Chicagoâs DePaul University cancelled Gavin McInnesâ event after he made comments encouraging violence "aimed at protesters who disagree with his positions"
As the DePaulia student newspaper reports, VICE co-founder and host on the far-right Rebel Media platform, Gavin McInnes, made the statements in a speech at New York University in February. He told the crowd:
âWeâre the only ones fighting these [protesters] and I want you to fight them, too [âŚ] When they go low, go lower. Mace them back, throw bricks at their head. Letâs destroy them.â
In addition to endorsing violence, the DePaulia adds that the university administration had expressed concern over McInnesâ newly established militant wing of his group âProud Boysâ.
The Militant Alt-Light: Violent Proud Boys & the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights
McInnes founded Proud Boys, a Western Chauvinist fraternal organisation in 2016, for men who will âno longer apologise for creating the modern worldâ. Initiation into a Proud Boys chapter includes various stages, the fourth and final of which McInnes told Metro involves âa major fight for the causeâ. He added that: âYou get beat up, kinck [sic] the crap out of antifaâ.
McInnes has criticised the suppression of free speech on US campuses, most recently reading a speech at Berkeley, California initially due to be given by right-wing pundit Ann Coulter (who has endorsed Proud Boys) before her speech was cancelled.
Yet, in endorsing violence against those who he disagrees with, and building a career at Rebel Media based around promoting reactionary, offensive views, McInnes has demonstrated that he has more interest in winning a shouting match than creating a fair market of ideas.
This was clear when he told Metro that ânot only would [he] love to speakâ with those who protest in disagreement of his views, but that he will also âget violent and beat the f–k out of everybodyâ.
Proud Boy members have been involved in violent confrontations with protesters in Berkeley, and such incidents look only likely to increase following the creation of the militant wing reported in DePaulia, known as the âFraternal Order of Alt-Knightsâ.
The group, whose name nods to the far-right ‘alt-light’ movement of which McInnes is a part, was formed by Kyle Chapman, AKA âBased Stick Manâ, and has the approval of McInnes. Chapman was arrested in April after fighting a member of the public while he was promoting a rally in Berkeley, and previously had been arrested on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon at a pro-Trump march.
