A University of California San Diego student took it upon himself to honor Kate Steinle — the young woman fatally shot by an illegal immigrant felon in sanctuary city San Francisco in 2015 — by hanging 150 posters of her on campus Dec. 7.
The posters showed an image of Steinle smiling along with the words, “She had dreams too."
Image source: Facebook video screenshot
Gregory Lu told The College Fix that an investigator from the school's Office for the Prevention of Harassment & Discrimination emailed him four days later.
“Our office received an online incident report and I would like to schedule a time to speak with you about it," the email read, the outlet reported. "Are you free this week by phone or in person."
Lu told The Fix that he's seeking more information about the meeting and has contacted an attorney and that it all sure does smell of harassment — against him.
“This is definitely an intimidation attempt in trying to get students to make sure they never do this again,” Lu told the outlet, adding that he noticed students following and watching him as he hung the posters.
Lu added to The Fix that the office's probe is a "threat" and that "conservatives on this campus already have a hard time. For this to happen — it’s almost a violation of our free speech rights.”
UC San Diego’s spokesman and the investigator from the bias office didn't respond to The College Fix's requests for comment Monday and Tuesday, the outlet said.
And wouldn't you know that the day after he hung the Steinle posters they were all gone, Lu told The Fix.
Image source: Facebook video screenshot
The same day the Office for the Prevention of Harassment & Discrimination emailed him, the UC San Diego College Democrats posted a message of their own on Facebook.
The statement never mentions Steinle's name but does call attention to the "Racist Flyerings on Campus," characterizing them as "racist propaganda” and “displays of hate" against the “undocumented community."
Image source: Facebook video screenshot
“We have had a bunch of left-wing posters go up all the time,” he countered to The Fix about the climate on campus. “So the argument they might make is, ‘This is a political poster, we don’t want you to put it up’ is a nonsensical argument because leftists put up posters all the time.”
Lu is a member of the College Republicans but added to the outlet that the posters he put up were connected to a new group called Right Wing West.
The outfit hung similar Steinle posters on several other West Coast campuses recently. A video on the group's Facebook page indicates they were hung at UC Riverside, CSU San Marcos, UCLA, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Washington State, University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, San Diego State and, of course, UC San Diego.
The clip shows two people in the process of tearing down those same posters and being confronted about their actions:
“The media and our politicians want to erase Kate’s name and story from history,” the Right Wing West notes on Facebook. “It’s on us to speak the name of America’s lost daughter: Kate Steinle. #EndSanctuaryCities.”
Students at UC Berkeley recently vandalized a memorial for Steinle, ripping a poster of her and trashing it.
Lu told The Fix he wants to fight back with "the alternative narrative."
“On a college campus, the narrative is pretty left-wing," he added to the outlet. "We wanted to put something up that said, ‘We denounce the verdict, we want to shine light upon this issue.'”
