Loyola student calls Trump-supporting peer a ‘Nazi,’ seems to call for violent assaults against him
“yall [sic] ever see those ‘punch a nazi’ signs? not advocating for violence, though!!!!!!! that would be bad!!!!!” the post said.
‘I can't walk around campus feeling safe,’ Repetti told Campus Reform.
An anonymous post by a student at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, California referred to a peer who supports Donald Trump as a “Nazi” and seemed to call for violence against him.
Ryland Repetti, president of College Republicans at the Jesuit university, wore a Make America Great Again hat and a jacket featuring the U.S. flag the day after Election Day in celebration of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
In response to a photo showing Repetti at a coffee shop, an anonymous user on Fizz, a campus-based social media app, wrote: “yall [sic] ever see those ‘punch a nazi’ signs? not advocating for violence, though!!!!!!! that would be bad!!!!!”
Repetti told Campus Reform he believes the user’s disclaimer of “[I’m] not advocating for violence, though!!!!!!! that would be bad!!!” was said “sarcastically.” He added that “someone tried to rip the hat off my head shortly after the photo of me was taken. She claimed to ‘want to take a picture with it’ but I saw that she wanted to destroy it or trash it.”
Repetti considers the post a “threat” and mentioned that he now feels unsafe at LMU due to the hostility shown to his political views.
“I don’t mind people saying mean things to me online but when hundreds of anonymous peers of mine want me to be attacked, I can’t walk around campus feeling safe,” Repetti told Campus Reform. “Since I saw that post, I’ve been uneasy walking around campus.”
The original Fizz post seemingly calling for violence against Repetti received “a couple [of] hundreds up votes” from other LMU students before it was taken down, according to Repetti. The post was removed by “trained student community moderators that support the central Fizz team in removing offending content,” the Fizz team told Campus Reform.
Repetti also brought the original post to the attention of LMU’s Campus Safety but was told not much could be done because Fizz is not affiliated with LMU and because of the anonymity of the post.
Besides the potential threat of violence, Repetti and his friends have also “been experiencing harassment online for making a post about a watch party” that the College Republicans hosted to watch the elections,” Repetti told Campus Reform.
[RELATED: MARSCHALL: Students cannot cope with Trump’s victory over Harris. Blame the teachers.]
“Nightmare blunt rotation,” read one Fizz post with over 1,800 upvotes. “Helppp why are there so many [people of color],” read another.
Photos of Repetti at the coffee shop, including the one that featured the threat of violence, also drew comments like “stinkyyyyyyy” and “EWWW.”
Repetti said he planned to meet with Student Conduct to discuss the threat incident.
Campus Reform contacted LMU for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
