Final Stop Of Turning Point USA Tour Draws Protesters At UC Berkeley
BERKELEY, CA — A swarm of protesters gathered on the south side of UC Berkeley on Monday to oppose the masses of Charlie Kirk supporters attending a Turning Point event on campus.
It was a provocative last stop in the Turning Point USA Tour, which continued in the aftermath of conservative Charlie Kirk's assassination earlier this year.
As hundreds entered the event at Zellerbach Hall, protesters, composed of students and community members, gathered along Bancroft Way, shouting their disapproval of UC Berkeley administrators for allowing the event to take place.
"Say it loud, say it clear, we don't want no fascists here," they chanted.
Between them were thick orange barriers, a fence and a sea of campus police and California Highway Patrol officers.
"Fascists out of Berkeley," protesters shouted.
UC Berkeley student Chase Goldberg said they attended the demonstration in solidarity with the rest of the protesters, who opposed the Turning Point Tour being allowed to manifest on campus.
The United States is currently in an era under the Trump administration where free speech is being infringed upon or controlled, where minority groups are being attacked and monitored, Goldberg said,.
"I saw there was a flyer for this earlier this week," Goldberg said. "I decided that now's my chance to come out and use my free speech rights to have solidarity with the people that I think the platform of Turning Point USA would try to erode the rights of."
Goldberg said they've kept up with Turning Point USA since the first Trump administration. The fourth-year student said they believe that Charlie Kirk's platform has created a lot of divisiveness and has been "packaged in sort of a neat little bow of, 'oh, we're just having a debate.'"
"That kind of misrepresentation has done a lot of damage to people, to people's lives," Goldberg said. "I need to be able to represent my own free speech rights and stand in solidarity with the people who may not have the same chance."
On the other side of the barriers, Charlie Kirk supporters were lining up to enter the final and only stop in California for the Turning Point Tour.
Among them was Paul Chen, a UC Berkeley alumnus who called Charlie Kirk an "inspiration."
The Berkeley grad said Kirk's talking points about family and this generation resonated with him.
"It's sad when I heard about his shooting," Chen said. "But at the same time, I knew that God had used him in a mighty way. In a way, the fact that he got assassinated made this entire event and his teachings even more like Jesus Christ's."
While the event remained mostly peaceful, there were moments when protesters and Kirk supporters clashed.
At one point, a man selling Kirk merchandise moved toward the protesters. A Lodi resident who was trying to get into the Kirk event said she saw people knock over the man's merchandise.
A fight broke out, which left the man dripping blood from his face. His blood splattered across an 'I Voted' sticker stuck to the Bancroft Way sidewalk.
"I thought this was a peaceful protest," said the Lodi resident, who declined to give her name. "We're here to promote non-violence protests, and here they are being violent, throwing this guy's stuff out of his basket. It's very disappointing."
The rest of the night saw some Kirk supporters pushing back against protesters, going toe to toe with them and bumping them.
Protesters on the frontline rattled the fence separating them and police in riot gear. Every so often, a protester would get too close to the barrier only to be yanked down and swarmed by police.
"Turning Point would deport you because you're not white," a protester shouted at the officers. "Don't you get it?"
