University of Michigan police arrested a student on Sunday after officers watched her push conservative influencer Liz Benichou to the ground on the Diag, at a political gathering the department said had no permit.
Officers responded to the event at about 5 p.m. "As the group was packing up to leave, officers witnessed a University of Michigan student push a woman to the ground," the department told Newsweek. The student was taken into custody, processed and released pending warrant authorization, leaving a decision on charges still to be made. She has not been publicly identified.
The trouble started at a folding table where an online commentator sat with signs that read "Is Islam evil?" and asked whether Islam is compatible with Western values. In video described by Newsweek, the student walks up, demands to know where the group's permit is, calls the display stupid and claps in the man's face. She accused the people at the table of holding anti-Muslim views, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Bystanders joined the argument, and some remarked on the student's clothing, saying she would have to cover up in Iran. Benichou, who had come to campus with the conservative youth group Liberty Under Fire USA and was scheduled to speak that day, then asked what would happen to the student if she dressed that way in Iran.
The student dropped her phone, shoved Benichou to the ground with both hands and kicked at her. A young man pulled her away, but she broke free, slipped off her backpack and tried to reach Benichou again before a police officer and another man stepped in. The officer took her to the ground and into custody, Ynet reported, citing video obtained by Mediaite.
As she was led to a patrol car, the student shouted at Benichou that she should have killed her when she had the chance, Newsweek reported. Footage of the confrontation and the arrest spread widely on social media, two days before the midterm elections.
Police accounts of the injuries have not lined up. In a statement quoted by the Daily Mail, the department said no injuries were reported. In its statement to Newsweek, it said the woman, who is not affiliated with the university, later sought medical treatment. Taylor Sharp, Benichou's manager and the chief executive of Liberty Under Fire USA, told Mediaite that Benichou hurt her lower back in the fall and intends to pursue criminal charges.
Benichou wrote afterward that she had been "physically assaulted simply for showing up and exercising my First Amendment rights." She thanked the officers who stepped in and said she was safe and receiving care. "Political violence has no place in the United States of America," she wrote. "If the intention was to intimidate or silence me, it will not work."