Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has announced that her office has filed misdemeanor trespassing charges against 68 demonstrators who were arrested during a pro-Hamas protest at ASU in April. The demonstrators defied the orders of ASU police to disperse and leave the ad hoc encampment they illegally created on the alumni lawn near Old Main.
Under A.R.S. 13-1502, criminal trespassing entails “knowingly entering or remaining unlawfully on any real property after a reasonable request to leave by a law enforcement officer, the owner or any other person having lawful control over such property.” As a Class-3 misdemeanor, the penalty, if the accused are found guilty, could be up to 30 days in the county jail with a $500 fine and up to one year of probation.
“The right to free speech does not extend to violating the law,” County Attorney Mitchell said.
“The university’s policy is clear – encampments are not permitted in this particular area on campus. The protestors – many of whom were not students – were given the chance, over and over again, to peacefully take down the encampments and leave the area. ASU, along with local law enforcement, had a responsibility to keep the area safe for students and faculty. My office is now playing the equally important role of holding these people accountable for their actions.”
Police are taking down the pro-Palestinian tents at ASU
Shortly after the arrests on April 26th, ASU released a statement, now seemingly confirmed by Mitchell, that the demonstrators were mostly not ASU students or faculty:
“ASU Police arrested 72 people for trespassing after they set up an unauthorized encampment Friday, in violation of university policy. Encampments are prohibited on Arizona State University property. Lawful demonstrations can take place except overnight between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
A group of people – most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff – created an encampment and demonstration that continued until well past 11 p.m. when the group was instructed repeatedly to disperse. Individuals who refused to leave after numerous warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass. Of the 72 arrested throughout the day Friday, 15 were ASU students; about 80 percent of those arrested were not students.“
According to later reporting from ABC15, twenty of the people arrested were later revealed to be ASU students who were subsequently suspended from the university after their arrest.
In the days following the arrest, independent journalist Kyle Becker reported that ASU fraternity members could be seen assisting campus police to tear down the demonstrators’ encampment. Speaking to Campus Reform, the students told reporters that the university was happy to have their help.
“It’s our duty to help keep our freedoms secure. Jews should not have to feel threatened to hide on campus,” they told the outlet. “When they call for “Jewish genocide” the answer was extremely clear: help the police.”
"This is insane."
NEW: Frat boys and police tag team to pack up Pro-Hamas protesters' illegal encampment at @ASU.
In May, charges against the 68 suspects were initially vacated due to a failure on the part of ASU police officials to refer them to the prosecutor’s office in a timely manner. The charges were eventually submitted over the next few months.
The incident resulted in ASU police chief Michael Thompson being placed on administrative leave after a series of complaints were filed against him for his actions during the demonstration. He ultimately retired.
Mitchell’s office stated that the arrests were carried out by Tempe Police, Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Officers, and that trial dates for the accused are pending.
The brutal stabbing of 19-year-old Mara Daffron by fellow ASU Student Kaci Lenise-Charlie Sloan on September 19th raised questions about censorship and even possibly a coverup after the story languished for eight days before being reported on by the establishment media. According to ASU professor Dr. Owen Anderson, writing on his Substack, “Last week there was a stabbing at ASU West. Have you seen any news about it?” He observed, “It is very hard to find. It took the Dean of the campus 5 days to send out an email about it. Why the cover up? I have some knowledge of what happened and I can take an educated guess.” He promised readers, “I’m going to stay on this for you.”
By the time Anderson had written, the first mentions of the story (notably by AZFamily) were less than a day old and the story had very little traction. In the initial breaking story, AZ Family reported that Sloan had carried out a premeditated attack against Daffron, having decided the night before to go through with it believing that hurting someone would make her problems “go away.” She told police during an interview that she chose between Daffron and another student she identified as “a veteran,” deciding on the young woman because she was “an easier target.”
By September 27th the story was international, and the heroic intervention of another student, Navy Veteran Matthew McCormick, who fought off Sloan and prevented further injury to Daffron, came to light. As reported by the Daily Mail, McCormick told reporters, “As she was going for a third attack, I was able to grab her wrists and apprehend her before further damage could be done.”
“I just did what needed to be done and I think everybody has the capacity to be able to do that,” McCormick told 12News.
He added, “It was a great job by everybody that was in that room; by the EMTs, the paramedics and police. Everybody responded really, really well. 9-1-1 calls were pretty instantaneous and everybody seemed pretty locked in and knew what to do.”
Sloan was arrested and ASU Police recovered the 12-inch blade she repeatedly stabbed Daffron with.
Daffron, recovering at Banner Thunderbird Hospital in Phoenix, told AZ Family, “I’m just scared because I don’t know why the f**k she would stab me.”
Sloan’s ultimate motive remains unclear. Court documents uncovered by 12News revealed that Sloan, “admitted she came to class to hurt somebody and was planning the attack since the night prior,” the documents say. “This planning included placing the knife used in the attack in her backpack to bring to school. The defendant told detectives she knew the victim’s first name but did not know anything else about her. She knew the victim from a prior class and shared a class with her this semester.”
Dr. Anderson noted in an update, “There is national and international coverage now of the stabbing at ASU. I’m still looking for news from ASU itself.” He also offered to begin instruction in jiu jitsu on campus to help students defend themselves in future attacks.
In another post, he theorized that anti-white hatred could be responsible for the attack:
“Any time there is violence and attempted murder on a university campus we expect to see it covered in the news. It is an important way for parents and students to know if a university is a safe place to attend.
But what if universities aren’t safe places to attend? What if students are taught by their humanities professors to hate each other? ASU has required employee training that teaches about the problem of ‘whiteness.’ Why is ASU requiring employees to learn that?”
An ASU spokesperson told Fox News in a statement, “ASU Police continue to investigate a Sept. 19 on-campus stabbing of a student. Kaci Sloan was immediately detained and arrested on suspicion of first-degree attempted murder; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; interfering with an educational institution; and disorderly conduct. She is being held on a $250,000 cash only bond. ASU and the entire ASU West Valley community are deeply saddened by what happened. ASU West Valley is a close-knit campus of students, faculty and staff. Counseling support is available to all.”
A late-September voter registration drive at Arizona State University (ASU) was a resounding success last week, just five days after a tragic stabbing rocked the ASU West Campus in Glendale. At ASU’s Memorial Union the “Greeks for Trump” voter registration drive, which featured Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Republican Senate nominee Kari Lake, saw campaign staffers handing out ‘MAGA’ hats, t-shirts, and hot chicken from Raising Cane’s according to the State Press.
Posting to X on the day of the event, Kirk wrote, “Today we hosted a Voter Registration event at ASU with another MASSIVE turnout. Thousands of students showed up and HUNDREDS of new Gen Z voters got registered. The campus energy this year is unreal. This is how we win.”
Today we hosted a Voter Registration event at ASU with another MASSIVE turnout.
Thousands of students showed up and HUNDREDS of new Gen Z voters got registered.
Speaking with the outlet, Lake told reporters, “We’re going to get you registered to vote. We’re going to save our country, and we’re going to Make America Great Again.”
Approximately 100 people were at the event at any given time with students coming and going throughout. College Republicans at ASU shared video of Lake tossing hats to the crowd of attendees.
Kirk later shared the reactions of detractors to the event in a post on X:
“Campus leftists at ASU were very confused when they saw the sea of students that came out to our voter registration event today wearing MAGA hats:
‘I was very disturbed seeing all the MAGA hats everywhere today…confused why there were so many…’
‘Made my stomach turn a lil tbh’
‘I’m scared’
We’re barnstorming the country visiting 22 campuses this fall, registering hundreds of Gen Z voters at every stop. I’d be scared if I was them too. And we’re only getting stronger.”
This is too good not to share. Campus leftists at ASU were very confused when they saw the sea of students that came out to our voter registration event today wearing MAGA hats:
However, according to Turning Point Action volunteer Ruby Halperinn, not everyone at the event was having fun. She reported via X, “As I was registering voters today at ASU, a radical leftist threw their whole beverage on me and ran away. THIS IS THE LEFT. They know we are winning this election and it scares them.”
As I was registering voters today at ASU, a radical leftist threw their whole beverage on me and ran away.
THIS IS THE LEFT.
They know we are winning this election and it scares them.
Lake responded to Halperinn with encouragement saying, “They know that thousands of kids at every university are registering Republican. They know that they are losing the young vote because young Americans know their future is on the line and it’s the America First Republican party that wants to make their future great again.”
Turning Point USA’s Morgonn McMichael described the crowd at the Memorial Union as being “HUNDREDS of students.”
Afonso Machado, a freshman volunteer and Political Science student, told the State Press, “We need you to register to vote, we need you to engage so we can show America that this conservative movement is growing.”
The effort continued well after the initial event last Wednesday with Nick Moore posting on Sunday that the Sigma Nu fraternity had dozens of members register at a Tempe event with Lake. He wrote, “Dozens more fraternity members registered to vote tonight in Tempe, Arizona. Thank you Sigma Nu for having @KariLake for a tour of the Greek Leadership Village at ASU and the opportunity cast her vision for your future. Vote Kari Lake for U.S. Senate on November 5th!”
Dozens more fraternity members registered to vote tonight in Tempe, Arizona.
Thank you Sigma Nu for having @KariLake for a tour of the Greek Leadership Village at ASU and the opportunity cast her vision for your future.
The most recent registered voter statistics from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office showed Republicans leading Democrats in registered voters by 259,270 and Independents by 59,668.
Warning: this article contains spoilers from the newly released film, “Am I Racist?”
The Arizona State University (ASU) graduate who gained notoriety for her viral confrontation of two white students, Sarra Tekola, was featured in the latest mockumentary film from Daily Wire, “Am I Racist?”
Tekola accosted two white male students in September 2021 for studying in a room established around that time as a multicultural center under a campaign she helped to lead. At the time of the incident, per our past reporting, the room had not yet been established officially as a multicultural center and no signage existed to designate the room as such.
Though the Arizona Board of Regents determined that Tekola’s actions violated the Code of Conduct — only finding guilt of interfering with university activities, but not harassment — ASU awarded her a doctorate in sustainability eight months later in May of 2022. Tekola runs her own consulting firm presently, and now goes by “they/he” pronouns as “Yeshaq Sarra Tekola.”
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh provided commentary of Tekola’s actions at the time and subsequently provided coverage on developments following the incident.
Now, nearly three years to the day of that viral incident, Walsh premiered a mockumentary, “Am I Racist?” in which he interviews Tekola.
However, Walsh didn’t present himself to Tekola under his true identity. Walsh also didn’t interview Tekola about the 2021 incident. Rather, Walsh presented himself as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocate and interviewed Tekola about her beliefs on racism.
At no point in the portions of the interview included in the movie did Tekola discern Walsh’s true identity.
During her interview, Tekola told Walsh that she believed that all white people were racist.
Tekola also said she subscribed to a theory that white individuals don’t recognize their racism because they divide themselves into two selves: a subconscious self which is guilty of being racist, and the conscious self which believes it isn’t racist. Tekola told Walsh that it’s the responsibility of white individuals to reconcile the two selves to become aware of their racism.
Tekola also advocated for an end to whiteness altogether.
It is unclear when Walsh filmed this interview with Tekola, though it appears she maintains similar or the same beliefs at present. In an X post earlier this year, Tekola implied that those opposed to illegal immigration based on the surge in violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants were racist.
“Who belongs here [in America]? It’s giving whites only,” wrote Tekola.
Tekola is also the co-founder, co-director, and policy strategist for the Phoenix Metro area’s Black Lives Matter chapter. Tekola also co-founded and co-leads the Phoenix Environmental Justice Coalition. In recent years, Tekola joined the activist organizations Working Families Party Arizona, Chisholm Legacy Project, and Hive Fund.
Prior to enrolling at ASU, Tekola made headlines for her activism: from blocking the construction of a police station in Seattle, Washington to organizing a BLM protest-turned-riot in 2020 that ended with her arrest (for which she raised over $6,000). Tekola was also a Ford Foundation Fellow from 2018 to 2021.
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Arizona State University (ASU) hosted a forum Sunday alongside left-wing groups to mobilize young voters in both high school and college for the upcoming presidential election.
ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication held the “New Generation Voter Forum,” specifically targeting Gen Z and Millennial voters (those born between 1997 and 2012, and between 1981 and 1996). Organizers billed the forum as a nonpartisan event offered to represent the facts and prepare new young voters for November.
Key organizers of the event were the Tempe Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority alongside the historically black sorority’s ASU chapter, Iota Kappa.
Group participants within the forum included the Greater Phoenix Urban League of Young Professionals, League of Women Voters of Arizona, Black Student Union (BSU) DPC, and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) at ASU.
These groups have long been advocates for left-wing causes and movements, namely Black Lives Matter.
At one table to register the young voters in attendance, a woman representing the League of Women Voters of Arizona wore a “Vote” shirt depicting the black fist to represent BLM, a uterus to represent abortion rights, and the pride flag to represent gender and gay ideologies. On the table were pamphlets on different ballot issues, including Ranked-Choice Voting.
Kara Pelletier, at-large board member for League of Women Voters of Arizona and president-elect of the Metro Phoenix Board, toldCronkite News it was “critical” to get more of the youth registered to vote. Pelletier was formerly the Arizona chapter leader for the prominent national gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“It’s critical that our youth get engaged and remain engaged. They’re actually a larger voting bloc than the next-largest voting bloc, which is boomers,” said Kara Pelletier of the League of Women Voters of Arizona. “That particular age group, 18 to 29, really is a huge section of the electorate, and they could really have a lot of influence and say in what goes on in our country, our politicians, what our budgets are focused on, who’s elected.”
Others also offered voter registration to the young participants: ASU through TurboVote, and Vote Everywhere. Both TurboVote and Vote Everywhere are programs of left-leaning organizations: Democracy Works and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, respectively.
The panel discussion centered around misinformation and disinformation in the media, such as deepfakes produced by artificial intelligence.
Featured panelists discussing media literacy and democracy included ASU professors Retha Hill and Pauline Arrillaga. Both professors have been vocal in their support of left-wing causes and Democrats, and critical of right-wing causes and Republicans including former President Donald Trump.
New ASU Art Museum exhibit shows protest art left where police killed George Floyd https://t.co/zyzUXNWJIV
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The forum also included roundtable discussions on the importance of voting, handling double residencies when voting, getting involved in elections as international or out-of-state students, understanding nonpartisan races, running for office, and understanding the issues on the ballot.
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