***update: more from the NYSun and Power Line***

Minutemen Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist spoke at Columbia University tonight. He tried to speak, that is. During his remarks, a mob of students stormed the stage and sabotaged the event. Every Columbia U. alum should be assailing the administration. Gilchrist is owed an apology. This is a disgrace.

The staff of the Blue and White, a Columbia Univ. undergrad magazine liveblogged it at “The Bwog” and took photos. Here’s one:

A bit of their report:

STUDENTS WITH A BIG YELLOW SIGN JUST CAME ONTO THE STAGE. The sign says, “There are no illegals.” Students rise en masse from the audience and rush the stage. The Minuteman and the students engaged in a tug of war with the banner. More people rush the stage, prompting a fist-fight. One female student is kicked in the head. A guy in a pony tail (definitely not a student) rushes the stage and fights with students (several witnesses saw him kick a student) and then banded together with the Minuteman to shout the pledge of allegiance as the rumble spun out of hand, “One nation! Under God! Indivisible!”

There was at least two minutes of chaos between students, other students and the Minutemen. Bwog took cover.

security Update: 9:01 pm: Security comes out, now the curtain is down. Students are still chanting, now everyone’s filing out.

Update: 9:15 pm: Students outside shouting, “They say, ‘get bent,’ we say, ‘let’s fight!’”

Update: 9:22 pm: A Bwog correspondent calls in a tip. A student defending the Minuteman right outside the gates on 115th was encircled by a group of protesters after a heated personal fight with just one of the protesters. The protesters then shouted, “Racist, go home!” Security showed up, and they started breaking up. Student last seen laughing on phone with friends. A mosh pit of triumphal students and community members dance and chant, “Asian, Black, Brown and White, we smashed the Minutemen tonight!”

CTV has posted video of the mini-siege on YouTube. Watch here (1:00am update. The site down for maintenance. Check back for the vid in a little while):

The moonbats at NYC Indymedia are crowing and the mob is now trying to play victim:

The following short statement was put together collectively after the event by the audience members who had climbed up onto the stage:

We celebrate free speech: for that reason we allowed the Minutemen
to speak, and for that same reason we peacefully occupied the stage and
spoke ourselves. Our peaceful protest was violently attacked by
members of the College Republicans and their supporters, who are the
very same people who invited the Minutemen to our campus in the
first place. The Minutemen are not a legitimate voice in the debate on
immigration. They are a racist, armed militia who have declared
open hunting season on immigrants, causing countless hate crimes and over
3000 deaths on the border. Why should exploitative corporations have
free passes between nations, but individual people not? No human
being is illegal.

Such a triumph for rational discourse and liberal education.

***

Contact the president of Columbia University.

***

I’m having Berkeley flashbacks.

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