ASU President: Turning Point USA crew accused of 'bloodying' ASU professor's face
TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State Police released footage of an incident between an ASU English professor, a reporter and cameraman from Turning Point USA.
The incident happened on Oct. 11 at the Fulton Center Garage, ASU Police said. Adding, "Any time there is an incident like this, we work directly with faculty and staff to address their concerns about safety - which is a top priority at ASU."
University president Dr. Michael Crow released a statement on Oct. 14 calling the men "cowards" for their actions against Dr. David Boyles.
Turning Point describes itself on its website as "a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk. The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government. Turning Point USA believes that every young person can be enlightened to true free market values."
In the security footage from ASU, which does not have audio, you'll see Dr. Boyles wearing white and the two other men wearing all black.
One of the members has a camera and the other appears to be doing a walk-and-talk style interview.
At a point, Dr. Boyles appears to shove the camera out of his face and the person interviewing him runs up behind him and pushes him down. Seconds later, another person ran up and appeared to help Dr. Boyles.
Dr. Boyles and the other person begin to walk away but the Turning Point USA members start following them. That's when they all leave the camera's sight.
Dr. Boyles teaches English literature and writing at the university. That includes a class that uses LGBTQ+ literature. "He is part of an academic community that appropriately engages our students across the entire spectrum of human experience and expression," Dr. Crow said.
Watch the full video
Turning Point USA posted the footage on its X account from the cameraman's point of view as he and the reporter approached the professor who was standing alone after one of his classes let out.
"Let me ask you, when did you decide to get obsessed with sex education?" one of the members asked him. "Are you going to answer any of my questions?"
Dr. Boyles says "Nope."
The member says "OK, so if I ask you how long you've been attracted to minors, or how long you've fantasized about minors having sex with adults and why you write about it in children's books, what are you going to tell me?"
Dr. Boyles stays silent and continues walking.
"David, you can't run," a member told him. "It's best you just talk to me about why you want to push sodomy onto young people. That's the best thing to do is have a conversation."
The accusations continue for a bit longer before Dr. Boyles pushes the camera away from his face.
In the past, Turning Point USA has been featured in and has hosted public events at ASU. Their presence on campus, however, didn't come without criticism by some students and the public.
Dr. Crow says he wrote to Turning Point earlier this year asking it to remove ASU professors from its "Professor Watchlist." He says he didn't get a response.
"As my April 2023 letter to Turning Point USA indicated, the Professor Watchlist has resulted in antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+ and misogynistic attacks on ASU faculty with whom Turning Point USA and its followers disagree. Such tactics are anti-democratic, anti-free speech and completely contrary to the spirit of university scholarship, teaching and community," Dr. Crow said.
FOX 10 has reached out to Turning Point USA and its spokesperson and has not yet heard back.
However, the organization did describe what it says happened in its X post, saying in part:
"The reporter then attempted to remove Professor Boyles from our cameraman, which caused Mr. Boyles to fall and scrape his face on the ground.
Boyles’s assault resulted in a disconnected wire that caused the video to cut out immediately after his first lunge, but the video is clear that Mr. Boyles, in a moment of rage, initiated a physical altercation and attacked our crew.
Our team fully intends to share this footage with local law enforcement, and if our cameraman decides to press criminal charges against Professor Boyle, we will fully support that decision."
Read Dr. Crow's full statement below
Earlier this week, Dr. David Boyles, an instructor in the ASU English Department, was followed, harassed, pushed and injured by two men identified by Turning Point USA as their "reporter" and "cameraman." I’d like to share with you some of my views about this matter.
It is astounding to me that individuals from Turning Point USA would wait for an ASU instructor to come out of his class to follow him, harass him and ultimately shove him to the ground, bloodying his face. Cowards that they are and so confident in the legality and appropriateness of their actions, the Turning Point USA "reporter" and "cameraman" then ran away from the scene before police arrived. This is the kind of outrageous conduct that you would expect to see from bullies in a high school cafeteria. I spoke with Dr. Boyles about what transpired when he was walking from his class to his car and I watched the video of the incident multiple times. It is stunning for Turning Point USA leadership to endorse, defend and fund such activity in the name of "freedom."
ASU is a comprehensive institution with nearly 7,000 courses of all kinds that engage with countless aspects of our world’s culture, science, art and more. This creates learning opportunities for all of our students and the breadth of their interests and backgrounds. Such teaching, writing and discourse is a regular part of the creative expression and academic freedom offered by ASU to its faculty members. Students have many options for the courses that they take, and faculty are provided discretion in the manner in which they select and use content for teaching and scholarship. Dr. Boyles as an instructor at ASU teaches writing and English literature including a class which draws from LGBTQ+ literature. He is part of an academic community that appropriately engages our students across the entire spectrum of human experience and expression.
Earlier this year, I wrote to Turning Point USA to request that it remove ASU professors from its Professor Watchlist. I did not receive a response. Instead, the incident we’ve all now witnessed on the video shows Turning Point’s refusal to stop dangerous practices that result in both physical and mental harm to ASU faculty members, which they then apparently exploit for fundraising, social media clicks and financial gain. As my April 2023 letter to Turning Point USA indicated, the Professor Watchlist has resulted in antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+ and misogynistic attacks on ASU faculty with whom Turning Point USA and its followers disagree. Such tactics are anti-democratic, anti-free speech and completely contrary to the spirit of university scholarship, teaching and community.
Finally, please let me note that while Turning Point USA has been featured in and has hosted public events at ASU and the university has supported its right to do so, the same organization is ironically using intimidation, embarrassment and bullying to prevent others from speaking in ways with which it disagrees. This is the Turning Point USA version of its support of "freedom." Let me assure all of you that ASU will do all that we can to end the bullying and intimidation of our faculty members by Turning Point USA and to reduce threats against the members of the ASU community which arise from such actions.