The College Fix

Turning Point USA student says his group was just trying to ‘spread the truth’

A rowdy student protest at Central Connecticut State University forced a student chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative group, to abruptly end its screening of a documentary critical of Black Lives Matter.

A group of CCSU students “and allies” protested the screening of “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM,” produced by Candace Owens and The Daily Wire, the Hartford Courant reported.

The rowdy group of demonstrators continuously chanted accusations of racism right outside the windows of the building in which the movie was being shown, a video of the protest posted on Facebook shows.

The video shows at least one student had a bullhorn to amplify the protest directed at those inside watching the film. Part of the video also shows students softly but continually pounding on the windows of the building to disrupt the event.

The crowd of about 30 protesters also chanted “hate speech is not free speech,” “CCSU, who let the racists out,” “this is what democracy looks like” and “no justice, no peace, no racist police,” the video shows.

“The students’ screaming and their pounding of a drum outside were so loud that we could not hear the film, and protestors embedded in the audience screamed and occasionally stormed the stage, with the result that the chapter president had no choice but to stop the film. The protestors won,” CCSU Professor Jay Bergman, the faculty advisor of the TPUSA chapter, told The College Fix via email Tuesday.

Ultimately the protest led to the cancelation of the March 2 screening, the Courant reported.

The video shows the student protesters erupt into cheers, applause and celebration when someone from inside the room came out to tell them the movie was shut off.

“They turned it off, they turned it off, they turned it off, they turned it off,” one female demonstrator yelled repeatedly over and over. “They turned off the movie. Let’s go, let’s go, yes. … We shut that shit down.”

Then the crowd began a new chant: “Everybody — we win; everybody — we win; everybody — we win.”

Student protester Malia Hunt told the Courant that to have their peers “try to debunk Black Lives Matter as an organization and thus a movement, it was very triggering and infuriating, especially as, you know, as Black students, and as the Black community.”

“We really are trying to continue to grieve and heal from that death [of George Floyd], plus all the other Black lives that are still being lost to police brutality and racism in general,” Hunt said.

The Daily Wire description of the movie states that in “the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, the media concocted a narrative that justified a summer of worldwide riots and helped contribute to the rise of Black Lives Matter who used the chaos to raise 90 million dollars. Candace Owens follows the money and discovers exactly how the money was spent and where it did—and didn’t go.”

TPUSA’s mission is to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government,” according to its website.

CCSU chapter Vice President Antonio Pensanti told the Courant his group engaged in dialogue with a CCSU Black Student Union member after the protest. He also said the goal of screening the movie was to “spread the truth.”

“By showing the movie, that’s what we believe we were doing. There’s a lot of things from the movie that people maybe hadn’t heard of. And it was a spotlight on some other things from the BLM and George Floyd situation that people never heard of before, because it was suppressed, so we just want to spread the truth,” Pensanti told the Courant.

Pensanti also stated TPUSA has “no plans” to try to screen the documentary again because he expected students would protest it again.

“That’s not really productive,” he told the Courant. However, “we will probably show the movie on more of a personal level, just in our group,” he said.

CCSU spokesperson Jodi Latina confirmed no arrests or injuries were reported during the protest, according to the Courant.

“One of the most critical functions of a public university is to protect the rights of all students. The suppression of speech is a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. The documentary, no matter how objectionable, is speech,” Latina told The Courant.

Latina also stated the university is investigating the incident to determine whether its code of conduct was violated.

MORE: Penn waives security fee for Candace Owens event after College Fix report

IMAGE: Facebook screenshots & The Daily Wire

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