Around 12:30 a.m. Monday morning, three individuals were arrested while attempting to hang an approximately five-foot-tall cardboard bug off Sather Gate in protest of Turning Point USA’s, or TPUSA, upcoming event on campus.
The individuals were placed in squad cars and taken to UCPD headquarters in Sproul Hall. Brendan Tinney, the UCPD sergeant on duty, did not provide further details as he claimed department policy required that only public information officers could provide any details. Tinney said no public information officers were on duty at the time.
It remains unclear whether the three individuals were students, as well as the charges for which they were arrested.
The demonstrators had posted posters with racist, misogynistic, and otherwise inflammatory quotes from TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk on the gate, who was killed on a college campus exactly two months ago.
“Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously,” read one of the posters quoting Kirk.
The demonstration precedes a controversial TPUSA event on campus today. Several groups have already announced plans to protest the sold-out, 2,000-seat event scheduled for 6:30 p.m. this evening in Zellerbach Hall.
As demonstrators attempted to string up the installation, it seems likely that the installation violated time, place and manner, or TPM regulations, which prohibit individuals from physically obstructing or attaching anything to Sather Gate. Violating TPM violations are not, in themselves, criminal offenses; however, the resulting actions may be considered a crime, according to campus policy.
While UCPD officers removed the bug, the individuals pasted posters around the gate advertising a planned 4:30 p.m. protest. One sign read, “Hate is NOT welcome on our campus!”
Demonstrators also wrote, “Trans rights! You can erase our chalk but you can’t erase us” in blue and pink chalk under the gate above a drawing of a transgender pride flag.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.