The College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has positioned a professor who's a member of a far-left gun membership on administrative depart.
“The College of North Carolina has knowledgeable Dr. Dwayne Dixon, professor of Asian and Center Jap Research, that he has been positioned on administrative depart, efficient instantly, following current reviews and expressions of concern concerning alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence,” Vice Chancellor for Advertising and marketing and Communications Dean Stoyer mentioned in a press release to Fox Information Digital Monday afternoon. “Inserting Dr. Dixon on depart will enable the College to research these allegations in a fashion that protects the integrity of its evaluation.
“Relying upon the character and circumstances of this exercise, this conduct could possibly be grounds for disciplinary motion as much as and together with potential termination of employment in keeping with the requirements set forth within the Trustee Insurance policies and Rules Governing Tutorial Tenure within the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and pursuant to UNC observe,” the assertion continued.
“At the moment, the full size of the executive depart has not been decided, as it should rely on the time wanted to completely assess the allegations and examine if wanted.
“The College continues to reaffirm its dedication to rigorous debate, respectful engagement and open dialogue in help of free speech. There is no such thing as a place for or tolerance of inciting or extending sympathy towards violence of any form throughout the UNC neighborhood,” the assertion concluded.
Dixon is an Asian and Center Jap Research professor on the college, in keeping with his biography page. He's additionally a self-professed member of Redneck Revolt's Silver Valley chapter, the group's web site reveals.
Redneck Revolt is a gun membership described by the Counter Extremism Venture as a “far-left group” that “stands towards capitalism and the idea of the nation-state, together with its symbols resembling police, prisons, and courts.”
In 2017, Dixon rallied with different far-left demonstrators in Durham, North Carolina, in keeping with the Herald Sun. The rally was billed as an anti-KKK occasion, however the KKK was not there. Dixon was armed that day, accused of serving to block public roadways “whereas armed with a semi-automatic weapon rifle able to firing a number of photographs inside seconds, which upon observance by members of the general public brought on alarm and issues for security.”
He was charged with having a weapon at a public meeting or rally and going armed to the phobia of individuals, each misdemeanors. These costs had been finally dropped.
Dixon and several other different members of Redneck Revolt had been additionally current on the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. That rally ended when James Fields, now a convicted assassin, plowed by a crowd together with his automobile, killing a lady named Heather Heyer.
Later, throughout a panel hosted by Harvard University, Dixon mentioned Fields “sluggish rolled” previous him in his automobile a number of instances.
“One time he paused proper in entrance of me, and I waved him off with my rifle,” Dixon mentioned. “In his final go he accelerated and a block away he killed Heather.”
Redneck Revolt, together with a couple of dozen right-wing teams, had been sued by the town of Charlottesville and personal enterprise homeowners in the neighborhood. The teams had been accused of breaking an anti-paramilitary legislation, a legislation that prohibits “falsely assuming the position of legislation enforcement” and a public nuisance legislation.
Redneck Revolt later entered right into a consent decree with the town to keep away from a trial.
“The choose's resolution earlier this week to disclaim the movement to dismiss meant that the case would go to trial,” in keeping with a post on the group's website. “Additional, that meant that members of Redneck Revolt would must be deposed, and that hundreds of {dollars} would must be spent on the authorized protection.”
The group was represented by a high-powered, progressive New York Metropolis nonprofit, the Nationwide Lawyer's Guild, and described the go well with as “harassment” and “state repression of anti-racist activists.”
In 2018, Dixon was charged with easy assault stemming from unrest on the night time {that a} Accomplice monument, a statue often known as Silent Sam, was forcibly toppled by left-wing rioters on UNC's campus, according to WRAL. That cost was later dismissed.
In response to the Counter Extremism Venture, Redneck Revolt is “an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Membership,” which just lately made headlines for posting recruiting flyers at Georgetown College that celebrated the assassination of conservative commentator and Turning Level USA founder Charlie Kirk.
“Hey fascist! Catch this!” the flyer mentioned, a nod to writing that was allegedly written on bullet casings by Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk's assassination.
“The one political group that celebrates when Nazis die,” the commercial mentioned.
A QR code on the flyer led to a web page that learn, “We're constructing a neighborhood that's achieved with ceremonial resistance and strongly worded letters. If you wish to make an actual change in your neighborhood, tell us beneath.”
The John Brown Gun Membership has an intensive historical past of political violence.
Earlier this yr, 12 individuals had been charged after an assault on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas.
One of many suspects was Benjamin Track, a long-time Antifa agitator, who was charged with three counts of tried homicide of federal brokers along with three counts of discharging a firearm.
He was recognized as a member of the John Brown Gun Membership when he was sued in 2023 by a right-wing group referred to as the New Columbia Motion.
That group alleged that Track was offering safety at a drag occasion in Fort Price as a member of the John Brown Gun Membership's Elm Fork Chapter. He was accused of pepper spraying members of the group, however by no means charged criminally.
One other John Brown Gun Membership member, Willem van Spronsen, was killed by authorities in 2019 when he tried to explode an ICE detention heart by igniting a propane tank and throwing Molotov cocktails on the constructing.
He left behind a manifesto that mentioned, “I'm Antifa,” and was hailed by fellow left-wing agitators as a “martyr” and hero of the motion.
