A North Carolina student has responded after he and several of his college friends were seen protecting an American flag from a “Marxist horde” on their campus while getting assaulted by the mob of pro-Hamas protesters.
One of the patriotic students, Dan Stompel, said the protesters would have had to yank the flag from him over his “dead body.”
Anti-Israel protesters targeted the American flag on The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s quad on Tuesday.
The flag had been flying at half-mast after four Charlotte officers were killed in the line of duty.
At one point, the anti-Israel protesters tore down Old Glory and replaced it with a Palestinian flag.
However, this move enraged patriotic students and inspired members of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity to take action.
“I don’t understand how people can act like this,” said Stompel, a junior studying political science at the university.
Stompel was one of over a few dozen students who stood up to a huge mob of hundreds as they tried to desecrate the American flag.
In response, Stompel and his fellow classmates surrounded the flag and held onto to it for over an hour until police were able to clear the protest and safely hoist it back onto the flagpole.
All the while, the students experienced profanity and middle fingers from protesters.
They were also physically assaulted as protesters threw bottles, rocks, and water at them.
“We’re looking at every direction,” Stompel said in an interview with Fox News.
“If stuff was flying in, we would say, ‘Heads up.’
“We would cover each other.
“We would look out for other people…
“And it did hurt our arms.
“It was like an ‘arm day’ [workout] for me that day.
“There was no gym happening that day afterward.
“It was exhausting. It was a beautiful moment.”
“It shows that…based on the people there, nice, normal, strong boys protecting America’s flag,” he added.
“There’s nothing more patriotic, nothing more genuine, nothing more inspiring than that.”
At one point, the junior made a “joke” about how they would respond if the mob tried to stop them.
“I was like, ‘I’d die for this flag.’ And everybody was like, ‘Yeah.’ If they got any closer then we’re going to start throwing hands,” he said.
“We’re not going anywhere, I don’t care.
“They’re going to have to tear me off this flag over my dead body,” Stompel said.
A GoFundMe created for Chapel Hill’s Pi Kappa Phi chapter has raised more than $265,000 as of Wednesday evening “to throw this frat the party they deserve.”
“Commie losers across the country have invaded college campuses to make dumb demands of weak University Administrators,” the GoFundMe page said.
“But amidst the chaos, the screaming, the anti-semitism, the hatred of faith and flag, stood a platoon of American heroes… [who] protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde.”
Stompel also gave some advice for other proud Americans who are faced with radical protesters.
“Don’t bend the knee to these people,” Stompel said.
“They want to take over.
“They want to just destroy what this country stands for, bring their own twisted ideology into every orifice of this country.
“And don’t let them do that.
“If it really took, like, 30 dudes to stop thousands of people because we take a stand because we don’t let it slide…
“If you genuinely believe in something, no other person who’s kind of wishy-washy on an issue can question you.”
“So take a stand. Be a man. Take a stand,” he added.
WATCH:
The protests at Chapel Hill come as students at elite schools across the country protest against Israel and in support of Gaza amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Activists have been setting up encampments on campuses, occupying buildings, clashing with law enforcement, and resisting arrest.
The protests began at Columbia University and have since spread across the country to schools everywhere from Massachusetts to Tennessee, Texas to California.
The Republican club, which also partook in the event, said:
“All members of the UNC College Republicans were disgusted and appalled when witnessing the removal of the American flag and its replacement with the Palestinian flag.”
“Brave students saw their nation’s flag being disrespected and acted swiftly,” the club said.
