The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has placed a professor who is a member of a far-left gun club on administrative leave.
“The University of North Carolina has informed Dr. Dwayne Dixon, professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, that he has been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, following recent reports and expressions of concern regarding alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence,” Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications Dean Stoyer said in a statement to Fox News Digital Monday afternoon. “Placing Dr. Dixon on leave will allow the University to investigate these allegations in a manner that protects the integrity of its assessment.
“Depending upon the nature and circumstances of this activity, this conduct could be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including potential termination of employment according to the standards set forth in the Trustee Policies and Regulations Governing Academic Tenure in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and pursuant to UNC practice,” the statement continued.
“At this time, the total length of the administrative leave has not been determined, as it will depend on the time needed to thoroughly assess the allegations and investigate if needed.
“The University continues to reaffirm its commitment to rigorous debate, respectful engagement and open dialogue in support of free speech. There is no place for or tolerance of inciting or extending sympathy toward violence of any kind within the UNC community,” the statement concluded.
Dixon is an Asian and Middle Eastern Studies professor at the university, according to his biography page. He is also a self-professed member of Redneck Revolt’s Silver Valley chapter, the group’s website shows.
Redneck Revolt is a gun club described by the Counter Extremism Project as a “far-left group” that “stands against capitalism and the concept of the nation-state, including its symbols such as police, prisons, and courts.”
In 2017, Dixon rallied with other far-left demonstrators in Durham, North Carolina, according to the Herald Sun. The rally was billed as an anti-KKK event, but the KKK was not there. Dixon was armed that day, accused of helping block public roadways “while armed with a semi-automatic weapon rifle capable of firing multiple shots within seconds, which upon observance by members of the public caused alarm and concerns for safety.”
He was charged with having a weapon at a public assembly or rally and going armed to the terror of people, both misdemeanors. Those charges were eventually dropped.
Dixon and several other members of Redneck Revolt were also present at the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. That rally ended when James Fields, now a convicted murderer, plowed through a crowd with his vehicle, killing a woman named Heather Heyer.
Later, during a panel hosted by Harvard University, Dixon said Fields “slow rolled” past him in his vehicle several times.
“One time he paused right in front of me, and I waved him off with my rifle,” Dixon said. “In his last pass he accelerated and a block away he killed Heather.”
Redneck Revolt, along with about a dozen right-wing groups, were sued by the city of Charlottesville and private business owners in the community. The groups were accused of breaking an anti-paramilitary law, a law that prohibits “falsely assuming the role of law enforcement” and a public nuisance law.
Redneck Revolt later entered into a consent decree with the city to avoid a trial.
“The judge’s decision earlier this week to deny the motion to dismiss meant that the case would go to trial,” according to a post on the group’s website. “Further, that meant that members of Redneck Revolt would need to be deposed, and that thousands of dollars would need to be spent on the legal defense.”
The group was represented by a high-powered, progressive New York City nonprofit, the National Lawyer’s Guild, and described the suit as “harassment” and “state repression of anti-racist activists.”
In 2018, Dixon was charged with simple assault stemming from unrest on the night that a Confederate monument, a statue known as Silent Sam, was forcibly toppled by left-wing rioters on UNC’s campus, according to WRAL. That charge was later dismissed.
According to the Counter Extremism Project, Redneck Revolt is “an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club,” which recently made headlines for posting recruiting flyers at Georgetown University that celebrated the assassination of conservative commentator and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
“Hey fascist! Catch this!” the flyer said, a nod to writing that was allegedly written on bullet casings by Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk’s assassination.
“The only political group that celebrates when Nazis die,” the advertisement said.
A QR code on the flyer led to a page that read, “We’re building a community that’s done with ceremonial resistance and strongly worded letters. If you want to make a real change in your community, let us know below.”
The John Brown Gun Club has an extensive history of political violence.
Earlier this year, 12 people were charged after an attack on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas.
One of the suspects was Benjamin Song, a long-time Antifa agitator, who was charged with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents in addition to three counts of discharging a firearm.
He was identified as a member of the John Brown Gun Club when he was sued in 2023 by a right-wing group called the New Columbia Movement.
That group alleged that Song was providing security at a drag event in Fort Worth as a member of the John Brown Gun Club’s Elm Fork Chapter. He was accused of pepper spraying members of the group, but never charged criminally.
Another John Brown Gun Club member, Willem van Spronsen, was killed by authorities in 2019 when he tried to blow up an ICE detention center by igniting a propane tank and throwing Molotov cocktails at the building.
He left behind a manifesto that said, “I am Antifa,” and was hailed by fellow left-wing agitators as a “martyr” and hero of the movement.
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