On Wednesday, a meeting between student groups at West Virginia University (WVU) turned violent, as liberal students kicked out conservatives, with one following them out the door.
“Get the f*ck! Why did you film our f*cking meeting!” yells the liberal aggressor — identified as Kelley Denham, president of the WVU Gender Equality Movement — in a video posted on Facebook. The woman he reportedly shoved into a door — Kaitlynn Critchfield, a member of the conservative group Turning Point USA — replied, “I have a heart problem…”
Storming off in anger at first, Denham suddenly turns around and attacks another conservative student — the one filming the video. “F*ck this! What is your f*cking problem?!” he yells, rushing in and pounding the unnamed student filming the incident. An audible thud comes across on the video as Denham yells, “Get that phone out of here!”
“Calm down!” one of the students responds. To this, Denham shouts, “Why the f*ck are you filming me?! What the f*ck is wrong with you?!”
The student filming the video replies, “You’re attacking me right now.”
Critchfield, in the background, says, “Sorry we wanted to share another point of view. We weren’t going to film until you…”
Cutting her off, Denham lunges again, “F*ck you, f*cking conservative piece of — give me your f*cking phone!”
During the course of the 42-second video, Denham is able to get out at least twelve f-bombs, and seems to commit at least three physical assaults.
View the video, as posted by Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk, below.
Campus leftist at WVU ASSAULTS and swears at conservative student because he disagrees with him!
The left is OUT OF CONTROL!
RT! pic.twitter.com/TbqmDgPu1B
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 26, 2017
Another video provided the context behind this attack. The altercation began as a meeting between a progressive student group and conservative students with Turning Point USA, The College Fix reported. But the video of that meeting reveals why the liberals pushed the conservative students out.
“I thought Turning Point was non-partisan,” one of the liberal students says. “No, Turning Point is a conservative group,” Denham responds.
One of the conservative students then offers, “I’ll leave if you want me to,” and Denham responds, “Yeah, you guys should leave.”
At this point, Critchfield responds, “That’s real inclusive. I mean, we just wanted to learn more about your organization, but if you’re going to force us to leave …” Denham cuts her off, repeating, “Yeah, you guys should go,” and the video cuts out.
Had the altercation ended there, it would not have been remarkable. Sure, it seems petty for liberals to kick the conservatives out once they learn Turning Point is conservative, but they have the right to free assembly and can refuse to meet with whomever they want.
Once Denham came out, however, it became a totally different story.
“It’s been an interesting night at WVU!” Critchfield declared in her Facebook post after the altercation. “A leftist/communist organization physically assaulted my friends and I for being conservative… AFTER we left the meeting peacefully and didn’t go back. We were chased after down the hall by this man then assaulted!”
While Critchfield is wrong to say the “organization” assaulted her, the video certainly suggests that Denham committed multiple unprovoked violent attacks.
West Virginia is a one-party recording state, which means that a video recording is legal “when the person recording is a party to the communication or has obtained consent from one of the parties.” This situation certainly seems to fit that standard.
The source who identified Denham to The College Fix said that the violent liberal student had recently left another progressive group on campus, the Appalachian Workers Alliance, because it reportedly “wasn’t revolutionary enough for him.”
“I’m honestly surprised it took him this long to do this,” the source said, adding that attitudes like Denham’s were “alienating the sane people from the [progressive] movement. There is a real problem with the fetishization of violence in the rad left movement at large, which needs to be solved.”
Here is Critchfield’s Facebook post on the altercation.
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