Fraternity Refuses to Condemn Student Who Harassed Conservative Woman on Campus
Brian Butterfield, an economics student at the University of Akron, approached conservative reporter Kaitlin Bennett on his campus last Monday claiming to be a big supporter. Butterfield, who is a fraternity brother in Akron’s Phi Kappa Tau chapter, lied to Bennett about being a supporter so he could take a selfie with her.
“Hey, sorry, I’m a big fan. Can I get a selfie with you?” asked Butterfield as he approached Bennett.
Hesitant that he was likely lying about being a supporter, Bennett initially declined taking a selfie, and asked him to do an interview first instead.
After the interview, Butterfield once more asked if he could take a selfie, and Bennett obliged. However Butterfield again lied, and promptly hit record on his phone to capture himself on film harassing Bennett.
“Hi everyone, I’m here with Kaitlin Bennett, a.k.a. gun girl, right? Is it true that you shit yourself at a Kent State party?”
Bennett responded “It’s not. Is it true you just lied to me?”
Butterfield then looks into his camera and says, “She’s lying, she’s lying!” He then runs off on foot in a personal moment of accomplishment, as Bennett yells back, “You’re very manly. What big balls you must have.”
Butterfield’s video was uploaded to an Instagram and Twitter account called 5thyear, which is run by the website Barstool Sports.
Bennett uploaded the full video onto YouTube exposing Butterfield’s harassment of conservatives and quickness to run away after she called him out in a lie. In the video, Bennett explains how the rumor was started by Buffalo liberal Ryan Yeates (@ryanyeetz on Twitter), who blocked Bennett on Twitter so she could not respond after he defamed her to his 255k followers.
After even Democrats at Kent State shot down the rumor, Yeates and other leftists online continued to run with the lie because they wanted to ruin Bennett’s public image. Brian Butterfield was one such student who sought to tear down Bennett for his own gain. In a message to her fiance, Butterfield said he lied to Bennett because “anything is worth it for the memes”.
Butterfield and Phi Kappa Tau Social and Recruitment Chair, Daniel Baldwin, took to Instagram to further lie about Bennett. They claimed that Bennett yelled, “You know I carry, right?” as Butterfield ran away. Baldwin claims Bennett yelled this right after Butterfield cut his video, but Bennett’s clip shows a different story.
In her YouTube video, Bennett made a phone call to Butterfield’s fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau, to ask if they condone their behavior. Bennett was directed to Tristan Conway, who would not confirm or deny that he saw the video of Butterfield harassing her. The fraternity claims that they “develop men of character into men of distinction”, but Conway refused to give a simple yes or no to Bennett about whether harassing a woman was pursuant to their mission statement.
Conway instead asked for Bennett’s email and said she would receive a comment by the end of the next day. But almost a week later, she has still not received an email.
Butterfield, Baldwin, Conway, and the University of Akron Phi Kappa Tau chapter all made their Twitter accounts private after the incident, instead of apologizing and condemning Butterfield’s behavior. Meanwhile, all follow-up calls to Phi Kappa Tau’s national office are now being directed to the CEO, Tim Hudson. However even he has not made a comment on the incident, and all calls have been sent to his voicemail.
In the wake of the incident, Butterfield updated his Twitter biography to read “lol stop harassing my family and loved ones.” But since Butterfield defamed her on Instagram and Twitter, Bennett has endured harassment from multiple students at other universities that have tried mimicking Butterfield’s video. Three men at Kent State University approached Bennett in the same fashion, and the 5thyear Instagram/Twitter account once again posted a student’s video to their social media accounts to attack Bennett.
View this post on InstagramLots of people are saying that the gun girl pooped her pants. @barstool_ksu
As of writing this story, no one from Phi Kappa Tau has responded to Liberty Hangout’s multiple requests for comments.
UPDATE: It has been reported that Phi Kappa Tau has taken to blocking anyone that comments this article on their Facebook page.
