Protesters face off against police outside a “This Is the Turning Point” campus tour event at UC Berkeley on Nov. 10. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger
The Trump administration has opened a new investigation into protests at UC Berkeley this month in opposition to an event hosted by Turning Point USA, a conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September.
The probe by the U.S. Department of Education will review whether UC Berkeley violated the Clery Act. The federal law, enacted in 1990, requires colleges to report campus crime data and to give timely warnings of crimes that pose a threat.
“Just two months after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was brutally assassinated on a college campus, UC Berkeley allowed a protest of a Turning Point USA event on its grounds to turn unruly and violent, jeopardizing the safety of its students and staff,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
The Department of Justice was already investigating the Nov. 10 protests, which occurred outside Zellerbach Hall on the campus’ Sproul Plaza.
Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for Berkeley, said in a statement that the campus is aware of “two violent crimes” that occurred on the evening of the protests, “a fistfight over an attempted robbery and someone being hit by a thrown object.” He added that the campus “went to great lengths” to provide security, including deploying police from multiple jurisdictions and hiring private security.
“The campus also closed adjoining buildings and cordoned off part of the campus in order to prevent criminal activity, keep the peace, and ensure the event was not disrupted by protests,” he added.
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