WATCH: Charlie Kirk’s UC Davis Event Disrupted By Protestors Smashing Through Windows in Front of Cops, Leading to Arrests
A TPUSA event with founder Charlie Kirk at University of California, Davis plunged into chaos on Tuesday night when protesters, including black-clad Antifa members, clashed outside the venue in a fracas that resulted in two arrests.
Kirk’s appearance at the campus was already causing anxiety before the event. In an opinion piece for the Sacramento Bee published the morning of the event, Bee opinion assistant Hannah Holzer called Kirk a “fascist” and claimed he called for the lynching of trans people — an allegation Kirk has denied.
The piece was corrected to remove the claim about lynching and the description of Kirk as a fascist after blowback. A tweet from the Bee which said “Charlie Kirk has called for the lynching of trans people, a comment that should warrant the cancelation of his speaking engagement at UC Davis” was deleted.
The Bee updated its piece with an editor’s note: “An earlier version of this column included a reference to trans people that Charlie Kirk has strongly denied. His denial has been added to the column.”
The UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May released a statement clarifying that the TPUSA chapter at the university had the right to invite speakers onto campus but said, “UC Davis stands with our transgender and non-binary Aggies in opposition to this hateful and divisive messaging.”
According to the local news outlet CBS Sacramento, hundreds of protesters were on the campus ahead of the event, including a large group of law enforcement officers.
The two groups clashed as objects were thrown, including eggs, while glass window panes were broken.
Protesters also reportedly used pepper spray and attempted to block the entrance to the building where the event was taking place.
Two protesters were arrested during the event for spray painting on a campus building.
After the event, UC Davis released another statement saying that one police officer was injured in the clash, “One officer sustained an injury when he was jumped on from behind and pushed to the ground.”
Kirk shared footage from the event, which showed officers blocking the building entrance before the group of protestors reached the doors and broke a window. The video, which garnered 2.5 million views on Twitter, also caught the attention of the platform’s CEO Elon Musk.
Another video from journalist Drew Hernandez, a TPUSA contributor, shows protestors blocking the walking path toward the event space.
https://twitter.com/RebsBrannon/status/1635804738406199296
Watch above via CBS Sacramento.
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