A conservative activist was assaulted at UC Berkeley on Tuesday while recruiting for the conservative non-profit organization Turning Point USA. The unprovoked assault, captured on video from two angles, shows a man wearing a black shirt and pants accosting Hayden Williams, a campus representative for Leadership Institute. The assailant angrily shouted obscenities at Williams, knocking his phone out of his hand, and punching him in the face. The man accused Williams of “encouraging violence” just before attacking him.
The man can be heard in the video muttering “f*cking c*nt” while walking away.
Here is the altercation from my friends perspective. Conservative activists, take note. This is exactly the right thing to do, and I am so proud of him for recognizing the situation and not retaliating with violence. pic.twitter.com/QEuJWEQtz8
— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) February 21, 2019
While all this was happening, a number of students were standing around doing nothing. One woman can actually be heard congratulating the assailant, saying, “You won this fight, dude. I’m with you.” Students at other tables were laughing as the assault was happening, the victim told Campus Reform.
The unidentified assailant left the scene and has not yet been apprehended by police.
Brad Devlin, the former president of the Berkeley College Republicans and a friend of the victim, posted the videos of the attack on Twitter.
“There is irrefutable video evidence of the perpetrator attacking and harassing the activist by calling him a ‘racist mother f*****.'” Devlin wrote on Twitter. Devlin, who writes for the Daily Wire, Campus Reform, and a couple of other conservative blogs, said he was proud of his friend for not retaliating with violence.
The University of California Police Department, Berkeley put out the following statement:
On February 19th, 2019 at 3:29pm UCPD received a report of a disturbance on Upper Sproul Plaza. A witness (UC student) reported to UCPD Officers that two males had just been fighting.
UCPD Officers found an injured male on the Plaza who reported he had been assaulted. The victim reported he had been “tabling” for the group Turning Point when two males approached the table. When a verbal altercation started, the victim began filming the interaction with his phone.
A physical confrontation ensued when one of the two men slapped the phone out of the victim’s hand. The suspect then knocked over the table the victim was at and the two men struggled over the phone. During the incident, the suspect punched the victim several times causing injury to the victim’s eye and nose.
The suspect left the area before police arrived. UCPD is investigating this case and asks that anyone who has information about this matter or the pictured suspect to call 510-642-6760
Devlin said that Williams was in “good spirits” following the attack and that he would continue to “fight for conservative values on campus once his black eye is gone!”
UC Berkeley TPUSA Vice President Mina Castro told Fox News that it was her idea to set up the recruitment table. The Leadership Institute campus representative was helping out TPUSA’s recruitment efforts at the university.
She said that harassment of conservative students is so common these days that she felt nervous about leaving Williams at the table alone as she sat in a class.
When she returned to the table, she found her concerns had been well-founded.
“I saw our sign ripped up, all our papers were on the floor, Hayden was covering his [injured] eye,” Castro told Fox News. “I said ‘Oh my God, what happened?’”
“He said that a guy had just punched him in the face.”
She added that when she tweeted about the incident, she received hateful messages from people applauding the violence.
“One woman called me a white supremacist,” she said. “I said ‘Wait, I’m Latina!’”
According to Fox News, the recruitment table featured a sign that said “Hate Crime Hoaxes Hurt Real Victims” — an apparent reference to Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who is accused of staging a hate crime against himself.
Castro told The Daily Caller that the assailant was probably triggered by Williams’ Make America Great Again (MAGA) sign.
“I called the police because we needed to file this up,” Castro said.
Devlin said the Berkeley administration initially condemned the attack to the news media, but fell short of putting out a campus-wide announcement or letter from Chancellor Carol Christ to the entire Berkeley community.
On Thursday, Christ sent out a message via email to the Berkeley community condemning the attack on “a Berkeley student engaged in political advocacy.” It was later discovered that Williams was not a Berkeley student.
Christ wrote that “at this point, we have no information indicating that the perpetrators are affiliated with the university” and urged persons with information about the perpetrator to come forward so he can be brought to justice.
.@UCBerkeley and Chancellor Christ just sent out a message via email to the Berkeley community condemning the attack on the conservative activist. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen! Let’s find this guy! pic.twitter.com/okHbLrX2C7
— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) February 21, 2019
Numerous leftists on Twitter — probably many of the same people who fulminated over the *very* alleged assault of Jussie Smollett — expressed joy that a conservative was beaten on video:
“OH MY GOD THE MAGA PEOPLE ON UC BERKELEY CAMPUS YESTERDAY GOT PUNCHED IN THE FACE BY SOMEONE THIS MAKES ME FEEL EMOTIONALLY SO MUCH BETTER,” Yuvi Panda, who works for Berkeley Institute for Data Science, wrote Wednesday. “Thank you, random stranger for not letting it go unchallenged. Hope you aren’t in too much trouble. Fuck you, Turning Point USA.”
“WHAT Is sproul here’s name!!!” Twitter user gisselle wrote. “Who socked the ugly maga guy!!! i would like to give him a gift.”
“There was some MAGA guy tabling on campus today and someone punched him in the face LMFAO,” user going by the moniker i am tall tweeted.
Both of these men were attacked:
– One was viciously targeted & beaten for his political opinions by those who disagreed with him.
– The other paid his attackers to beat him up & lied to the world about being a political victim for his own gain.
Which one gets media attention? pic.twitter.com/B60Kl30ga2
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) February 21, 2019
As Devlin noted on Twitter, UC Berkeley is no stranger to left-wing violence. In February of 2017, student protesters and their more violent allies in the psychopathic black bloc/antifa movement managed to successfully shut down the First Amendment rights of former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. Armed with bricks, smoke bombs, fireworks, and pepper spray, the left-wing agitators injured about four Milo/Trump supporters and did an estimated $100,000 worth of damage to the campus.
Williams told Campus Reform: “Some students nearby tabling were laughing, even one guy was smiling while I was being attacked and trying to hand me his flyer as a joke. The idea is free speech has consequences…. which include you getting assaulted if they find you promoting ideas others don’t agree with.”
A junior was passing by when the altercation broke out and filmed it to ensure that there would be documentation, according to Fox News.
“I was walking by when I saw it, it escalated so quickly,” Alex Szarka said. “The Turning Point USA table had signs that on a campus like Berkeley, would be seen as provocative. I was surprised to see [the reaction] be this bad. I would like to see the guy get arrested, and expelled immediately. In any other situation, without the politics, this would absolutely be a very well-publicized thing. I was in disbelief.”
Williams was on Fox News’ Hannity to tell his story Thursday night:
Update 4:59 p.m. EST: Police appear to have identified a suspect:
UPDATE: @UCBerkeley has alerted media the @UCPD_Cal has potentially identified the man who assaulted @RHaydenWilliams. The university’s statement also claims the suspect in question is not a student or affiliate of the university. pic.twitter.com/LKqoiJmcx9
— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) February 22, 2019
Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified Williams as a student at Berkeley after the school’s chancellor and earlier media reports identified him as such. Williams is a campus representative for Leadership Institute but does not attend the university.
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