A mob of roughly 30 masked protesters at UC Davis attacked a tent for a conservative student group, the UC Davis chapter of Turning Point USA. It proceeded to destroy the tent and displays without any intervention from campus police, who were shown standing nearby. The police followed the rampaging mob and did not attempt to detain anyone. The mob appears to have been led by Antifa members, a violent anti-free speech group.
Dressed in their signature black with masks and umbrellas, the group tore down the tent and assaulted some of the students by shoving and grabbing them. They actually returned to finish the job. The protesters carried a large banner with the words “ACAB,” which stands for all cops are bastards.
The university said in a news release that it is investigating. However, the university insisted, “The event with the guest speaker took place on schedule and was completed without further incident. The university protected the free speech rights of the campus community throughout the event.”
“Without further incident” has that feel of asking “other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”
One question is whether Davis will look into why the campus police stood and watched these protesters assault students and tear down a tent without trying to detain a single person. They merely walked behind the mob as it carried off the bits and pieces of the displays and tents.
The student group was about to host Brandon Tatum, a black conservative and former police officer.
TPUSA stated that the “Our ‘Prove Me Wrong’ tabling event was utterly destroyed:
“They stole the canopy, ripped down banners, smashed foam boards, and even tried to steal the iPad and laptop of a @tpusastudents field rep. TPUSA students were shoved and had objects thrown at them—while police did nothing,” the organization stated. “Only after the damage was done did law enforcement finally form a perimeter. This is the reality of free speech on campus.”
Political violence from the left is on the rise across the nation, fueled by the rage rhetoric of Democratic leaders and commentators.
As I discuss in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” Antifa began as a movement in Germany decades ago:
“Antifa originated with European anarchist and Marxist groups from the 1920s, particularly Antifaschistische Aktion, a Communist group from the Weimar Republic before World War II. Its name resulted from the shortening of the German word antifaschistisch. In the United States, the modern movement emerged through the Anti- Racist Action (ARA) groups, which were dominated by anarchists and Marxists. It has an association with the anarchist organization Love and Rage, which was founded by former Trotsky and Marxist followers as well as offshoots like Mexico’s Amor Y Rabia. The oldest U.S. group is likely the Rose City Antifa (RCA) in Portland, Oregon, which would become the center of violent riots during the Trump years. The anarchist roots of the group give it the same organizational profile as such groups in the early twentieth century with uncertain leadership and undefined structures.”
Despite the denial of its existence by figures like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), I have long written and spoken about the threat of Antifa to free speech on our campuses and in our communities. This includes testimony before Congress on Antifa’s central role in the anti-free speech movement nationally.
As I have previously written, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association. Yet, FBI Director Chris Wray has repeatedly pushed back on the denials of Antifa’s work or violence. In one hearing, Wray stated “And we have quite a number” — and “Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction.”
We have continued to follow the attacks and arrests of Antifa followers across the country, including attacks on journalists.
Some Democrats have played a dangerous game in supporting or excusing the work of Antifa. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany.
Ellison’s son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer. During a prior hearing, Democratic senators refused to clearly denounce Antifa and falsely suggested that the far right was the primary cause of recent violence. Likewise, Joe Biden has dismissed objections to Antifa as just “an idea.”
It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.
Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”
Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists… From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.”
The increasing political violence from the left continues on a daily basis with only cursory coverage from the media. Even a department head was shown this week destroying a table of conservative students.
This is the sense of license that comes from an age of rage. The fact is that this video shows how these groups are enabled by the culture in higher education.
It is reminiscent of the defiance shown by arrested Antifa member Jason Charter, who declared “The Movement is winning” after his own arrest.
It is a movement that has been further enabled by government officials who rationalize their actions or offer little deterrence to their conduct. For example, molotov cocktail throwing lawyers in New York were given relatively light sentences under the Biden Administration.
Then there was Thomas “Tas” Alexander Starks, 31, of Lisbon, N.D., a self-avowed Antifa member took an axe to the office of Sen. John Hoeven’s in Fargo on Dec. 21, 2020. Federal sentencing guidelines suggested 10–16 months in prison but he was only sentenced to probation and fined $2,784 for restitution . . . he then reportedly mocked the FBI for returning his axe. After his light sentence, Starks posted last month that it was all effectively a joke: “Look what the FBI were kind enough to give back to me!”
Scenes like the one on the campus of UC Davis will only encourage further attacks. The police acted as mere pedestrians as a mob engaged in political violence against students.
It’s time to start putting up electric fences around conservative outposts such as the one torn down by Antifa. When they approach turn it on. If they keep trying, turn up the voltage. If one dies of a heart attack, it’s just a heart attack – a well-deserved heart attack.
Age of Rage, or Age of Cowardice? I’d say the latter with respect to: campus police, professors, administrators, students, parents, donors and politicians!
These kind of attacks including the one at UW Eau Clare will not end until the perpetrators are arrested and face significant penalties such as jail time and/or hefty fines. In the case of the Antifa attack at UC Davis where the police stood idly by, the police officers themselves or the University (whichever was responsible for that decision) should be held criminally responsible. The students who were attacked should also be able to file civil claims against the University.
In the case of the professor at UW Eau Clare, placing him on leave or even firing him is not enough, as he will most likely be hired by another institution of indoctrination.
In either situation, if the local or State authorities do not pursue and impose significant punishment, the DOJ should address the infractions under domestic terrorism or civil rights legislation. Non-violent free speech is under attack across this country while the violent kind is flourishing. The “empathetic” faculty and the “Antifascist” brownshirts are themselves the Fascists that the left bloviates about.
Hitler was very clear in his writing and his utterances that he was a socialist and any argument to the contrary is gaslighting. The difference between the Nazis and the Communists was analogous to the difference between Frazier and Ali. They were both competitors in the same game. The real threat to liberal democracy in the West has always come from the left.
..well said, ‘Anonymous’ from the Lightside.. we would give u a ‘Like’ but our policy is not to like anonymous posts as people see that and think we are supporting the more prevalent Anonymous form the darkside posts.. we wish u would just create another moniker… Thank you.
It’s time for Charlie Kirk and Turning Point to obtain authorization with the approval of Kash Patel and/or Pam Bondi to carry defensive devices and use them against attacks such as this antifa attack — Can you imagine if some of the attackers had been ‘Tased’ — or something more aggressive?
They would exterminate the Jews, yet they call us the fascists.
They graffiti cars and businesses, yet they call us the fascists.
They support people who rape, murder and kidnap, yet they call us the fascists.
They destroy any semblance of free speech they don’t agree with, yet they call us the fascists.
They PROMOTE MEN in girls locker rooms, yet they call us misogynists.
They defund police departments and let murderers free to murder more, yet they call themselves compassionate.
They hide their faces, yet they call us the cowards.
There are no “professors” or “colleges” or “universities.” They were replaced a long time ago. The colleges and universities have been replaced by LEFTIST INDOCTRINATION ENTITIES (aka “LIEs”). And the professors have been replaced by MARXIST DEMAGOGUES. Until people understand this reality, they understand nothing about what’s actually already taken place.
The LIEs and their Marxist Demagogues aren’t just against free speech and liberty. They are adamantly opposed to thinking and reasoning. Blind obedience to the Marxist Totalitarian State is what they’re after.
There’s a classic episode from the original 1960s series The Outer Limits called “The Special One,” starring Richard Ney, that presents this point in an entertaining science fiction context. In “The Special One,” the parents of a child science prodigy are approached by a mysterious official called Mr. Xeno, who offers to give him special private tutoring. Unknown to them, Mr. Xeno is an alien posing as a government educator, who seeks to indoctrinate their gifted child, Kenny, to prepare him as a vanguard for an alien invasion.
As with all episodes of The Outer Limits, the narrator closes with the moral of the story:
“The mould of a man stems from the mind of a child. Educators and emperors have known this from time immemorial. So have tyrants.
“We now return control of your television set to you until next week at this same time when the control voice will take you to . . . The Outer Limits.”
And to quote an actual tyrant of the Left:
‘He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.’–Adolph Hitler.
And the following was a comment to “The Special One,” demonstrating that members of a modern audience understand the prophetic nature of this episode:
“The mold of a man stems….from the mind of a child.. Educators and emperors have known this from time and immemorial…SO HAVE TYRANTS…..😮..this explains our current united states..education/college system..😢…THIS IS TRULY…FRIGHTENING 😢😢”
There is yet hope for Justice Barrett
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/supreme-court-allows-trump-to-halt-millions-in-teacher-training-grants/
Now I see that Dennis McIntyre supports ANTIFA and MS-13. The more he rights the more we understand who he is. When the riots that burned in Seattle and Portland Dennis gave his support to ANTIFA. Now Dennis supports the gang rapist and drug dealers from Venezuela. Despicable is an understatement.
SmackInTire also support Hamas and virtually all other depraved, degenerate, destructive entities.
TiT,
Well said. That is what is the leftist mind set. Supporting the stupid and the crazy. They support violent criminal illegals, rapists, child molesters. They are anti-American, fascists, and all around losers. How many times has Dennis be right about anything?
Question? Does anyone actually believe that a pundit paid by Fox News bit now disclosing it on his blog (just google it) is telling the whole truth here?
Love to debate this !
YAWN 🥱
Anonymous, while Fox News was saying that Joe Biden was suffering from dementia you said they were making it all up. Your Turley Fox News obsession is just that a maniacal obsession. Rather than addressing an issue your go to thing is Turley and Fox News. Please tell us why you support ANTIFA and their physical attacks on people they disagree with. Please make yourself clear. Are you an AFTIFA supporter or not. Do you support MS-13 or not. Be brave. Let us know instead of going to your usual Turley Fox News caterwaul. This is your big chance to tell us who you are. We wait.
“Love to debate this !”
Debate is reserved for those who argue the merits of an *argument*.
Yours is a chronically repeated gutter-smear, irrelevant to JT’s actual arguments. You deserve so such “debate.” And any attempt to do so merely sanctions your irrational behavior.
Turley had to turn sad, pathetic grifter after he tanked GW Law’s ranking during his tenure…
“Leftist Mob”
That’s what Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks were in 1917, right, a leftist mob?
Alternatively, this “leftist mob” is actually anti-American, anti-Constitutional, parasitic, criminal, caterwauling, communist revolutionary enemies in rebellion against the United States violently disobeying the law with impunity.