Tolerance & Inclusivity? Leftist Mob On UC Davis Campus Destroys Conservative Group Display And Tent

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

A mob of roughly 30 masked protesters at UC Davis attacked a tent for a conservative student group, the UC Davis chapter of Turning Point USA. It proceeded to destroy the tent and displays without any intervention from campus police, who were shown standing nearby.  The police followed the rampaging mob and did not attempt to detain anyone. The mob appears to have been led by Antifa members, a violent anti-free speech group.

Dressed in their signature black with masks and umbrellas, the group tore down the tent and assaulted some of the students by shoving and grabbing them. They actually returned to finish the job. The protesters carried a large banner with the words “ACAB,” which stands for all cops are bastards.

The university said in a news release that it is investigating. 

However, the university insisted, “The event with the guest speaker took place on schedule and was completed without further incident. The university protected the free speech rights of the campus community throughout the event.”

“Without further incident” has the “other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”

One question is whether Davis will look into why the campus police stood and watched these protesters assault students and tear down a tent without trying to detain a single person. They merely walked behind the mob as it carried off the bits and pieces of the displays and tents.

The student group was about to host Brandon Tatum,  a black conservative and former police officer.

Our “Prove Me Wrong” tabling event with @TheOfficerTatum at UC Davis was completely destroyed by violent protesters.

They stole the canopy, ripped down banners, smashed foam boards, and even tried to steal the iPad and laptop of a @tpusastudents field rep.

TPUSA students were… pic.twitter.com/VlBVOxX6ZU

— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) April 3, 2025

TPUSSA stated that the “Our ‘Prove Me Wrong’ tabling event was utterly destroyed:

“They stole the canopy, ripped down banners, smashed foam boards, and even tried to steal the iPad and laptop of a @tpusastudents field rep. TPUSA students were shoved and had objects thrown at them—while police did nothing,” the organization stated. 

“Only after the damage was done did law enforcement finally form a perimeter. This is the reality of free speech on campus.”

Political violence from the left is on the rise across the nation, fueled by the rage rhetoric of Democratic leaders and commentators.

As I discuss in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” Antifa began as a movement that began in Germany:

“Antifa originated with European anarchist and Marxist groups from the 1920s, particularly Antifaschistische Aktion, a Communist group from the Weimar Republic before World War II. Its name resulted from the shortening of the German word antifaschistisch. In the United States, the modern movement emerged through the Anti- Racist Action (ARA) groups, which were dominated by anarchists and Marxists. It has an association with the anarchist organization Love and Rage, which was founded by former Trotsky and Marxist followers as well as offshoots like Mexico’s Amor Y Rabia. The oldest U.S. group is likely the Rose City Antifa (RCA) in Portland, Oregon, which would become the center of violent riots during the Trump years. The anarchist roots of the group give it the same organizational profile as such groups in the early twentieth century with uncertain leadership and undefined structures.”

Despite the denial of its existence by figures like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), I have long written and spoken about the threat of Antifa to free speech on our campuses and in our communities. This includes testimony before Congress on Antifa’s central role in the anti-free speech movement nationally.

As I have previously written, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association.  Yet, FBI Director Chris Wray has repeatedly pushed back on the denials of Antifa’s work or violence. In one hearing, Wray stated “And we have quite a number” — and “Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction.”

We have continued to follow the attacks and arrests of Antifa followers across the country, including attacks on journalists.

Some Democrats have played a dangerous game in supporting or excusing the work of Antifa. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany.

Ellison’s son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer. During a prior hearing, Democratic senators refused to clearly denounce Antifa and falsely suggested that the far right was the primary cause of recent violence. Likewise, Joe Biden has dismissed objections to Antifa as just “an idea.”

It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.

Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”

Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists…  From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.”

The increasing political violence from the left continues on a daily basis with only cursory coverage from the media. Even a department head was shown this week destroyed a table of conservative students.

This is the sense of license that comes from an age of rage. The fact is that this video shows how these groups are enabled by the culture in higher education.

It is reminiscent of the defiance shown by arrested Antifa member Jason Charter, who declared “The Movement is winning” after his own arrest.

It is a movement that has been further enabled by government officials who rationalize their actions or offer little deterrence to their conduct. For example, molotov cocktail throwing lawyers in New York were given relatively light sentences under the Biden Administration.

Then there was Thomas “Tas” Alexander Starks, 31, of Lisbon, N.D., a self-avowed Antifa member took an axe to the office of Sen. John Hoeven’s in Fargo on Dec. 21, 2020. Federal sentencing guidelines suggested 10–16 months in prison but he was only sentenced to probation and fined $2,784 for restitution . . . he then reportedly mocked the FBI for returning his axe.  After his light sentence, Starks posted last month that it was all effectively a joke: “Look what the FBI were kind enough to give back to me!”

Scenes like the one on the campus of UC Davis will only encourage further attacks. The police acted as mere pedestrians as a mob engaged in political violence against students.