A mob of approximately thirty radical leftist protesters, many in black masks, ambushed and physically assaulted Middlebury College professor Allison Stanger and American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray on Thursday night after Murray's lecture at the Vermont-based institution was cut short due to disruptions from student protesters.
Professor injured by unruly mob
The Vermont news website, Seven Days, reports that Professor Allison Stanger received neck injuries after a protester yanked her hair as she attempted to shield the conservative speaker from the angry mob outside the McCullough Student Center.
Bill Burger, vice president of communications at Middlebury College, told Seven Days that the crowd was comprised of both students and "outside agitators" who wore masks as they screamed at the conservative speaker, who is best known as the author of the 1994 best-seller, "The Bell Curve".
"This was an incredibly violent confrontation," said Burger to Seven Days.
Although protesters attempted to prevent Murray from leaving by placing a cement-bottomed road sign in front of his car and jumping on top of the vehicle, he was able to flee from the mob without serious injury. Professor Stanger, however, now has to wear a neck brace.
The incident started after Murray's lecture at Wilson Hall was repeatedly interrupted by a crowd of students who shouted at him for roughly twenty-five minutes.
School officials then decided to move Murray to a private room and stream the video of his speech. However, students continued to disrupt the event and the lecture was cut short.
According to Burger, approximately thirty minutes later Murray and Stanger -- who is an economics and international politics professor at Middlebury College -- tried to leave the building through a rear entrance.
The mob was waiting for them and, although Murray and Stanger were escorted by three campus officials, the angry protesters swarmed the group and assaulted Stanger, who was attempting to shield the speaker with her own body.
On Thursday night administrators held an emergency conference call to discuss possible disciplinary actions against the students involved in the attack.
Although the Middlebury Police Department investigated the incident, no arrests have been made.
Liberal mobs attacking conservatives from coast to coast
The violence at Middlebury College is the latest in a rash of campus clashes in which radical left-wing demonstrators have targeted conservatives. In February, a riot broke out at UC Berkeley on the night former Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulis was scheduled to speak, resulting in significant property damage to the school's student center. A female Yiannopoulis supporter was pepper-sprayed in the face by a protester during the melee. The following week a professor at Cal State Fullerton was arrested after punching a student belonging to the school's Republican club in the face during an anti-Trump rally.
