Turning Point USA at UC Davis
Image: Signs reading “Fascists Off Our Campus” lean against the conference center doors. Pink Knight Press.
10.25.2022 | Today, Turning Point USA wanted to hold a speaking event hosted by UC Davis starring Stephen Davis, better known as the “MAGA Hulk”. The event areas were blocked by a fierce opposition force mostly consisting of students, numbering somewhere between fifty and sixty members. The event was successfully canceled by these protesters, a success that led them to be targeted by Proud Boys no more than thirty minutes later.
Opposing speakers pointed out that hosting fascist or fascist-sympathetic speakers is allowing a dangerous ideology to spread like an infection. “We’re here because we know how this ends, and we know it only stops when stopped. Fascists off campus!”.
Image: The abandoned conference center. Pink Knight Press.
The student-led group opposing the event moved barricades and prevented easy access for the planned TPUSA event. When protesters surged forward demanding that fascists leave the campus, people in the event building (a group I never witnessed reach a dozen members) scurried around, bringing in tables and eventually abandoning the event.
Darkness having fallen, Proud Boys and other fascist agitators found cover in darkness, arriving on the sidewalk behind the crowd in a group of about ten. They came in swinging, attacking with fists, a baton, and bear mace, grabbing cell phones and tearing up signs. The crowd defended itself appropriately and twenty minutes or more of brawling ensued. The fascists took potshots at students who were scattered by their chemical irritants. A man in a black Proud Boys shirt punched a lone femme-presenting student in the head, knocking them to the ground where they landed silent, apparently stunned or knocked out by his blow. The injured received prompt medical attention from a talented team of medics that wove throughout the crowd.
Turning Point USA is perhaps best known for its professor and school board watchlists, where it publicly maintains names and photos of professors, teachers, and faculty who are spreading a “liberalized agenda” (1) in an attempt to threaten and discourage ideas they disagree with, all done while claiming a platform of free-speech absolutism. This list includes people who have enforced COVID-19 guidelines, taught curriculum that recognizes the presence of racism, or spoken about gender and same-sex relationships (1).
1 www.tpusa.com
