Camryn's behavior showed ignorance and no class but to be arrested and charged with simple assault??? The authorities that are declaring fascist policies and using fascist tactics to enforce them should admit publicly they are fascist and are doing everything in their power to establish the heritage foundation,'s project 2025's authoritarian theocratic oligarchy. Oh but wait a minute, so what l'm gathering from Republicans is that everyone must stop calling their actions fascists, but Republicans can call anyone who opposes them communists, socialists, vermin, enemy of the people, radical left, Marxists... do I have that right? Our fight to preserve our democratic Republic continues! From the Washington Post.....
Texas Tech student’s arrest at Charlie Kirk vigil adds to free-speech debate
The arrest was celebrated by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) but raised concerns among free-speech advocates.
An 18-year-old Texas Tech University student was arrested and spent a night in jail last week after making derogatory statements about Charlie Kirk during an on-campus vigil for the right-wing influencer.
After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) celebrated the arrest of Camryn Giselle Booker on social media, the confrontation went viral online and drew concerns among some free-speech advocates that people critical of Kirk were facing harsh consequences for speaking out. Kirk was fatally shot last week while speaking at an on-campus event at Utah Valley University near Salt Lake City.
In a video of the incident, Booker can be seen jumping up and down, yelling profanity and taunting people attending the vigil about Kirk’s death. “Y’all homie dead,” she said at one point. Booker and an unidentified man began to argue, with the man asking why she was “being so hateful,” and Booker posing the same question to him. The man responds, “I want to be left alone.”
The incident occurred Friday near the Student Union Building, a “free speech area,” according to the Texas Tech Police Department.
Booker was arrested by Texas Tech Police and booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center on a charge of simple assault, a misdemeanor in Texas, according to the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office. She was released the next day on a $200 bond.
Booker is no longer enrolled at Texas Tech University, said Allison Hirth, vice president of marketing and communications at the university. “Any behavior that denigrates victims of violence is reprehensible, has no place on our campus, and is not aligned with our values,” she said in a statement.
Booker didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Her mother, Randi Booker, said the family would not be speaking publicly about the incident.
On Sunday, Abbott shared the video of the confrontation on the social media website X and said Booker had “definitely picked the wrong school to taunt the death of Charlie Kirk.” In another post with a photo of Booker being handcuffed, he wrote: “This is what happened to the person who was mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Texas Tech.”
In a response to one of Abbott’s posts, Cody Campbell, chair of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents, said: “We, @TexasTech, are proud of our values and are not afraid to stand up for them.”
Other conservatives have vowed a crackdown on educators or government employees who appeared to celebrate Kirk’s death, raising concerns among some free-speech experts that there will be an over-policing of public discourse.
Government officials haven’t policed speech in this manner since Sen. Joseph McCarthy led a crackdown on communists and other left-wing figures during the Cold War, said Timothy Shiell, a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin at Stout who has studied free speech on campus. “People’s attitude seem to be free speech for me, but not for thee,” Shiell said. “The more politically polarized things get, the more entrenched people get in that attitude.”
People in academic environments generally have a right to free speech, said Tom Ginsburg, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, but they’re “not immune from the consequences of that speech.”
Booker’s comments may be protected speech, but those dynamics change if an exchange turns physical, he said. In a video of the confrontation, Booker can be seen touching the hat of one man. The police report does not include specifics about the incident, including why Booker was charged with assault.
“The First Amendment says you can say whatever you want, but as soon as it crosses over into either a true threat or physical violence, then you certainly can be arrested for that,” Ginsburg said.
Since Kirk’s death, state lawmakers in Texas have announced that they are forming committees to study how speech should be policed on college campuses. “The political assassination of Charlie Kirk — and the national reaction it has sparked, including the public celebration of his murder by some in higher education — is appalling and reveals a deeper, systemic problem worth examining,” Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) said in a news release.
Conservatives have also pushed universities to punish educators who have made negative comments about Kirk.
The Texas Education Agency is investigating more than 100 state teachers whose actions “called for or incite violence” following Kirk’s death, Abbott said on X on Monday. He said they will “have their teacher certification suspended and be ineligible to teach in a Texas public school.”
The Florida Department of Education has said it’s investigating every teacher who made “disgusting comments” about Kirk’s death. At Clemson University, one employee was fired and two faculty members were removed from teaching duties pending an investigation after the school’s College Republicans chapter shared their social media posts about Kirk. In one post, a professor allegedly said in reference to Kirk’s death: “Today was one of the most beautiful days ever.”
Tennessee state lawmakers complained about social media posts by two professors at East Tennessee State University, including one who referred to Kirk’s past statements that some gun deaths were inevitable to protect the Second Amendment and said, “You can’t be upset if one of those deaths in [sic] yours.” The professors were placed on administrative leave.
On Tuesday, Abbott called for Texas State University to expel a student after a video circulated showing someone mocking participants of a campus event honoring Kirk.
In the video, a Black student wearing a backpack stands in a crowd of dozens of young people, slapping his neck and pretending to fall to the side, shouting, “Charlie Kirk got it in the neck.” The student then climbs atop a statue in front of the crowd and again slaps his neck and pretends to fall.
Some people exclaimed and booed, while others could be heard laughing as they filmed him with their phones. One person said, “You’re going to get expelled, dude” as the man walked past.
Abbott wrote on X: “Hey Texas State. This conduct is not accepted at our schools. Expel this student immediately. Mocking assassination must have consequences.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Texas State President Kelly Damphousse said in a statement that the individual in the “disturbing video” had been identified and is no longer a student at the university. The public university is in San Marcos, south of Austin, and has 45,000 students.
In a separate email to the Texas State community, Damphousse asked people on campus to “consider the impact that our words and actions can have on those around us,” adding that “attempts to spread the blame onto innocent students are also unacceptable.”
Abbott and the GOP-controlled legislature have reshaped campus life at the state’s universities in recent years, including banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and cracking down on campus protests. In June, Abbott signed the Campus Protection Act, restricting “expressive activities” on campus — anything allowed under the First Amendment or the analogous section of the Texas Constitution — from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The law came in response to a surge of protests at Texas college campuses in response to the war in Gaza, with dozens of students arrested at an encampment at the University of Texas at Austin after the governor sent in state police.
Abbott also signed a sweeping overhaul of higher education at state universities in June that diminished the size, influence and independence of faculty senates while strengthening the power of university boards and administrators over curriculum and hiring. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, a South Texas Republican, who wrote all three laws, was recently named the sole finalist for Texas Tech chancellor by the system’s board of regents.
Niha Masih and Grace Moon contributed to this report.
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