University of Memphis administrators tried to sabotage a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event featuring Kyle Rittenhouse by issuing last-minute demands in order for the event to proceed, and then leaked private information to protesters, the organization said.
An audio recording also revealed a purported school administrator laughing after a TPUSA chapter leader told her he had been doxed by protesters.
Administrators told the school’s TPUSA student leaders that they would need to make changes to their previously-approved ticketing process, or else their event, scheduled for the following day, would not be able to proceed, the organization said.
The last-minute change involved re-ticketing attendees through the university’s ticketing system on short notice, Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet told Breitbart News.
Kolvet explained that TPUSA uses its own ticketing system to prevent an event-sabotaging stunt commonly attempted by protesters, which involves reserving all the seats — robbing would-be attendees of the opportunity to obtain tickets — and then staging a walkout, leaving the venue empty during the event.
On the night before the event was set to take place, Melanie Murry, the school’s legal counsel, and Melinda Carlson, the university’s vice president for student affairs, informed TPUSA staff and student leaders in a private meeting that the school would send an email at 9:00 a.m. informing registrants that their tickets were invalid and redirect them to a new link for re-ticketing.
But 30 minutes before that link was set to go live, this private information was somehow leaked to protesters, TPUSA said.
A few students affiliated with TPUSA had infiltrated a group chat in which protesters were communicating their plans with one another. While monitoring this group chat, the conservative students saw that protestoers had been tipped off to the re-ticketing plan.
A purported message sent to the protesters’ group chat read as follows:
Just as an update I know many of us had tickets that now are not working. I was told that they will be re-ticketing the event tomorrow morning between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Please make sure to get a new ticket so more of us can participate in the walkout aspect of the protest.
“The protestors knew exactly what was going to happen before it was public knowledge,” Kolvet told Breitbart News. “There is no way these groups could have known the new ticketing timing and protocol without school administrators leaking that information.”
“This is unprecedented,” the TPUSA spokesperson continued. “We’ve never had to deal with a day of ticketing change, nor have we had to deal with an administration leaking our ticket information.”
“These are remarkable steps that the university seems to be taking to impede and potentially sabotage our event with Kyle Rittenhouse,” Kolvet added. “We are certainly used to hostile administrations, but never to this extent.”
Turning Point USA's official comment regarding the "Rittenhouse Recap" event this evening at the University of Memphis: pic.twitter.com/xWdMdLdMVA
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) March 20, 2024
University administrators also reduced the number of seats that TPUSA was allowed to reserve from more than fifty to just eight, the organization said.
To make matters worse, the TPUSA chapter president at the University of Memphis was doxed by protesters, the organization added.
Breitbart News reviewed a purported social media post that published the TPUSA chapter president’s name, phone number, and address, alongside a message that read, “Let him know how you feel about his decision to provoke black students by inviting a racist murderer on campus.”
But the shocking revelations didn’t end there.
A recorded conversation provided by TPUSA to Breitbart News revealed an apparent administrator, who is said to be the university’s Director of Conferences and Event Services, laughing and saying, “You probably shouldn’t stay there tonight,” after the TPUSA chapter president asked what he should do about being doxed.
Meanwhile, a man in the recording who is said to be a campus officer appeared to brush off the doxing by repeatedly telling the student that his phone number and address is technically “public information,” seemingly failing to consider that doxing means purposely promulgating personal information — public or private — with malicious intent.
The event featuring Rittenhouse proceeded on Wednesday night, with chaos ensuing on campus as a result.
Julio Rosas, with TPUSA-affiliated Frontlines, posted video footage of protesters screaming and appearing to chase people who were trying to leave after the event.
Watch Below:
🚨: Chaos breaks out at the University of Memphis after BLM protesters chased down @TPUSA people who were leaving the Kyle Rittenhouse event. Police had to prevent the hostile crowd from physically attacking them.@FrontlinesTPUSA pic.twitter.com/PFr8Ccqr0n
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 21, 2024
Additional footage showed protesters screaming at event attendees in a parking garage, urging them to “hit us” with their vehicles, while police tried to quell the mob.
Watch Below:
The angry BLM crowd then tried to prevent @TPUSA from leaving the parking garage at the University of Memphis. Campus and state police had to push the crowd back to allow the cars to leave. Some protesters spat on the vehicles.@FrontlinesTPUSA pic.twitter.com/UiEPUznbk5
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 21, 2024
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