The Concord Police Department is preparing to bring criminal mischief charges against a suspect accused of vandalizing The Satanic Temple’s display outside the New Hampshire State House. For the second time in as many weeks, the temple’s statue of Baphomet was toppled by vandals and then repaired. 

Police also contacted the Attorney General’s office about the vandalism potentially being a hate crime, Deputy Chief of Police John Thomas said Wednesday. 

The suspect was detained on Main Street Tuesday evening after a witness reported to police that someone was taking apart the display. The suspect has not been publicly identified.

In New Hampshire, a criminal mischief conviction can carry additional penalties if a person is found to have been “substantially motivated to commit the crime because of hostility towards the victim's religion, race, creed, sexual orientation... national origin, sex, or gender identity.”  

The Attorney General's Civil Rights Unit investigates potential hate crimes when a complaint has been filed or when a local police department flags an incident. While city police haven’t made an official referral, Thomas said, they are considering it.

Meanwhile, those who support the display as an exercise of freedom of speech have been putting it back together and said in a statement Wednesday that they’re prepared to continue repairing the statue through the life of its permit.

“The Baphomet displays will keep being made by our artist coalition. If the haters want to continue to play Whac-A-Mole with a public display, we are ready,” said a statement from the Concord Area Artist Coalition for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion on Wednesday. The group, which repaired the statue last week, noted that none of its members are affiliated with The Satanic Temple.

Members of the coalition have declined interviews because they wish to remain anonymous, citing safety concerns. They have been seen repairing the statue in holiday garb — including a “Buddy the Elf” costume — and masks. 

Concord police have no evidence that the suspect detained Tuesday night is tied to the vandalism from last week, Thomas said.

The statue features a robed Baphomet, a goat-headed figure that is a pagan idol. The statue holds a bouquet of lilacs, the state flower, in one hand and an apple, a reference to Isaac Newton, in the other. It is joined by a flag and tablet with The Temple’s Seven Fundamental Tenets.

Debate about the display has become heated, including comments from Mayor Byron Champlin at a City Council meeting saying an out-of-state group was “cynically promoting its national agenda at the expense of the Concord community.” The statue’s presence and approval by the city have made national news. 

The Satanic Temple, a Salem, Massachusetts-based religious organization, a branch of which has non-profit status in New Hampshire, received a permit from the city to put up a holiday display on the sidewalk in front of the State House, opposite other religious displays including a Christian nativity scene. In a statement last week, the city noted that it granted the permit under the legal determination that it had to “ban all holiday displays installed by other groups, or otherwise, to allow it.”

Newmarket state Rep. Ellen Read, who contacted The Temple about putting up a display, said she had received death threats because of her involvement. In addition, she said she had been called a “Satan worshipper” and told she would “burn for an eternity in hell.”