A Pennsylvania State University event featuring proud boys founder Gavin McInnes was called off Monday night after McInnes supporters attacked students and members of the media.
In the hours leading up to the event – titled “Stand Back & Stand By” and featuring the cult gang leader and far-right troll Alex Stein – the Proud Boys and their allies attacked a crowd of protesting students and journalists gathered outside the venue. One person, described as a member of the Proud Boys, sprayed the crowd with pepper spray. Another video shows a proud boy fight with a crowd of demonstrators.
For weeks, students had been asking the university administration to cancel the event for security reasons. McInnes has a documented history of bringing members of his violent street gang to speaking engagementswhere they attack students and protesters.
But Penn State administrators allowed the event to continue on the grounds of constitutionally protected speech. Vice President of Student Affairs Damon Sims told HuffPost earlier this month that the administration weighed student safety against speech issues on campus.
“Our commitment to free speech and the well-being of our community is just as strong, despite the obvious challenges that entails,” he said at the time.
Fighting erupted Monday almost from the start of a student protest planned for the event. Pictures on social media show journalists and students in shock after being hit with pepper spray.
Police officers from multiple jurisdictions – many wearing body armor and mounted on horses – were criticized by reporters at the scene for failing to intervene.
“I was pepper sprayed by a proud boy. Several other media were directly affected,” tweeted photojournalist Zach Roberts. “My face and body are burning like the worst sunburn. Penn State campus cops watched and did nothing.
In a statement Tuesday, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi decried Stein and McInnes for bringing violence to campus, but also accused protesting students of giving the couple “visibility.”
“Tonight Stein and McInnes will celebrate a victory for their cancellation, when in reality they contributed to the very violence that compromised their ability to speak,” Bendapudi wrote. “Tonight, the counter-protesters will also celebrate a victory that they forced the University to cancel this event, when in reality they boosted the visibility of the very cause they oppose.”
She added: “Fortunately, it appears no one was seriously injured in today’s event.”
For students, Bendapudi’s statement represents a U-turn by the administration, which previously banned neo-Nazi leader Richard Spencer following his involvement in the deadly Unite the Right rallies in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. The administrators issued a statement at the timestating that Spencer was not allowed to speak on campus due to the threat of violence he and his allies posed to students.
“[Penn State] fully supports the right to free speech and encourages its expression in a thoughtful and respectful way, even when we strongly disagree with the opinions expressed. But the First Amendment does not require our university to risk imminent violence,” the statement read.
A student group that had planned the protest released a statement late Monday, condemning university officials and praising the hundreds of students who showed up to protest.
“YOU WON!” wrote the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity on Instagram. “Despite the extreme irresponsibility of reprehensible Penn State administrators, who should resign immediately, and who deliberately put students at risk.”
Earlier this month, the student committee called the McInnes event not a speech issue, but a security issue. The students certainly took issue with McInnes history of violence and fanaticism rhetoric, but their concerns centered on the violence imposed by his Proud Boys at similar events on campus and at political events – including the gang’s outsized role in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.