UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With safety as the primary focus, Penn State University Police and Public Safety, in consultation with University leadership, canceled the Oct. 24 speaking event featuring two individuals known for denigrating and hate-filled remarks. The event was sponsored by the student group Uncensored America and was to include talks by Gavin McInnes and Alex Stein.
As the direct result of escalating violence between protesters and supporters of the event outside the Thomas Building, a determination was made at 7 p.m. to discontinue the scheduled event.
“The safety of our community is our number one priority, and as we prepared for last evening’s event, that was the foremost concern in our mind and in our preparations,” said Charlie Noffsinger, associate vice president for University Police and Public Safety. “Despite the University’s goal of upholding free speech, given the agitated demonstrators, at least one known physical altercation, a crowd surge toward the building, and chemical spray of the crowd and officers, taken altogether, it was a safety risk to continue to move forward and we did recommend the event be canceled.”
Leading up to the events that took place last evening, University Police engaged with external law enforcement and public safety partners in developing a comprehensive security plan for the event and took every reasonable action to protect the safety of campus, while also supporting the tenets of free speech.
Prior to the event taking place, law enforcement was not aware of any credible threats of violence related to this event. However, as evidenced by the large presence of law enforcement officials on site, including officers on horseback and in tactical gear, which were deployed based on the escalating violence, police planned for the worst-case scenario and were prepared to cancel the event if the threat of violence intensified.
Penn State Police and its partners monitored the situation in the weeks and days leading up to the event and on Oct. 24 took steps to effectively and reasonably confirm the safety of those involved in the related activities.
“At the heart of what we do is the commitment of our team of police officers, staff and community partners to the safety of the campus community,” said Noffsinger. “We are grateful for the support we received from the administration and from across the commonwealth as we made decisions about the safety of all involved in last night’s events. We are thankful for the fact that no one had been seriously injured.”
University Police is aware that pepper spray was used in the crowd of protesters, but can confirm that at no time was pepper spray deployed by law enforcement.
There was one misdemeanor arrest made for disorderly conduct and defiant trespass. The charges have not been filed but will be in the near future. University Police is continuing to investigate activities associated with the Uncensored America event last evening and surrounding events, including those involving use of pepper spray by individuals in the crowd outside of the auditorium. Charges will be sought for any individual identified as violating law. Likewise, any student identified as possibly violating the law or the Penn State Code of Conduct will be subject to the University’s disciplinary system.
To report information to University Police, contact the University Park Police Station at 814-863-111. Reports may also be made anonymously by submitting them to police.psu.edu/report-crime.