A member of Antifa attempted to lock Republican students in a room while they were listening to a speaker but failed so spectacularly that he wound up in handcuffs himself.

According to KTTH the UW College Republicans were meeting in Thompson Hall to watch a guest speaker from YouTube channel Operation Cold Front. Emerald City Antifa apparently got wind of the event and decided it would try to take action with a call from its Facebook page.

Just a reminder to people at the UW that the Operation Cold Front crew (who you might remember from such antics as “It’s ok to be White” signs, transphobic harassment of students, posing as Black Lives Matter to ask for reparations, harassing people outside an abortion clinic, and more) will be having a speaking engagement at the UW June 3rd at 6pm in Thomson Hall rm 101. There’s space for 100 or so people, but for those who show up, some useful tactics might to sit in using large items that take up additional seats, maybe with headphones in so you don’t have to hear their garbage, or noise demo tactics such as whistles to make it difficult for them to speak over. They have recently put out some very ugly, transphobic material and were harrassing queer students at Evergreen, and we hope that we can take some time out this Pride Month to have our queer siblings backs, and not allow these assholes to have a platform. These people are Proud Boy chuds, and Proud Boy chud supporters, they have been caught on video yelling “yt power!” while harassing womxn, and have a history of harassing womxn (including one of the co-hosts who is an accused rapist). These people belong to the Him Too movement, an anti-MeToo, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, “traditionalist” Men’s Rights trash fire. They should not be on campus bothering students. So, if you’re able, show up to deplatform.

Apparently, the call went unanswered for the most part. The event went by pretty quietly with the speaker being uninterrupted. Near the end, however, one of the Republican students saw a man in black approach the door.

“I saw a guy in black approach the door but there had been no protest outside or anything so antifa wasn’t necessarily on my radar,” UWCR member Zach Wildfang told The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “He crouched down and immediately slapped his chain around the door.”

The chain made a racket as the Antifa member tried to wrap it around the handle and lock the Republicans inside.

“We heard the rattling from inside,” said UWCR president Chevy Swanson. “We looked to see through the window and see that someone was messing with the door. And it’s very clearly a chain being attached. So personally I ran up to the door and opened it on him, the chain fell to the ground, and he ran off, which is good because I much prefer not to be chained in a room with 30 other people indefinitely.”

As this happened a video camera was rolling. The moment the door is opened and the chain dropped, the college Republicans took off after the Antifa member who had fled the moment his plan failed.

The footage begins around the 50-minute mark.

“One of the other attendees of the event caught up to him and called the police and the police end up coming and arresting him,” said Swanson.

According to KTTH, the Antifa member was identified as 18-year-old Ezra Benner, who had reportedly shown up to previous Republican events but had never been disruptive.