Leftist college student arrested amid MAGA hat altercation is a senator on campus government
You might recall the handful of left-wing Texas State University students who made headlines last week when police arrested them after one stole a "Make America Great Again" hat from another student amid a heated political discussion on campus.
Well, it turns out one of the arrested students is a senator on the campus government.
Student Senator Claudia Gasponi told KTBC-TV that campus police were a "threat" that day and "assaulted a lot of students" — including her.
"After they grabbed me, I pulled my arm away then two other officers grabbed me and started assaulting me more," she told the station. "They yelled at me to stop resisting, and I said, 'Resisting what? Am I under arrest?'"
It isn't clear which student captured on video during the dust-up is Gasponi. She was charged with resisting arrest, search, or transportation and interference with public duties, KTBC reported.
What's the background?
During last week's incident, one student in a light purple shirt was seen dropping and kicking another student's MAGA hat as campus police confront her about taking it.
While she's handcuffed, cops drop another student face down on the quad pavement as other students holler in protest and gather around the growing number of police.
A third student begins screaming and crying hysterically, trying to get past officers: "Don't f***ing touch her!"
As the pair of handcuffed students are led away, someone is heard off camera stating, "If that's not white privilege, I don't know what the f*** is."
As police led the arrested individuals through a building, the student who earlier was screaming and crying hysterically upped things quite a bit, getting in the MAGA-hat student's face and bellowing, "Get out! Why are you here?! Why are you here?! Leave!"
Then inside the campus police station, yet another leftist student wearing a bandanna over her face tried to get past police to one of the arrested students and actually appeared to bump chests with a cop.
She was immediately turned against a wall and handcuffed as she yelled, "Don't f***ing touch me! What crime are you suspecting me of committing?! Articulate it! Articulate it!"
The MAGA hat that sparked the Texas State arrests is the iconic symbol of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign — and it's more or less become kryptonite to leftists.
Here's video of the Texas State University dust-up. ( Content warning:Profanity):
Four arrested after student's MAGA hat is allegedly stolenyoutu.be
What happened after the incident?
The day after the arrests, students staged a sit-in and issued a list of demands, including sensitivity training for police.
"Part of it is just us feeling like the need to react immediately," student activist TeraLynn Steele told the University Star regarding the sit-in. "I think we were all just pissed and angry and in more of an exhaustion sort of manner. ... This was fear, this was pain, this was hurt. ... we were all really angry, but it was more from a place of annoyance more than anything else."
Between 50 and 60 students occupied a student center room beginning about 6 p.m. and stayed overnight, the paper said. Among their demands were mandatory sensitivity training for university police officers, the University Star reported in a separate story, adding that officers should be trained in de-escalation tactics and how to recognize and overcome biases against minority students. They also want an academic cultural diversity requirement for students, the paper added.
Texas State University Police Chief Laurie Clouse said an initial review indicates the officers in the MAGA hat incident acted appropriately with the goal of preventing further escalation, KTBC said.
But Gasponi disagreed, telling the station that the "text response from the police department ... is riddled with lies."
With that, Gasponi at a student government emergency meeting Wednesday night introduced legislation calling for the dissolution of the Texas State University police, Campus Reform said, adding that it did not pass.
What else do we know about Gasponi?
Last year, Gasponi was accused by a fellow student government official of vandalizing campus property, the University Star reported.
At an April 2018 student government meeting, an individual said Gasponi dyed a fountain red and and wrote "This is the blood of the survivors you ignore #BoycottTxst" in chalk along its borders on Bobcat Day April 7, which is an open house event geared toward prospective students, the paper said.
With that, Student Government President Connor Clegg — who was facing impeachment at the time — spoke up.
"I think that it's shameful that we have a senator in this room, Senator Gasponi, who wants to impeach me for not representing the will and the needs of the student body fairly and accurately while she will go out on campus and dye our fountains red and talk about the blood of the survivors," Clegg said, according to the University Star. "I am calling on you to resign."
Gasponi denied the allegations.
"I didn't know about any destruction of property at all," she told the paper. "Honestly, I think he's posturing. He knows that he is probably going to be impeached on Wednesday and is trying to drag me, the prosecuting senator, in any way that he can."
Clegg was soon impeached, the Austin Chronicle reported, adding that demands for his removal began in the fall 2017 after he called for the school to defund the University Star newspaper over a student op-ed directed at white people titled, "Your DNA is an abomination."
The student author was then banned by the paper, which said in a subsequent editorial that "we screwed up" and the "author of this column has jeopardized the atmosphere of inclusivity at this university."
But then student activists uncovered social media posts from Clegg that were deemed racist and offensive by university President Denise Trauth, the Chronicle reported, which increased calls for Clegg's impeachment.
