A conservative student activist at the University of California Berkeley was reportedly assaulted Tuesday while recruiting new members to the group Turning Point USA, UCPD said in a release.
Hayden Williams, the victim who was recruiting at a table on Upper Sproul Plaza, was approached by two males, and an argument quickly followed. When Williams began recording the verbal altercation with his phone, a physical struggle began.
"A physical confrontation ensued when one of the two men slapped the phone out of the victim's hand," UCPD said. "The suspect then knocked over the table the victim was at and the two men struggled over the phone. During the incident, the suspect punched the victim several times causing injury to the victim's eye and nose."
A student who saw the fight called campus police, but the suspect fled before they arrived.
The report doesn't indicate what was said between Williams and the suspect before phone video began recording, but most of what happened during the fight was caught on video.
The suspect in the video called Williams a "racist b---h" and a "f--kin c--t." As the two stood facing each other, the video shows the suspect rear back and punch Williams with a right jab. At one point in the video, the suspect said he should "shoot" the conservative activist.
Though recruiting members for Turning Point USA, Williams reportedly isn't a member of that group, according to campusreform.org.
Charlie Kirk, the founder and director of Turning Point USA, said if the attacker had been wearing a red "Make America Great Again" cap, then it would be labeled a "hate crime" and splattered all over the news outlets.
"College campuses have become increasingly unsafe for conservatives," Kirk told Fox News. "Our amazing Turning Point USA team was talking and then confronted by the hateful left which resulted in the assault and punching in the face just because of a difference of opinion. If the attacker was wearing a MAGA hat, this would be classified as a hate crime and all over every news channel."
According to its website, Turning Point USA is a nonprofit group that whose mission is to promote conservative ideals and "to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government." The conservative grassroots network says it's represented on more than 1,300 college and high school campuses, and it calls itself the "largest and fast growing youth organization in America."
One of the missions of Turning Point USA is to "effectively push back against intolerance and bias against conservatives in higher education."
A letter from the Chancellor's Office at U.C. Berkeley said Tuesday's behavior by the suspect was "intolerable and has no place here."
"Let there be no mistake, we strongly condemn violence and harassment of any sort, for any reason," Chancellor Carol Christ released in a statement. "That sort of behavior is intolerable and has no place here. Our commitment to freedom of expression and belief is unwavering."
The suspect hasn't been identified by the university, and the chancellor's office doesn't know of his ties or affiliations to the school.
The U.C. Berkely campus is notorious for clashes dating back to the 1960s. In more recent history, there was the 2017 "pro-Trump" supporters in a "March on Berkeley" in which five self-described "anti-fascists" allegedly attacked the pro-Trump gatherers. The five men were found not guilty of assault, according to Berkeleyside.com.
About 1,500 people protested on the campus in June 2018 to "Keep Families Together" at the U.S.-Mexico border, and, in August 2018, police thwarted potential violence at a "Stop the Hate" rally, which saw far-right activists in a park while anti-fascist and socialist demonstrators prepared to confront them, according to Berkeleyside.com.
Other instances include student-led protests over conservative speakers Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos, whose speech was cancelled.
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