A conservative college student alleged Tuesday that members of Antifa assaulted him while he was attending a vigil for the woman killed at the Charlottesville rally.
Caleb Slater, president of the Ithaca College chapter of the College Republicans, attended a Syracuse vigil hosted by the local Black Lives Matter contingent, according to The College Fix. Slater alleges that members of Antifa assaulted him and captured the beginning of the interaction on camera.
WATCH:
Slater wore a hat from Young America’s Foundation, a conservative college activist group, as a “symbol of peace” to demonstrate that “conservatives condemn the actions of the alt-right just as much as anyone else in our culture,” he told the activist group.
The student said that Antifa members surrounded him, at first asking if he were with Young America’s Foundation, then telling him to leave, and finally “calling me all sorts of expletives, grabbing me by the clothes and choking me by my camera strap.” People started chanting “no Trump, no KKK, Nazi go away.”
“I was hoping that we could at least condemn the attack in Charlottesville together, not as liberals, not as conservatives, but as Americans,” said Slater to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “An unarmed American citizen was killed on US soil on Saturday and that is a tragedy.”
“I think [colleges] should stop the hate speech narrative, stop the trigger warning mentality and instead teach students how they can boost their own arguments and debate the views and values they disagree with,” continued Slater. “The solution to ‘hate speech’ is more speech.”
The student expressed gratitude for the Syracuse Black Lives Matter group, reporting that they denounced Antifa and spoke with him after the vigil, but insisted that he should not have been attacked for his attire.
“The fact that an organization is so afraid of conservative values that they are willing to hide behind a mask and attack a private citizen, not in self defense, but because they disagree with the politics of that person is a sad situation and the political left in this country have a moral obligation to rebuke Antifa,” said Slater to TheDCNF.
Follow Rob Shimshock on Twitter
Connect with Rob Shimshock on Facebook
Send tips to rob@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.