A UC Riverside student asked campus police Friday to arrest a fellow Highlander who allegedly grabbed his Make America Great Again hat from his head and verbally attacked him with profanity-filled accusations of promoting “genocide.”
A video of the young woman’s actions against Matthew Vitale, a senior majoring in economics, drew heavy coverage by conservative media outlets that painted it as another assault on the free speech rights of right-leaning college students. The video was first posted Thursday by Campus Reform, a conservative news site.
Many conservative students say efforts to silence them have escalated since President Trump’s election last year. Massive protests shut down campus talks by right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Davis and UC Berkeley this year and led to unprecedented security costs for other speakers, such as conservative writer Ben Shapiro.
Vitale said Friday that UC Riverside’s generally mellow campus climate has hardened in recent months.
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