LINCOLN PARK — People on both sides of the Gavin McInnes debate say a rally celebrating the cancellation of the controversial commentator's appearance at DePaul University Tuesday night led directly to a stabbing, but they agreed on little else Thursday as charges and blame flew back and forth.
The Chicago General Defense Committee, which says it aims to protect poor and minority groups from attacks, joined other local groups in organizing a "Rally Against Hate" Tuesday evening. The rally was timed to conservative Canadian pundit McInnes's scheduled speech, though that appearance had been canceled earlier in the month by the university.
The university had cited incendiary speech from McInnes as justification, charging he advocated violence through "his recently formed group, the Proud Boys" and its so-called military wing known as the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights. The group claims to be anti-feminist, but pro-gay and anti-racist. The defense committee echoed that.
"People from across the city were encouraged to gather and demonstrate that McInnes' brand of hate-filled rhetoric against Muslims, Latins, women, queer and trans people was not welcome in Chicago," the committee said in a statement released Thursday.
Some of those attending Tuesday's rally, however, were dressed all in black and wearing masks in the manner of so-called antifas, or anti-fascists, which John Minster, chairman of the DePaul College Republicans, found deliberately confrontational.
"A group of people, none of whom were students as far as I'm aware, come to the school dressed all in black, many of them covering their faces, because they essentially want to agitate people, they want to get in fights," Minster said Thursday.
"I would have maybe understood if Gavin had still come, because then at least they'd have a speaker to protest. But in this case they didn't have that at all. They just gathered in front of the Student Center and tried to get in fights with somebody, anybody they could, because that's what they like to do I guess," he said.
Minster joined other College Republicans — who had sought McInnes' appearance on campus — in attending the rally. "Our point was just to stand there and say, 'Hey, we're not scared. We're going to stand our ground. We have disagreements but we're not going to try to attack you for it,'" he said.
More than 100 people attended the rally, including passersby, but it dispersed without incident or arrests before 7 p.m. According to the General Defense Committee, however, a man leaving the rally insisted the cancelation of the event "stole his free speech" and pulled a knife, as shown in a video posted online.
According to Chicago Police, that man stabbed another man, but was "subdued" by others in the area. A video posted on Reddit appeared to show the man with the knife being Tasered then beaten by another man in black before DePaul Public Safety officers moved in. DePaul emphasized the men involved were not students.
Police reported the man who pulled the knife was charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and bodily harm, and the victim was treated at Illinois Masonic Medical Center. According to the defense committee, that man "has been released from the hospital and is in good health."
But the committee laid blame for the stabbing on the McInnes faction.
"Words have power, and there is a clear difference between the freedom of speech and hate speech," the statement read. "Groups like the Proud Boys try to blur this distinction as a way to position themselves as 'the true victims' in a wider effort to gain acceptance of their racism, and to deflect attention from the violence that they advocate."
Minster countered that no one claiming to be a Proud Boy was at the rally.
Even so, the two sides had been spoiling for a fight on Twitter in the days leading up to the rally. A group called South Side Chicago Anti-Racist Action touted the event, tweeting, "This is happening at DePaul ... let's beat their asses." Proud Boys Chicago retweeted a reply saying, "So, are we ready for this? I'll try to bring PBs from Ohio."
@ProudBoyChicago , so, we ready for this?
— TheRealDavidReedن™ (@DavidMReedOhio) May 17, 2017
I'll try to bring PBs from Ohio. https://t.co/DRUmcIt25p
Tweeting from New York City, McInnes delighted in the ironies of a "Rally Against Hate" descending into a stabbing, and gloried in how he wasn't even there.
They banned us because we're "violent." Then, they had their own party to celebrate and someone got stabbed. https://t.co/JG9BHpkzGB
— Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) May 31, 2017
The defense committee's statement said it "opposes hate speech and the violent impact it has on our communities" and that it sees "a clear connection between right-wing rallies calling for 'free speech' and the attempt by such groups to become politically powerful, committing racially motivated attacks and murders with impunity."
"There would be no opportunity for the Proud Boys or other white supremacists to show their faces in our communities and on our campuses if they were not allowed to hide behind the rhetoric of free speech," the committee said.
But Minster said the issue was precisely free speech and that the university was obliged to create a safe environment for it.
"At some point, somebody's got to stand up — and it's got to be the institution — and say, 'No, we will not accept this," he said. "You can't just let a group of people shut down everything that they don't like."
