Conservative Activist Allegedly Assaulted at University of Michigan
The Facts
- Jewish conservative activist Liz Benichou was shoved to the ground Sunday at the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus during an argument about Islam at a table displaying signs asking whether Islam is compatible with the West.
- University police said officers were responding to an unpermitted event shortly before 5 p.m. when they witnessed a student assault a woman not affiliated with the school. The student was processed and released. Prosecutors have since authorized three charges, including assaulting or resisting an officer, JNS reported. No court date has been set.
- Video of the incident shows the student shouting "I should have killed you when I had the chance" as officers escorted her to a patrol car. After bystanders suggested a mental hospital, she replied that she had already been to one and would go again if it meant killing Benichou.
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The Spin
Right narrative
Universities have become radicalization factories, turning students who once celebrated American freedom into people who assault others over opinions. Tallies claiming right-wing violence dwarfs left-wing violence only work because leftist crimes get written off as mental illness or ordinary crime. Honest accounting flips that story entirely, and terrifying footage like this is proof that something has to change before more people get hurt.
Left narrative
The politically-motivated crime statistics are important, and they still show the deadliest political violence keeps coming from the right, no matter how hard conservatives try to rebrand anti-fascism as terrorism. Hyping a handful of murky incidents into a leftist crime wave manufactures an enemy to justify emergency powers and crackdowns on peaceful dissent. Blaming millions for the acts of disturbed loners is dishonest and dangerous.
Cynical narrative
Powerful political, media and academic forces have helped turn young Americans into angry, uncivil partisans, often without their realizing whose interests they serve. While they fight each other over left versus right, elites benefit from the division, distracting from unaffordable housing, stagnant wages and a system that keeps ordinary Americans powerless.
