Punch them in the face': Student tells cheering crowd how to shut up College Republicans

A Columbia University student was caught on video telling a crowd of several hundred that the "only way" to shut up members of the school's College Republicans "is to punch them in the face."

Julia Arredondo — whom Campus Reform referred to as the "poet laureate of the Columbia University Marching Band" — ripped the conservative student group and its president, Aristotle Boosalis, during the livestreamed "Orgo Night" Thursday.

What is Orgo Night?

The school's marching band traditionally holds the event the night before the Organic Chemistry final exam. The festivities include rather risque and profanity-laced satire about campus happenings from the semester.

What else did Arredondo say?

She mocked the College Republicans for being the targets of Antifa flyers after inviting speakers such as Mike Cernovich and Tommy Robinson to campus, Campus Reform noted.

“Days later, flyers appeared exposing CUCR board members for giving a platform to Nazis," Arredondo added, "Something everyone on their floor probably could have already told from the whiff of burning crosses emanating from their dorm rooms."

She also called Boosalis “CUCR’s Grand Wizard," said he's "somehow more racist than the original Aristotle" and excoriated his Fox News appearance, noting his desire for a “space where white men could feel safe in their opinions.”

Arredondo got big cheers and hoots and hollers with every insult.

She also likened CUCR to Nazis and warned the conservative group to “think twice before placing another bulk order of arm bands," Campus Reform said.

How did Boosalis react to the attack?

Boosalis told the outlet that the attack on him and the College Republicans by Arredondo was “disgraceful,” adding the marching band has used its "platform to smear our club and label any person that comes to our meetings as a KKK member, even though we have a wide variety of people on the political spectrum that attend our meetings.”

A week before Orgo Night, the marching band posted flyers on campus — emblazoned with CUCR’s logo — with images of famous men recently accused of sexual harassment and misconduct, including Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Al Franken, Matt Lauer and Kevin Spacey, according to Campus Reform.

But Boosalis told the outlet CUCR members "believe that sexual assault is never appropriate" and that the flyers amounted to “false advertising.”

Campus Reform reached out to the Columbia University Marching Band and Arredondo for comment but didn't immediately receive a response.

This writer's perspective

While Arredondo's "punch them in the face" comment may have been part of a satirical event, the numerous documented instances of leftist violence against conservatives in the last year or more makes it difficult to believe the statement was taken only with a grain of salt.

(H/T: Campus Reform)