DOJ probes Berkeley riot; Illinois TPUSA warns hostility isn’t just in California

By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights investigation into University of California Berkeley after violent agitators overran a Turning Point USA event, an escalation Illinois TPUSA chapters say doesn’t compare to rising hostility on their own campuses.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon launched the probe after videos showed barricades torn down, students beaten and multiple arrests at the sold-out TPUSA event.

With several felony arrests and Berkeley cooperating with federal investigators, the fallout is drawing national attention, including from Illinois State TPUSA president Ben Umbdenstock.

“I saw a guy with blood running down his head. It was something I never thought I’d see at a Turning Point event,” Umbdenstock told The Center Square. “The worst we’ve ever had here was when a teaching assistant flipped our table, not once but twice, and he was eventually fired. Later, we found out he’d been arrested by the FBI for threats against the president and other officials. That was crazy enough, and then seeing what happened at UC Berkeley… I’m just grateful my university hasn’t had anything major like that.”

Umbdenstock noted that the Berkeley riot resembled an earlier breakdown in campus safety at the same university in 2017.

“It seems like the same thing happening all over again,” he said. “College campuses should be protecting all students, no matter what.”

Although he believes ISU is generally cooperative and comparatively calm, Umbdenstock said hostility toward conservative students is still real.

In a statement last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “Violence is not a legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights. While people have the right to protest, it must be done peacefully.”

ISU’s chapter drew national attention this year after a graduate teaching assistant flipped their table, twice, and was later fired. Umbdenstock recalled the escalation.

“He flipped our table on Monday… We brushed it off, and filed a police report. But when the TA returned that Friday, flipped the table again, and made ‘Jesus did so I have to remark’, the situation changed,” said Umbdenstock. “That’s when we knew this wasn’t about some speaker, we were just conservatives to him. Looking at his social media posts, he considered us fascists. Then we learned he’d been talked to by police and even the FBI.”

Umbdenstock called the DOJ’s investigation into UC Berkeley “appropriate.”

“Totally, they should go in,” he said. “It’s their duty to protect every student, even in deep-blue California,” he said

Umbdenstock said the Berkeley chaos is a reminder that conservative students must stay patient, stay strong, and refuse to sink to hostility.