Campus Political Violence

University of Utah student Dean Stewart was arrested Jan. 12, 2026 and charged with disorderly conduct, making threats and disobeying a lawful order after, witnesses say, he verbally abused conservative students, threatened to "Kirk" them — a reference to the 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk — and mimicked firing a rifle while standing in front of campus police. Conservative student Riley Beesley gave a first‑person account saying Stewart called them "Nazis," "fascists" and "pigs," made explicit death threats, and positioned himself before officers before they moved in to detain him.