
The activities of national, "high visibility" organizations such as Black Lives Matter take place mostly in urban areas and representatives of local law enforcement agencies in the Lakeland area are among those who acknowledge the legal right to protest.
"The Oneida County Sheriff's Office will continue to protect anyone peacefully exercising their first amendment rights, no matter what their cause is," Oneida County sheriff Grady Hartman said. "However, any violence, vandalism or the like will be aggressively investigated and enforced. Wisconsin statute 59.28 states: 'Sheriffs and their undersheriffs and deputies shall keep and preserve the peace in their respective counties and quiet an suppress all affrays, routs, riots, unlawful assemblies and insurrection ...' We take this statute very seriously and our deputies have been advised that we won't stand down or ignore these types of issues like we are seeing in some parts of the country."
Fath echoed Hartman's sentiments.
"I would agree with Grady," he said. "We're going to try to find the people responsible, refer them to the district attorney and let the DA make the decision how she wants to charge but vandalism is vandalism."
Fath said he understands the business isn't open.
"It's still private property," he said. "People should not be vandalizing private property with anything like that."
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected]
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