Pennsylvania State University is under fire for chastising students over violence that occurred during protests of a planned campus event featuring Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, which was later cancelled.
Some observers suggested right-wing demonstrators bore more responsibility for the clashes, which included a fist fight and a crowd of bystanders being sprayed with chemicals.
On Monday, the university cancelled a planned comedy show featuring right-wing personality Alex Stein and Mr McInnes, a co-founder of the right-wing street gang who has since left the group.
“Due to the threat of escalating violence associated with tonight’s event, Penn State University Police determined that it was necessary to cancel the speaking event in the interest of campus safety. Demonstrations regrettably turned violent,” the university said in a statement on its website.
In a separate statement, university president Neeli Bendapudi described violent clashes of unknown origin on campus on Monday, and criticised both opponents and supporters of the event for the chaos that ensued.
“Tonight, Stein and McInnes will celebrate a victory for being canceled, when in actuality, they contributed to the very violence that compromised their ability to speak,” she wrote. “Tonight, counter-protestors also will celebrate a victory that they forced the University to cancel this event, when in actuality they have furthered the visibility of the very cause they oppose.”
Critics were stunned at the university’s stance, as the Proud Boys are well-known for bringing street violence wherever they go, and observers suggested right-wing demonstrators caused the lion’s share of the clashes at the protests about the event.
Andy Campbell, senior editor at HuffPost and author of the book We Are Proud Boys wrote on Twitter he was shocked to hear such statements coming from the university leader against students “who protested the violent gang that the university invited to campus despite safety concerns, and then got attacked. Just wow.”
“You hosted the founder of an internationally designated terror organization what did you expect,” added extremism researcher Emily Gorcenski.
According to observers, right-wing demonstrators pepper-sprayed protesters, students, and media members and sought to provoke fist-fights.
“You know the Proud Boys came over, and they maced me for no reason — no reason at all,” a student told the university newspaper. “No one touched anyone, and the guy just opened up his can of mace and started spraying everywhere. He got me and a bunch of girls.”
Journalists on the scene also said right-wingers attacked people at the event with chemical spray.
At other points during the tense demonstrations on campus ahead of the event, police ran through the crowd on horses, and appeared to allow a man in a yellow bandana, the colour of the Proud Boys, to pass into a campus building after a fistfight broke out among protestors.
The Independent has contacted the university for comment.
“Penn State Shut Down My Speech on Campus Today!” Alex Stein, one of the performers at the event, wrote on social media on Monday. “Free Speech Doesn’t Exist for Conservatives!”
He also said a student got in his face and spat on him ahead of the planned event.
Students protested the event throughout October, but PSU previously insisted the show would go on.
“While the type of rhetoric these speakers regularly engage in does not represent the values of Penn State, our student organizations operate independent of the University and are free to sponsor programs or speakers of their choosing without censorship,” the university said in a statement earlier this month.
