Mayhem and mischief appear to have run rampant at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill on Thursday.
According to Instagram, pictures posted by two fraternal groups, Old Row Official and Old Row UNC, show that UNC’s ROTC building had been trashed. The alleged perpetrators were pro-Palestine activists who are featured in the first and last photos in the album.
Around three hours after Old Row’s post, the official Twitter account of the University confirmed a disturbance, tweeting, “!Alert Carolina! Informational – Today (9/19), a demonstration on campus impacted operations. Police are monitoring campus. http://alertcarolina.unc.edu ”
In looking at the images, graffiti is sprayed across the outer facade of the building, including the front doors and pillars. One inscription says, “burn, riot.” Another graffiti says, “f**k it all.”
The second image shows a Palestinian flag hoisted on a flag pole near the ROTC building, where presumably an American or POW/MIA flag typically flies.
The third image shows the interior of the building, featuring a wall-mounted map of the United States with graffiti.
“Death to US,” it reads.
The next image shows a similar message on a wall.
“Death to UNC,” this graffiti reads.
The fifth image is of a cinderblock and tile wall. On the upper portion, someone spray-painted “Abolish Admin.”
Another inscription on a beam, this time scribbled in pen, says, “Death to UNC.”
The last image shows a group of protesters. Many are wearing COVID-era masks and are warmly dressed despite temperatures being near 80 today. The first and last images taken together reveal that someone had written “Israel Bombs, America Pays” on one of the doors.
Samuel Taylor, a second-year UNC law student, commented on the incident to The Dallas Express.
“Tired of getting alerts about individuals or groups, vandalizing campus, shooting on campus, and bringing weapons on the campus,” Taylor said.
He was partly referring to the incident in May of this year when several fraternity brothers shielded an American flag on campus with their bodies and prevented it from touching the ground as pro-Palestine protesters hurled things at them and tried to remove the flag.
Several brothers from Phi Delta Theta were invited to the Republican National Convention this summer, where they were honored. Contemporaneously, a GoFundMe titled “UNC Frat Bros Defended their Flag. Throw ’em a Rager” went up and raised $512,000.
The shooting Taylor referred to occurred in August of 2023 when Professor Zijie Yan was allegedly killed by one of his graduate students, Tailie Qi.
