WSU police arrest two people related to Charlie Kirk protest signs

Two young adults spent most of Thursday in the Whitman County Jail following their arrest on the Washington State University campus after officers found freshly glued posters objecting to the pending visit of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Charged with obstruction and malicious mischief was 26-year-old Jeremiah W. Paparazzo, who as of 2021 was the secretary of Spokane County Young Democrats. Also arrested on the same two misdemeanor charges was 21-year-old Alisa L. Bennett. Neither were current WSU students, and both listed addresses in Moscow.

WSU Police Chief Gary Jenkins said the charges stemmed from two things: allegations that they ran from police officers who were investigating the protest posters and time and cost to fix any potential damage caused by the glue used to post the signs on cement walls.

Jenkins said the case had nothing to do with Paparazzo’s and Bennett’s constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech.

“We do have rules about posting signs and where they can do it on campus,” Jenkins said. “If it is a violation of our school rules, we will just take them down and not pursue them criminally. But when it takes staff time and money to repair, that’s where it causes a problem.”

According to the Whitman County Jail, Paparazzo and Bennett were both held on $2,000 bonds. Both were booked Thursday morning and released some time after 4 p.m.

While they did not get into the specifics of the case, Bennett and Paparazzo both said in an interview that they felt they spent more time in jail than they should have for the alleged crime. Bennett said they were jailed from about 3 a.m. to just before 5 p.m. on Thursday.

“We were exercising our fundamental rights to express our view of a fascist takeover of our government,” she said. “An institution like WSU has an obligation to fight for our fundamental rights and support our young people.”

Paparazzo, who’s originally from Spokane, criticized the school’s handling of the incident.

“Inviting Charlie Kirk to speak with everything that Trump is doing is exactly the opposite of what we should expect from WSU,” he said.

According to Jenkins, the case started about 2:40 a.m. when a WSU Police officer found a sign glued to a cement wall near the Holland and Terrell Libraries on campus.

“The glue appeared to be wet. (The officer) radioed another officer and got on our camera system and saw some people in the area,” Jenkins said. The camera footage showed “three people gluing signs to surfaces.”

The officers then began to search campus, he said.

“They found three people and started chasing them. They ended up catching two. One was with the assistance of the Pullman Police Department,” Jenkins said.

The two arrested were identified as Bennett and Paparazzo, who were booked on the misdemeanor charges of malicious mischief for the glue and obstruction for running from the officers, Jenkins said.

The poster in question had a picture of Kirk with a circle and a slash through the photo. Under the photo was written: “White Supremacist Not Welcome at WSU,” Jenkins said.

Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, a right-wing nonprofit organization that for years has supported and had strong ties with President Donald Trump.

Kirk often makes himself available to debate students about his right-wing views on visits to dozens of campuses as part of his “You’re being brainwashed” tour.

But his visit to Pullman on Thursday was uneventful, Jenkins said, in that it caused no disturbances that required police interaction.

As for the anti-Kirk posters, Jenkins said the department continues to investigate after several more similar posters were placed days ago.

And the news could get worse for any suspects tied to those actions.

“We’ll pull up the videos and compare those,” Jenkins said. “If the damage ends up being more than $750, it would be a felony.”