By Corinne Murdock |
Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow sided with the professor who attacked two men questioning him about his involvement in drag story hours, casting them as “bullies.”
In a statement on Saturday, Crow accused the two men working with Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing activist organization, of following, harassing, pushing, and injuring David Boyles, an English professor and the founder of Drag Story Hour Arizona. Crow claimed that the TPUSA men were lying in wait for Boyles to attack him.
“It is astounding to me that individuals from Turning Point USA would wait for an ASU instructor to come out of his class to follow him, harass him and ultimately shove him to the ground, bloodying his face,” said Crow. “This is the kind of outrageous conduct that you would expect to see from bullies in a high school cafeteria.”
Crow also claimed that the TPUSA men “ran away” from the scene before police arrived.
Crow’s claims conflict with the video evidence produced by both TPUSA and ASU law enforcement, the latter which the president included in his statement and said he reviewed multiple times.
In the surveillance footage, Boyles lunges and grabs at the TPUSA individual holding his camera. The other TPUSA individual, Frontlines reporter Kalen D’Almeida, pushes Boyles away from his peer in response. After Boyles stands up, Boyles and the TPUSA men walk in the same direction off camera. Nobody ran in the footage provided, and all left the scene of the incident together at an unhurried pace.
Crow denounced TPUSA as a whole, declaring that endeavors like the Boyles interview and the organization’s Professor Watchlist were “antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+, and misogynistic” exploitations to generate fundraising and social media engagement.
A separate video of the incident from TPUSA showed that the two men approached Boyles, with one remaining silent while filming and the other asking questions. The question that appeared to have Boyles lunge for the camera regarded sodomizing minor males.
“Also, I was taking a look at your Substack, and it seems like you really, really hate Americans? Like you just are disgusted by Americans in this country,” said D’Almeida. “And it’s funny because, you would like to see a different America exist where little boys are sodomized by people like you, right?”
Boyles’ beliefs were detailed on his Substack, now hidden behind a paywall.
In an Instagram post, Boyles claimed that the men “shouted” at him and accused them of terrorism.
“One filmed on his phone while the other shouted horrible and incendiary things at me, repeating standard right-wing nonsense about Drag Story Hour and also accusing me personally of pedophilia and hating America,” wrote Boyles. “[I feel] angry, violated, embarrassed and despairing at the fact that we have come to normalize this kind of harassment and violence.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
