A professor and a teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were recorded protesting a member of the school’s Turning Point USA chapter on Friday afternoon while the student tabled for the pro-capitalist group at the public university.
A campus employee also showed up and told the activist she could not had out her materials advancing free market ideals in that particular location, calling it “propaganda” and telling her to move to the free speech area, a second video of the incident shows.
Someone also called the police, and by the end of it the pro-capitalist activist says she was in tears and decided to pack things up. She said she left school grounds as police escorted her back to her apartment.
Between the two scholars, the administrator, and the police, campus leaders effectively shut down the free market tabling effort.
This is the same university at which this month last year students were told they should not say or do things that might be offensive or cause people to feel disrespected, calling the stance “nonnegotiable.”
“We do not tolerate actions of hate and disrespect,” Chancellor Ronnie Green had said.
‘Propaganda’
As for the situation that unfolded last week, Kaitlyn Mullen, a campus coordinator and member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln chapter of Turning Point USA, was recruiting members when a small group of protesters began circling her table, Turning Point News reports.
From the article:
“A woman walked past me and screamed ‘fascist’ and I didn’t think anything of it,” Mullen told Turning Point News. “And about 20 minutes later another woman came up and started screaming a little bit.”
Mullen explained that the protestors were screaming in rage about TPUSA’s proprietary “Professor WatchList” while also calling the organization’s founder, Charlie Kirk, a slew of derogatory terms, including “neo-fascist.” But, Mullen said that there were only 4 to 5 protesters that she recalls.
Two of the protesters were identified by Turning Point USA as Nebraska English professor Amanda Gailey and English graduate teaching assistant Courtney Lawton.
Video shows Lawton yelling “Neo-fascist Becky right here. Wants to destroy public schools, public universities, hates DACA kids” and a photo shows Gailey holding a sign reading “Turning Point: please put me on your watchlist.”
Mullen said she continued tabling during the protest because she didn’t want the demonstrators to “win.” However, the educators also verbally berated students interested in the group.
“People would come up and they would say to them ‘oh, you are joining this neo-Nazi and stuff?’ So, it got to the point that they were right in my face so I started crying,” she said.
Additional video published today by Turning Point USA shows that a university employee told Mullen the group needed to move its table into the university’s free speech zone or else it would be removed because it was located in a spot that required a reservation.
“Isn’t this a public university,” the employee was asked.
“Not with propaganda. You can free speech all you want but you cannot hand out propaganda,” he responded. The video labels him as an “unidentified university employee.”
The situation escalated to the point that campus police arrived. It’s unclear who called them. Turning Point News reports Mullen eventually packed up and left.
The video states: “Her crime? Having the courage to engage in free speech with other students about freedom, limited government and free markets.”
“As she was walking away, the campus police department met up with her, got her information, and even escorted her back to her apartment,” according to the article.
In a statement, Kirk, Turning Point USA’s founder, called the harassment by the University of Nebraska employees “sickening.”
“Everyday I hear stories about professors who attack and target conservatives and unfortunately this is yet another example of the radicalization of America’s higher education system,” he said.
MORE: This pro-capitalism campus group beats back efforts to shut it down
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