A student at the University of Michigan approached a group of Turning Point USA students and activists and began stealing the entirety of the organization’s supplies — even the cookies and hot chocolate — before dismantling the group’s recruiting table. The incident was caught on video.
Student members of Turning Point USA were once again harassed at their college for espousing conservative views. The latest incident, which follows a series of instances of harassment and intimidation against conservatives across the country, happened last week at the University of Michigan, where a student approached TPUSA members and began stealing all of their supplies, completely disrupting their recruiting drive.
A large portion of the incident was caught on video by University of Michigan senior and TPUSA chapter president Austin McIntosh. The video was then posted to the school’s TPUSA group’s Facebook page on Thursday.
Watch below:
“Recording me don’t make me feel no type of way, so you can keep doing it,” said the vandal to TPUSA members as he walked to a nearby trash can to dispose of the group’s stolen cookies and signs — just moments after dumping a bowl of lollipops on the ground.
“It’s against the law to steal,” said TPUSA field representative Monika Konrad to the student as he destroyed one of their signs, which simply read, “Free Speech #FreeTheFirst.”
“You know, it’s also against the law to hate speech,” stated the vandal, as he threw the TPUSA sign into the trash.
“It’s not hate speech,” Konrad contested.
“What were we doing that was hateful?” added McIntosh. “Did you see the calm conversation I was having with someone who doesn’t agree with me?”
“You know what I saw?” responded the vandal, who then oddly began listing off volume titles of the Japanese manga series, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
The vandal proceeded to utter nonsensical remarks to himself as he walked back to the TPUSA table to steal more of the group’s materials. He then attempted to pop their giant “free speech ball,” but abandoned his endeavor upon realizing that the beach ball was not easy to destroy.
“It’s not deflating quick enough,” the student muttered to himself, as he yet again made his way back to the TPUSA table to steal more items from the conservative students.
“Keep up the class, man,” said McIntosh.
“I will, that’s what I’m here for,” quipped the vandal, as he threw away a bag of TPUSA pins, which read, “I <3 [love] America.”
“I hope next time you table, I can come up to you and talk to you and have a very calm conversation with you,” said McIntosh, implying that despite the vandal’s behavior, he was still willing to engage in civil dialog in the future.
“I don’t give two shits,” responded the student, as he tore up the group’s “Free Hot Chocolate” sign.
Near the end of the video, the vandal had successfully disposed of every single item on the TPUSA recruiting table.
“If you touch my items, I swear, I will call the police,” said Konrad, in reference to one last remaining box of cookies that she had managed to salvage during the debacle, as well as a few of her personal items.
“Call them,” dared the student thief. “Go ahead, just call them. You aren’t calling them. Use the phone to call them.”
Moments after the spectacle had concluded, the conservative students called the police.
“When campus police arrived, I pointed him out and he fled into a building, where police lost him inside,” said McIntosh to Breitbart News, adding that upon walking into his next class, he recognized the aggressor as a University of Michigan student.
“We are literally classmates,” he said, adding that the student left the room about ten minutes, after the individual realized that he and McIntosh were in the same class.
McIntosh said that his group was simply promoting free speech and giving out hot chocolate, in an attempt to strike up conversations with fellow students on campus, in the hopes of recruiting new TPUSA members.
“It’s unfortunate that [fellow students] do not respect our right to freedom of speech,” said McIntosh. “This is further proof of campus culture attempting to silence conservative voices, and once again, shows the intolerance of the left.”
The student added that despite the group being harassed, his members remain dedicated to continuing their involvement with TPUSA on campus.
“Our things can be replaced, and we will be back to spreading the conservative message that the University of Michigan desperately campus needs,” said McIntosh. “If anything, this has made our members more willing to do events on campus.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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