Trump administration vows to investigate UC Berkeley over Turning Point protest
Published in News & Features
The Trump administration vowed Tuesday to investigate security protocols at both UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley after angry clashes among protesters and attendees at an event hosted by Turning Point USA, the organization founded by assassinated conservative youth activist Charlie Kirk.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said on social media that the city and the university would be investigated by the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, which she heads.
“In America, we do not allow citizens to be attacked by violent thugs and shrug and turn our backs,” she said in a post on X.
Dhillon, a conservative California lawyer who was named to her post by Trump earlier this year, sued the university as a private attorney in 2017 over security for students and speakers at conservative events, winning a settlement in which the university agreed to pay attorney fees for the Berkeley College Republicans and another student, and modify its security practices.
“We saw all of this at Berkeley back in 2017,” Dhillon said in the post.
“I see several issues of serious concern regarding campus and local security and Antifa’s ability to operate with impunity in CA,” she said, referring to a loose-knit collection of anti-fascism protesters.
About 1,000 people attended an event Monday night by Turning Point USA, the group Kirk founded, at the university’s Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.
Two people were arrested on the campus, Mogulof said, neither in relation to acts of violence, he said. In addition, a 45-year-old man who was on campus to attend the event was hit on the head with a glass bottle or jar and was sent to a nearby hospital with a laceration, Mogulof said.
The city of Berkeley arrested two people nearby, but the incident was not related to the protest, Berkeley Police spokesman Byron White said.
On campus, Christopher Benton, 48, was arrested and later booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail for refusing to leave after being asked to do so by police, obstruction and coming on to campus with the intent of interfering with peaceful activities, Mogulof said.
Jay Maytorena, 22, listed as a current or former student, was cited and released for refusing to leave and obstruction.
“We had nearly 1,000 people attend an event that went on safely without disruption,” Mogulof said. The university has not yet been contacted by the Justice Department regarding an investigation, he said.
Before the event started, hundred of students, alumni and others gathered to protest the group’s conservative beliefs and support of President Donald Trump. During the event, several confrontations broke out, but were quickly calmed by police, who had formed a perimeter around Zellerbach Hall.
Berkeley City police arrested two men who appeared to be fighting but actually were not, in an incident that had nothing to do with the protest, White said.
Officers were monitoring a protest against the Turning Point USA event on Bancroft avenue at about 5 p.m. when they witnessed a fight between two men. However, they later learned that one of them, named as Jihad Dphrepaulezz, 25, had stolen the other man’s chain from around his neck, White said. What appeared to be a fight was a victim trying to get his chain back, White said.
Dphrepaulezz was booked on suspicion of robbery and battery resulting in injury. The other man was released, he said.
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