It is unsurprising that the defendants’ lawyer would object to the potential charges, but some legal experts agree.

Irving Joyner, a professor of law at North Carolina Central University and veteran litigator in civil-rights cases, called the felony charges “a typical situation of overcharging.” Joe Kennedy, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, noted that North Carolina’s legal definition of felony riot specifically requires violence or a willingness to commit it.

“In assigning felony liability, we want to distinguish people who are merely damaging property and those who are willing to hurt people,” Kennedy said. “It’s hard to find a riot here. You find vandalism, you can find disorderly conduct, but I don’t think you can find a riot when only one side shows up and the side that does show up doesn’t show intent to injure any person.”

Riot aside, there is the matter of what the statue is worth. A 2015 state law prohibits the removal of Confederate monuments, but the county is trying to decide what legal obligations it has now. Does it have to reinstall the destroyed statue? Or does it have to replace it? At the time of its erection, the statue seems to have cost about $5,000, but that included its granite plinth. The protest demonstrated the cheapness of its construction, too: Though it appeared to be bronze, the statue crumpled, probably irreparably in the fall, and turned out to be made of sheet metal that was merely coated in bronze. Assessing the present-day value of the statue is also challenging. In some cases around the country, local officials are seeking to remove Confederate monuments on the basis that the are in fact a liability because they create public-safety issues. Echols has asked the county to determine what the statue is worth as part of his investigation.

Joyner said that Andrews’s charges, and his vow not to let anybody get away with a crime, suggested he may be posturing, in an attempt to show members of the community a tough stand or to deter would-be topplers of other statues.

“I think a lot of it is political and public relations and getting out to people, ‘We’re going to go after these people real hard,’” Joyner said. “If this statue was worth saving, [the sheriff] could have posted people around it.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman noted that “the Sheriff's Office consulted with prosecutors on at least two occasions before obtaining warrants. Sheriff Andrews will continue to enforce the law and maintain respect for the District Attorney’s Office, and the judicial process, which ultimately will have the final say on the merit of the charges.” Andrews has also asked city and county officials to clarify guidelines for demonstrations.

Even as there is a debate over how harshly to charge protestors, legislators in some states—including North Carolina—have considered codifying lenient punishments for those who injure them. Demonstrators have seized on blocking roads and highways as a tactic for grabbing attention. In response, several GOP-controlled state legislatures have considered laws that would grant drivers some degree of immunity for injuries caused to protestors in roadways, provided they did not willfully hurt people.