A protester holds a sign reading "ALT RIGHT ALL WRONG" during the Turning Point USA event at the UAA Student Union on April 17. Photo by Murat Demir.
Turning Point USA’s UAA chapter hosted “Campus Crashers” at the UAA Student Union on April 17. The event was interrupted by two protesters and prompted a police presence.
TPUSA’s “Campus Crashers” is co-hosted by political activist Stephen Davis and Olympic athlete Anthony Watson, who engage in discussions about conservative values on college campuses. The Northern Light interviewed both guest speakers before the event.
Watson said they want to demonstrate that people can have differences of opinion and engage with each other respectfully in the same space.
Davis said, “We can have disagreements, we can have, you know, clashing ideas, if we can be civil and just talk. That's how we get our country back on track.”
As the guest speakers began their talk, the crowd of approximately 25 attendees cheered.
During the first 10 minutes of the event, one protester who was posing as an attendee cheered “yeehaw” several times as Watson spoke, prompting other attendees and TPUSA organizer Aaron Barker to confront him.
When the protester continued to shout, UAA Event Security asked him to leave.
After being escorted out, he joined another protester in the balcony above the event who was holding a sign that read “ALT RIGHT ALL WRONG.”
The protester holding the sign was asked to leave by TPUSA prior to the beginning of the event due to his history of disrupting the organization’s tabling events, according to Barker.
The man wearing the cowboy hat continued to shout from the balcony above the event, prompting approximately six university police officers to arrive.
Following a conversation, police escorted the protester out of the Student Union.
Barker informed The Northern Light that the protester wearing the cowboy hat was with the Marxist-Leninist political organization Party for Socialism and Liberation Anchorage — or PSL Anchorage.
The Northern Light reached out to PSL Anchorage for comment on the incident.
PSL Anchorage spokesperson Michael Patterson said, “An organization that cares about free speech called the police on a student for free speech. TPUSA serves Trump’s far-right billionaire agenda, and they should meet opposition at every turn.”
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