State police help university detain three protestors outside of Turning Point USA event
Three people received criminal summons for their actions while protesting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at the University of New Mexico.
UNM Chief Marketing and Communications Officer told Campus Reform that the university ‘is committed to the principles of free speech and values its role as a public square for debate.’
The University of New Mexico (UNM) recently detained three people, including one student, who protested a Charlie Kirk lecture.
Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), an organization with the mission “to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.”
New Mexico State Police arrived in “riot gear” to detain the protestors, according to a report from KOB 4 News.
KOB 4 also reported that all three received a criminal summons for “[i]nterference with members of staff, public officials or the general public,” a criminal offense within New Mexico Statutes.
If charged, this misdemeanor comes with “a $500 fine and/or less than 6 months in jail.”
Cinnamon Blair, the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at UNM, told Campus Reform that UNM “is committed to the principles of free speech and values its role as a public square for debate, a marketplace of ideas, and a place to test and challenge competing viewpoints and opinions.”
“In this context, allowing speakers invited by a student organization on campus in no way implies an endorsement of the content of their speeches or their opinions,” Blair continued. “And those who disagree with the ideas expressed are encouraged to respectfully voice their perspectives, which is what occurred.”
Blair said that Kirk’s event “was able to successfully take place,” and the university’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) engaged the event after “multiple individuals fail[ed] to disperse from the event entrance ramp.”
A video tweeted by Kirk shows him waving to protestors from a balcony at UNM. “They’re so tolerant,” Kirk says.
“You like white supremacy,” one student yells at Kirk.
[RELATED: Protester dressed as ‘sad clown’ with frozen condoms arrested at Ben Shapiro event]
In a video shared by Fox News, one protester says that she is “antifa.” A previous report from Campus Reform shared a disruption to a November TPUSA event at the University of California, Davis by protestors who were allegedly antifa.
Campus Reform described “[a]ntifa, or ‘anti-fascist’” as “a loosely organized far-left movement that protests social justice causes across the country.” Antifa protestors “allegedly threw a trash bag of cow manure into” a TPUSA screening of Matt Walsh’s documentary “What is a Woman?”
In a response to a question from Fox News about the police, one Kirk protestor responded, “Cops? F**k them.”
“You know what I say? ‘F**k Americans,’” he continued.
[RELATED: Women’s March attendee arrested for harassing pro-life students]
Kirk told Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “It’s really interesting when you try to show up on a college campus and do an optional, voluntary event [and consider] how angry the other side gets.”
“This is the third time this semester that we’ve done an event on this campus. The other two had to be canceled or ended abruptly because of these people,” Kirk said.
Campus Reform previously reported protests against another conservative speaker at UNM. Tomi Lahren’s appearance in September was cut short after a protester allegedly pulled a fire alarm.
Campus Reform contacted UNM and the UNM chapter of TPUSA. This article will be updated accordingly.
