STORRS, Conn. (AP) — A conservative commentator was arrested at the University of Connecticut Tuesday night after a fight broke out during his speech titled “It’s OK To Be White.”
Lucian Wintrich’s speech was cut short when a young woman in the audience appeared to take paperwork off the lectern he was using and then began to leave.
Cellphone videos posted on Twitter show Wintrich running up to the woman and grabbing her before other audience members get involved.
Police quickly stepped in and led Wintrich away. There was no immediate word on any potential charges.
“I can confirm that Lucian Wintrich was arrested by UConn police and is in police custody,” said UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz. “There were no other arrests and no injuries.”
Reitz said police are speaking to the woman involved and other witnesses to the altercation.
She also said that as the crowd was leaving someone broke a window in the lecture hall and threw a smoke bomb inside. That remained under investigation, she said.
Wintrich is the White House correspondent for the right-wing blog Gateway Pundit, which said the talk would be about “identity politics” in today’s cultural and political landscape.
UConn’s College Republicans student group sponsored Tuesday night’s event, which was repeatedly interrupted by people in the audience booing and chanting before the altercation.
“UConn does not bar speakers on the basis of content. Free speech, like academic freedom, is one of the university’s bedrock principles,” Reitz said.
UConn President Susan Herbst called it “a very disappointing evening.”
“We live in a tense and angry time of deep political division. Our hope as educators is that creative leadership and intellectual energy can be an antidote to that sickness, especially on university campuses,” Herbst said. “Between the offensive remarks by the speaker who also appeared to aggressively grab an audience member and the reckless vandalism that followed, that was certainly not the case on our campus tonight. We are better than this.”
Campus police said beforehand that they would be taking measures to ensure public safety.
The College Republicans said flyers advertising the event had been torn down or defaced across campus.
UConn’s College Democrats said they were sponsoring a discussion before the speech so activists from across the campus community could express their views.
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