A guest speaker event Wednesday night at the University of Memphis featuring Kyle Rittenhouse resulted in mobs of protesters causing chaos on campus.
Video posted on social media shows hundreds of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters chasing and preventing event attendees from exiting the parking garage. Police were seen intervening in the confrontation to stop BLM demonstrators from injuring attendees as the activists continued to intimidate people attempting to leave.
NEW: BLM mob charges at people leaving the Kyle Rittenhouse event at the University of Memphis before blocking them from leaving in the parking garage.
Do these clowns not remember the last time they tried doing this when Rittenhouse was in the vicinity? 😂
Police had to step… pic.twitter.com/BbfpsdVIUT
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 21, 2024
Rittenhouse spoke at the UC Theater for 30 minutes before he was rushed off-stage, WREG reported. The event reportedly ended in a question-and-answer session before he was ushered away from the crowd of 50 to 75 students.
“Wow, Memphis is an interesting city,” Rittenhouse wrote on X.
Wow Memphis is a interesting city 😅
— Kyle Rittenhouse (@ThisIsKyleR) March 21, 2024
Another video of the protests shows BLM activists pounding a drumbeat on garbage bins while apparently chanting “lock his ass up” and “fuck his ass up.” Some demonstrators held large signs, and one sign read “MURDERERS DON’T BELONG” in all capital letters with a bloody handprint.
🚨HAPPENING NOW: Leftwing agitators are swarming the University of Memphis ahead of tonight’s campus event with Kyle Rittenhouse, chanting “Lock his a** up” and later “F*** his a** up.”
The school has gone to incredible lengths to hamstring this event, including:
1 – Forcing… pic.twitter.com/DXdndXO8Cu
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 21, 2024
Supporters of Rittenhouse were outnumbered by BLM protesters, according to WREG. Franko Coleman, a student at the university, told the outlet that Rittenhouse came to “spread racist views.” Another student, Carla van Shaick, reportedly said “there’s a lot of misinformation” surrounding Rittenhouse, telling the outlet that she was “curious” to “hear his side of the story.” (RELATED: ‘You Can’t Hide!’: Pro-Palestine Activists Invade Lobby Of New York Times Building)
Rittenhouse received an invitation to the University of Memphis from Turning Point USA’s campus chapter, according to the outlet. Rittenhouse released a video on X with a member of his security team after the incident. He asserted that the media falsely reported that he got “booed off stage,” saying instead that he did a “hard cut-off time and just happen to leave at that.”
Quick update.
We made it back safely! pic.twitter.com/VleoHDIH3s— Kyle Rittenhouse (@ThisIsKyleR) March 21, 2024
Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges in relation to the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and the injury of Gaige Grosskreutz in Nov. 2021. Rittenhouse shot the the three men on August 2020 during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.