Professor teaching class on vigilante justice is pepper-sprayed by vigilante seeking justice 
 
 By Scott Kaufman 
 
 Thursday, March 27, 2014 8:52 EDT 
 
 Yesterday, George Mason economist and popular blogger Tyler Cowen was pepper-sprayed and placed under citizen’s arrest by an unknown white male while teaching a class on the literature of vigilante justice. 
 
 According to police, around 3 p.m. on Wednesday a man entered the classroom and attempted to place Cowen under citizen’s arrest. The unidentified suspect entered the seminar room, jumped on the table, declared he was making a citizen’s arrest, and pepper-sprayed the professor. 
 
 Cowen ran into the hallway, and the suspect followed him. Two students in the hallway immediately detained the intruder until police arrived. 
 
 Students in the class itself were slow to react, because the course in session was on law and literature, and they were in the middle of a unit about vigilante justice, so the students assumed that the arrest was part of the class. 
 
 Cowen refused medical treatment, and tweeted the following shortly after the attack: 
 
 Back to work! (as usual)… — tylercowen (@tylercowen) March 26, 2014 
 
 Police are not sure why the Cowen was targeted, but commenters on the first story to report on the incident suggest that it could be because of the libertarian beliefs he advocates online. 
 
 Watch a report on the incident from WJLA below. 
 
 [Image via Cowen's faculty profile at George Mason University] ||||| STORRS, Conn. (AP) — A conservative commentator was arrested at the University of Connecticut Tuesday night after a fight broke out during his speech titled "It's OK To Be White." 
 
 Lucian Wintrich's speech was cut short when a young woman in the audience appeared to take paperwork off the lectern he was using and then began to leave. 
 
 Cellphone videos posted on Twitter show Wintrich running up to the woman and grabbing her before other audience members get involved. 
 
 Police quickly stepped in and led Wintrich away. He was charged with breach of peace and later released. 
 
 Wintrich took to Twitter early Wednesday to blame UConn students for being "violent and disruptive." 
 
 "It's really unfortunate that some of the kids at @UConn felt the need to be violent and disruptive during a speech that focused on how the leftist media is turning Americans against each other," he wrote. "Tonight proved my point." 
 
 UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said a student was charged with breach of peace and criminal mischief for allegedly breaking a window as people were leaving the event. 
 
 Reitz said that student was not charged in connection with a smoke bomb that was thrown inside. That remained under investigation. She said police were reviewing videos "to determine if any additional charges or arrests of others are warranted." 
 
 Wintrich is the White House correspondent for the right-wing blog Gateway Pundit, which said the talk would be about "identity politics" in today's cultural and political landscape. 
 
 UConn's College Republicans student group sponsored Tuesday night's event, which was repeatedly interrupted by people in the audience booing and chanting before the altercation. 
 
 "UConn does not bar speakers on the basis of content. Free speech, like academic freedom, is one of the university's bedrock principles," Reitz said. 
 
 UConn President Susan Herbst called it "a very disappointing evening." 
 
 "We live in a tense and angry time of deep political division. Our hope as educators is that creative leadership and intellectual energy can be an antidote to that sickness, especially on university campuses," Herbst said. "Between the offensive remarks by the speaker who also appeared to aggressively grab an audience member and the reckless vandalism that followed, that was certainly not the case on our campus tonight. We are better than this." 
 
 Campus police said beforehand that they would be taking measures to ensure public safety. 
 
 The College Republicans said flyers advertising the event had been torn down or defaced across campus. 
 
 UConn's College Democrats said they were sponsoring a discussion before the speech so activists from across the campus community could express their views.
– Imagine you're in the middle of law class lecture on vigilantes, when a man bursts in, jumps on a desk, announces that he's making a "citizen's arrest," and then pepper sprays the professor. Because that's exactly what happened at George Mason University yesterday, and no, it wasn't a planned part of the lecture. The professor, popular libertarian economics blogger and occasional New York Times columnist Tyler Cowen, ran into the hall, and the intruder chased him, ABC 7 reports. Luckily, a student in the class was an off-duty police officer, and chased down the pepper sprayer, catching him at a building exit. Multiple charges are now pending against the sprayer. Twelve to 15 people, including Cowen, were treated for breathing issues, but Cowen was soon well enough to tweet that he was back to work, Raw Story points out.