This was supposedly a "hate crime," so they piled on the charges. Surely there was nothing like felonious vandalism involved. Underwear on the head? Take it off. String around the neck? Remove it. Stickers on the statue? Take them off and wash off the glue.
Good grief, this was a stupid and annoying thing to do, but it's not a felony unless a certain amount of monetary damage was done. That doesn't seem possible. In other words, they faked up a felony crime purely because they thought it was white racism. Black racism? That's OK.
Pigeon pooped on the statue. That racist!