Liz Benichou, a conservative Jewish activist, was tabling at the University of Michigan on November 1 for an event titled "Is Islam Compatible with the West?" By the end of it, she had an injured lower back and a student screaming at her as police dragged the attacker away: "I should've f—ing killed you when I had the chance."
Five days later, the university hasn't suspended anyone.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley went public with a demand: "Universities will often delay any final action pending a criminal case, but Michigan should immediately suspend this student pending further investigation." Turley called the video evidence damning. "The videotape shows a violent and unstable student," he wrote. "The university must, first and foremost, protect the community. The most obvious charge would be assault and battery."
Joe Redden, a member of Liberty Under Fire USA who was present at the tabling event, described how fast the situation deteriorated. "She seemed to be joking around at first," he told The College Fix. "So we were already in the process of tearing down when she got up close and smacked me with a phone." Then: "It just devolved into violence so fast."
The student was arrested, processed, and released. The case has been forwarded to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office for review. Deputy Chief of Police Melissa Overton offered the university's standard line: "We do not release names until an individual is arraigned." As of November 2, no charges had been announced.
Redden isn't waiting on the university to act. "We are definitely exploring our options from a civil point of view," he said. And then the part that should make every administrator in Ann Arbor uncomfortable: "If they're going to continue to not hold these people accountable for what they're doing, then there's not going to be any consequences."
University of Michigan Board of Regents member Sarah Hubbard weighed in publicly: "Violence is wrong no matter where it happens. But I happen to be on the governing board of the University of Michigan and violence on our campus is especially concerning to me." A regent saying the quiet part out loud — the institution she governs isn't moving fast enough.
Turley drove the larger point home: "The incident also should cause a degree of serious reflection about the culture and environment fostered on these campuses." That's a tenured law professor at a major university telling another major university that its campus culture produced a student who physically attacked a Jewish woman for holding the wrong opinions and then threatened to kill her as she was being arrested.
The tabling event didn't even have a university permit. It was an informal setup. Benichou and Redden weren't disrupting anything. They were standing behind a table with a sign. The student chose violence over walking past.
Turley's demand puts a name and a credential behind what everyone watching the video already knew. The university can suspend a student pending investigation — it has the authority, and the video provides the evidence. Choosing not to act isn't caution. It's a decision. And the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office now gets to make its own decision with a death threat on camera as exhibit A.
"I should've f—ing killed you when I had the chance." That was shouted at a Jewish conservative activist on a public university campus in 2026. The student who said it is currently enrolled.