How UC Berkeley Prepares for Turning Point Tour Stop

from Ella Carter-Claushy and Martin RomeroCalMatters

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Two months after the killing of conservative advocate Charlie Kirk during a tour at a Utah university, his organization, Turning Point USA, will complete its “return to America” ​​at the University of California, Berkeley on Nov. 10 amid heightened security.

Turning Point USA is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote conservative values ​​on high school and college campuses. It was co-founded by Kirk and his late mentor Bill Montgomery in 2012.

The Berkeley stop will be Turning Point USA’s first event on a California campus since Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10. Kirk’s killing has heightened concerns about political violence and renewed debate about how universities balance security and free speech.

The issue became personal for John Paul Leon, Jr. and president of the Berkeley Turning Point USA branch, which was formed in 2019. He began preparing for Kirk’s expected visit months before his death.

(We) wanted Charlie for a long time, Leon said. “I’ve been planning this since… June… It’s been a lot of work, but definitely worth it.”

Leon knew Kirk personally; he had met the conservative activist several times and even had breakfast with him at a student action summit in Tampa Bay, Fla., over the summer, where they talked about “Esptain, Israel and meetings.”

He described the day Kirk was killed as “probably the craziest day of my college experience.” The Berkeley chapter planned to announce Kirk’s visit to campus that evening.

“As I was spreading the word, they sent me the video of the shooting,” Leon said. “My first reaction was ‘this has to be AI, there’s no way’… it was just completely tragic to see.”

Leon and his club did gather that night, but instead of the celebration he had expected hours earlier, they held a “last-minute” vigil where conservative leaders spoke in Kirk’s honor.

Since that day, membership at the Berkeley Turning Point USA branch has grown significantly, according to Leon. Before the meetings, about 30 people would gather, but over 100 attended the vigil. The smallest meeting this semester had 60 in attendance, Leon said.

‘American Comeback Tour’ is back on the road

After a brief hiatus, the tour has since made nine stops on college campuses across the country, featuring Vice President JD Vance, former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson, 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and other prominent conservatives.

The Berkeley event will feature comedian and actor Rob Schneider and Christian apologist speaker Frank Turek in Zellerbach Hall. Both Turek and Schneider were friends of the late conservative activist, with Turek a longtime mentor to Kirk and present when he was killed.

Dan Mogloff, a UC Berkeley spokesman, said the Berkeley chapter was expecting 300 attendees as of Oct. 14, although the hall has a capacity of nearly 2,000. The chapter did not respond to inquiries about the number of people registered for the event.

Other campus tour stops have increased security measures. At Virginia Tech on Sept. 24, attendees had to show ID, were not allowed to carry bags, and had to pass through metal detectors to gain access to the event. President of the University of Oklahoma Turning Point USA told the student newspaperOU Daily that their chapter paid for the increased police presence on campus at the Oct. 16 event. The tour has so far been without incident and with record attendance.

In a letter sent to all UC Chancellors On September 23, UC President James B. Milliken addressed Kirk’s killing and ordered all campuses to “take immediate steps to review existing procedures for holding events.” He also advised all campuses to consider indoor seating, bag checks and ticket scanning, among other precautions, to reduce safety risks for speakers and event attendees.

“The killing of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University was a reminder that we must always remain vigilant,” Milliken said in the letter. “Universities are places where civil discussion and debate can and should take place, without fear or threat of harm.”

Mogulof declined to provide any details on how UC Berkeley plans to secure the Nov. 10 event. Mogloff said the university will follow the protocols set by the policy for major eventswhich requires the University of California Police Department to make security recommendations on a case-by-case basis.

Leon, who helped coordinate the Berkeley event, said there will be no bags allowed at the event, there will be a list of prohibited items and there will be security both inside and outside. He declined to provide further details, citing security concerns. He also did not say whether the chapter is chipping in for any additional security costs.

According to the Large Events Policy, event organizers are required to reimburse the costs of event security provided by the UC Berkeley Police Department.

In an emailed statement, Capt. Sabrina Reich said the campus police department could not share specific security details, but said it conducts safety assessments for large events “using best practices and in coordination with campus partners.” She added that UCPD will “take whatever measures are deemed necessary to have a safe and successful event.”

Berkeley Law Professor Jonathan Simon advised that the university should talk to potential counter-protesters before the event to prepare.

“You have to be in dialogue well before the protests happen with the groups that are likely to be involved in them,” Simon said. “They have to take responsibility for how they’re going to organize and the university can support, encourage, make the police available for them to do pre-planning if they’re going to march or things of that nature.”

Turning Point’s US visit was originally supposed to include two events, one in the morning where Kirk would debate students outside in his typical “Prove Me Wrong” format, and an evening program with Turek and Schneider. The debate was canceled after Kirk’s death and the program was moved indoors for security reasons, Leon said.

Students and faculty have mixed reactions

UC Berkeley is a stronghold of progressive student activism and home to the free speech movement of the 1960s. Kirk himself describes his campus visits as open forums for debate. Leon described him as an advocate of “free expression and exchange of dialogue”.

“(Kirk) said we need to keep talking because when we stop talking, that’s when violence happens,” Leon said. “I’ll make sure I’m always someone willing to have a conversation, so that way we’ll never need violence.”

Recently at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza, a central site for campus sit-ins and rallies, students noted a surge in conservative voices since Kirk’s death, mostly on social media, where peers are more outspoken in posting their views.

Miguel Muniz, president of the Berkeley College Republicans, said members of his club were more willing to “be public with what they think.”

“I’ve seen a lot of people move to the right because they go back and actually look at these things that Charlie did,” Muniz said. “I was very pessimistic at first, but now seeing the movement that has started has made me really look forward to what can rise from the ashes.”

Sophomore Jackie Campion said she thinks Turning Point USA is an “unhealthy” ideology for young people, but because of the university’s commitment to free speech, the group has the right to say whatever it wants on campus. She added that she believes open communication is the only way to change minds.

Other critics ridiculed Kirk’s hardline, controversial positions on social issues. Kirk has often been an outspoken racist and misogynist, while also speaking out against the LGBTQ+ community and migrants. He is often quoted as being concerned with the “grand replacement theory” and saying that wives should submit to their husbands, according to an article in The Guardian.

“You heard that he was this wonderful Johnny Appleseed character who would come to campuses and talk to students that people had obviously never talked to about tough issues,” said law professor Simon. “If you really read the things he was saying, he was hardly someone who was trying to build a big tent of any kind. He was extremely dismissive of whole groups of people.”

At the University of Minnesota, which hosted the first event since Kirk’s murder, This was reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune that several professors have moved classes online. Some cited Turning Point USA’s “professor watch list,” which seeks to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and promote left-wing propaganda,” according to the group’s website.

Several students said that while they were unhappy with the Turning Point USA event, they recognized Berkeley’s commitment to free speech, which allows speakers like Turek and Schneider to come to campus.

Leela Mehta-Harwitz, coalition chair of UC Berkeley’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter, said the organization has no plans to protest, attend or otherwise engage with the Turning Point USA event. They drew a distinction between the national organization and the campus branch, saying the former was extremely harmful and “inflammatory” and the latter something they disagreed with but saw as “colleagues” on campus.

“We don’t think it’s worth our energy,” Mehta-Harwitz said. “Turning Point USA is known for creating videos. They are well known for getting provocative videos that intentionally paint left-wing activists in a bad light. We are not interested in being fodder for their social media cycle and being misrepresented.”

UC Berkeley political science professor Susan Hyde emphasized that all speech, even hate speech, is technically a protected right under the First Amendment. She added that most of the students she has had in class are open to discussing alternative viewpoints on campus.

“We strive to be a campus where people can listen to ideas that they disagree with, can listen to ideas that they even find offensive, and still understand that it’s part of our constitutionally protected rights,” Hyde said. “We can have respectful engagement with a lot of different ideas on this campus. I think that’s part of our mission and part of what the Berkeley Free Speech Movement stands for.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.