Mississippi Man Arrested After He Shouts ‘F*** the Jews,’ Throws Coins at Dave Portnoy
“I mean, occasionally you get ‘Hey k**e’ or ‘Jew’ or whatever. … [But] It’s every day now. There’s a definitive shift in what’s going on. … People are coming in with real hate.”
A college student allegedly shouted “F*** the Jews” and threw coins at Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy outside a pizzeria in Starkville, Mississippi, on Friday. The outburst occurred while Portnoy was filming a “One Bite” pizza review.
According to The New York Post, Patrick McClintock, 20, a mechanical engineering student at Mississippi State University, was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace on Monday. He withdrew from the university the same day.
In a video circulating on X, the man can be heard making the antisemitic remark. Members of the crowd immediately condemn the slur as Portnoy turns toward the heckler and says, “Why don’t you come in the camera, buddy?”
🚨BREAKING: A man who threw coins and shouted "f**k the Jews" at Dave Portnoy outside a Mississippi pizza shop has been charged, TMZ reports.
20-year-old Patrick McClintock faces a "disturbing the peace" charge. pic.twitter.com/hiQ4O41JxK
— Awesome Jew (@Awesome_Jew_) November 10, 2025
The same slur was directed at Portnoy during a pizza review in Toronto, Canada, in June. The remark can be heard around the three-minute mark in the video below.
Barstool Pizza Review – Terrazza (Toronto, ON) pic.twitter.com/rQw3Y3dQ1p
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) June 2, 2025
During an interview with CBS News that aired on Sunday, Portnoy told anchor Tony Dokoupil that he encounters antisemitic attacks “every day” and said it wasn’t always this way.
I’ve seen in my own experience, just being Barstool, the difference between how much hate I get. I never got — I mean, occasionally you get ‘Hey k**e’ or ‘Jew’ or whatever.
[But] It’s every day now. There’s a definitive shift in what’s going on.
This is not normal ‘haha’ with the guys. People are coming in with real hate.
Just days ago, Barstool’s Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) was recording a pizza review in Mississippi, when a passerby shouted an antisemitic comment and the interaction was caught on camera.
In an interview with @CBSSunday airing next weekend, Portnoy tells @tonydokoupil that… pic.twitter.com/JZirLahp0X
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 9, 2025
While McClintock’s words were reprehensible, few X users came to Portnoy’s defense. Instead, much of the online debate over the incident has focused on his arrest.
The following X posts are representative of the conversation that ensued on social media.
Attaching one of Charlie Kirk’s posts in which he defends hate speech noting that “ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment,” one X user asks, “do you think having Americans arrested for using their first amendment rights (yes that includes offensive speech) helps or hurts your cause?”
Honest question: do you think having Americans arrested for using their first amendment rights (yes that includes offensive speech) helps or hurst your cause? pic.twitter.com/QbN9bmMmco
— Paulina Plazas (@paulinaplazas) November 11, 2025
@grok isn’t offensive speech protected by the first amendment? Even if it’s racially charged, (e.g., Cohen v. California 1971)
The yell was not directed at portnoy(face to face), it was an outburst.— Miro (@GodlyRH) November 11, 2025
It’s worth noting that if any one of us hurled a similar slur at a Muslim or a black individual, the backlash would be swift and severe.
But McClintock wasn’t charged with hate speech; he was charged with disturbing the peace.
Under Mississippi law, “disturbing the peace” includes using profane or offensive language or loud conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace (Miss. Code § 97-35-7). According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, similar laws are meant to preserve public order rather than restrict speech.
McClintock disrupted a public event by using language that was both profane and offensive. His words were loud and it sure looked like he intended to interfere with a public event.
While critics argue that McClintock’s offense was minor, disturbing the peace is a minor charge. It’s a low-level criminal charge that is usually classified as a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine, community service, or a short time in jail.
If people were allowed to disrupt public events (as McClintock clearly did) with impunity, civil society would eventually begin to unravel. While I realize that liberals have a long history of defending protesters — even when they cross the line into criminal behavior, rules of conduct exist not to suppress free expression but to preserve the conditions that make it possible — mutual respect, order, and accountability.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
A college student? That tells me all I need to know.
What makes it so disheartening, this is not a studies major. This is somebody with a real honest to God STEM major.
A sad state of affairs.
Five percent of STEM majors don’t know what planet they are on.
One wonders how well he was doing. He withdrew from the U the same day. Suggests he felt that he didn’t have much to lose. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on Jewish students doing a lot better than he was doing.
In most states throwing something at another person would be an assault. If that object struck a person there would be a crime of battery. In most cases the charges would be criminal misdemeanors.
ex-college student now,
By his own choice.
A College student yes, but not an American Mississippi State University student, that’s odd.
I
Disturbing the peace is an appropriate charge.
I also wouldn’t lose any sleep if he got the crap beaten out of him. Of course that’s illegal even if warranted.
I would rather see an assault charge ( vs disturbing the peace) come his way b/c of his throwing an object(s)
as THAT would/could cause the fear of imminent harm let alone if others joined in with frat boy
yeah I dont like the catch-all of disturbing the peace as saying you have the right to say bad words but you will be arrested for it
his throwing an object(s) should get him 30+ days in jail and a civil lawsuit against him should have him cough up another 10k
as we know any “wrong looks” towards a muslim /black etc would certainly be met with jan 6 like derision and maybe some like jail time
btw,,where did the lefty get his college money from??
It wasn’t so much his speech but his having disrupted a public event.
who here would be claiming disturbing the peace when protesters shouted “F*#k Joe Biden”?
and this typical 5th grade world view that lefty has :
charile kirk said if some people have to die for the second amendment ……..
and the hate speech statement as noted in the article
kirk isnt saying he wants people to be murdered etc
so these lefty imbeciles are stuck with their continued lies so that their fellow pedos can back slap them at the next peaceful protest
which 5th grade lefty says are just peaceful protests
how the f did we allow these losers to be in charge!!?!?!?!?!!?!
“…… one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.”
For the people that downvoted my comment, you may not realize that the quote is from the free speech case of “Cohen v. California.” Cohen was arrested after walking through a courthouse with “F**K THE DRAFT on his jacket. (no asterisks.) He was arrested and charged with “maliciously and willfully disturb[ing] the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or person . . . by . . . offensive conduct. . . .”
The Court overturned Cohen’s conviction.
There Justice Harlan wrote:
The quote in the previous comment did not support what the man said, but rather his right to say what he said. The government should not (and does not) have the authority to determine what is “good” or what is “offensive.”
People are free to disagree with that, but imagine walking through Dearborn, Michigan verbally expressing “F**K MOHAMMAD!”
Would you support being arrested for that? Would you support an arrest for someone “insulting the prophet?” And someone being “offended by that “insult?”
Justice Harlan got it right……..“…… one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.”
I guess there is “preferred” hate speech as determined by the left. Otherwise it is free speech.
No, there is not. And it wasn’t the left that arrested this guy.
“The yell was not directed at portnoy(face to face), it was an outburst.”
So who were the coins directed at?
“He withdrew from the university the same day.”
So I’m suspecting that his outburst was probably NOT the start of this dude’s bad day/week.
I am from Louisiana, went to LSU.
Many friends went to Mississippi State.
He withdrew from the University because his life would be a living hell if he remained.
Not from the administration, but from fellow students.
Mainly because he embarrassed his fellow students at the University.
From what I can see, simply throwing a coint at him would be considered Assault. Striking, Battery. Was he charged with those?
F**k the Jews is selective prosecution and should fail, but you’re not allowed to throw things.
Go. Away.
It’s not selective. He’s not being prosecuted for the opinion expressed. At most he’s being prosecuted for “Fuck”, and he’d be prosecuted for that no matter what he put afterwards. So whether the law against it is constitutional or not, it’s not selective.
You should be prosecuted for being an insufferable twat.
Not quite on topic, but I wanna wish all of my fellow LIers a pleasant Armistice Day.
An appropriate day for resuming government operation (or close thereof).
The determiner after the epithet f**k must be either definite or generic, in fact it’s a good test for generic determiners.
You can have f**k the Jews or f**k all Jews, but not f**k each Jew.
You are desperate to defend this. Why? Your kid? You?
Have you ever tried going more that five consecutive seconds without the urge to be a pedantic, pretentious jackass? Do you actually think anyone is impressed by your undergrad level intellect?
Mississippi. Code § 97-35-7 can be found here:
https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-97/chapter-35/section-97-35-7/
The code says nothing about “profane” or “offensive language.”
Wonder why that was cited in the article?
Good question. Maybe misquoted the correct section which would be 97-35-15
§ 97-35-15 (General disturbance): This broad statute covers disturbing the public peace through loud, violent, insulting, offensive, or boisterous conduct or language. It also includes intimidation or conduct calculated to provoke a breach of the peace.
I appreciate you taking the time to look up that citation. I mean that sincerely.
Still, § 97-35-15 doesn’t mention “profane speech.” I would also argue that “offensive speech” is a matter of personal taste. What I find “offensive” may not offend someone else. (And vice versa.)
In Cohen v. California, the Supreme Court makes this comment:
Indeed, we think it is largely because governmental officials cannot make principled distinctions in this area that the Constitution leaves matters of taste and style so largely to the individual.
I agree with the idea that speech that provokes immediate illegal response, or incites is not protected speech in the least.
I think we both would agree that the man’s comments are ridiculous, stupid, bigoted, and just about every other negative word that can be used to describe his words.
Certainly the throwing of the coins should be treated as battery or attempted battery.
I am not for letting this clown off for his actions.
But I worry about government officials deciding what is “offensive.” I worry that some “snowflake” can get someone arrested because they are offended by what is said.
That resembles the old “fighting words” exception, but
(1) that is almost certainly no longer good law, and
(2) even when it was good law it only applied to a personal insult said directly to a specific person, of a kind that he could not help but respond to with violence. That is a relic of an honor culture that is rejected nowadays; the idea that violence is a natural and normal reaction to being dissed is poison and something the law must suppress, not encourage.
The Courts have not totally eradicated the “fighting words” doctrine.
In Texas v Johnson, the Court still held the idea that “a direct personal insult or an invitation to exchange fisticuffs.” was not protected speech.
The question would be whether the throwing of the coins (that did not hit Portnoy) was expression and therefore speech. Would Portnoy have been justified in responding physically to the idiot?
I get what you are saying, but am going to disagree slightly.
Not really. It didn’t overrule that line of cases, because that issue wasn’t in front of it. But it didn’t endorse the idea either; it just said this isn’t such a case, so we don’t need to even consider whether it’s still valid. I don’t think there’s been a case that actually endorsed the “fighting words” exception since the 1950s. Every case that has brought it up has done so in order to distinguish it and say “this isn’t it”.
Yes, really.
It cited cases to determine that this case did not fall within “fighting words,” but the doctrine in a limited sense still exists.
Quote:
Nor does Johnson’s expressive conduct fall within that small class of “fighting words” that are “likely to provoke the average person to retaliation, and thereby cause a breach of the peace.” Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U. S. 568, 315 U. S. 574 (1942). No reasonable onlooker would have regarded Johnson’s generalized expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of the Federal Government as a direct personal insult or an invitation to exchange fisticuffs. See id. at 315 U. S. 572-573; Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 310 U. S. 309 (1940); FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, supra, at 438 U. S. 745 (opinion of STEVENS, J.).
No, gitar, that does not mean the doctrine still exists, even in a limited sense. All it means is that they were ruling out its application in that case, so they didn’t have to consider it at all. It means the doctrine may or may not exist, but either way it’s not a factor here.
The court couldn’t say that the doctrine no longer exists, because that question was not before it.
The question of whether it is offensive would be a jury question.
The police made the arrest based on what they felt was “offensive” and then hope the morals of a jury agree with them?
A little closer to the hearts of police, if a person says “f**k the police,” they might be offended and want to arrest the person, but “f**k the police” has been decided to be protected speech.
Quoting Cohen v California:
For, while the particular four-letter word being litigated here is perhaps more distasteful than most others of its genre, it is nevertheless often true that one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric. Indeed, we think it is largely because governmental officials cannot make principled distinctions in this area that the Constitution leaves matters of taste and style so largely to the individual.
The government in the form of the police, made this arrest in part on the basis that the man’s speech was “offensive.”
They have no legal right to do so.
Fucking Jews love pizza!
More like “Jews fucking love pizza”. Of course so does everyone, but it’s my understanding that what’s weird about the way Jews like pizza is that — or at least so I’m told — other people don’t get fries with that. Apparently non-kosher pizza places don’t even make fries. I’ve never been to one, so I don’t know this for myself, but that’s what I’m told.
I only heard about this when Bravo Pizza in Manhattan went kosher, and the new clientele were astonished that they couldn’t get fries, while the staff were astonished that anyone was asking for them. This was a cultural mismatch that apparently no one had noticed before.
Also sushi. The kosher crowd discovered sushi in the ’90s, about 20 years after everyone else did, and started demanding it everywhere. You now see it on kosher menus at all kinds of places where you would not expect it, including pizzerias.
I’ve been waiting for pho to catch on in the kosher world, since it’s been about 30 years since it caught on everywhere else, but so far no dice. There was a kosher pho place that opened in Brooklyn about 10 years ago, but it didn’t last long.
“[T]aboo words are not entirely vulnerable to syntactical analysis. Saying that “the f**k” in a sentence like “What the f**k are you doing?” is adjectival in function, or that “bloody” in “What are you bloody well doing?” is an adverb, misses something of the point. In such cases specific syntactic location seems to be made a convenience of, for somehow the intensifying word is meant to color uniformly the whole of the utterance someplace or other in which it occurs.” – Erving Goffman “Response Cries” in _Forms of Talk_ p.115n.
As the recent DC verdict shows, it’s kosher only to throw comestibles.
Was it a veggie sub?
Breach of peace is a much underused charge. If we reorient our Police tactics away from ‘Law Enforcement Officer’ towards a return to that of ‘Peace Officer’ I’d suggest the shift in mindset and earlier Police intervention to halt small things before they grew out of control would return peace, order and civility to our communities. Instead of coming on two guys yelling on the sidewalk and not making an arrest unless they are fighting each other pull over, tell them to stop and STFU. If they refuse or mouth off defiantly arrest them for two charges; misdemeanor breach of peace and misdemeanor resistance without violence. If the watching crowd doesn’t obey commands to keep back/not interfere then arrest them for obstruction. Fill up the wagons every day transporting them to jail for booking. Run their ID and probably find outstanding warrants from unpaid traffic fines on up in severity. Make breach of peace a minimum of five days for 1st offense. Resistance w/o violence and obstruction 10 days minimum. Triple the penalty for 2nd offense. Third offense gets 180 days. May take a a year to two years for word to get out about not doing that crap for fear of sanction. Put deterrence to work and if it fails use incarceration to keep the Peace.
Try having an argument ready. These liberal tantru.s are more than old.
Honestly, what the hell is wrong with people?
They are believing the lies about Jews. It’s really close to the whole business of many poor black and brown people believing that Europeans have oppressed and exploited them for centuries. The Jews take the place of the white people, and the rest of the world get to be the poor black and brown people. Of course, one must eschew personal responsibility to fall for these lies that one is a victim of the system controlled by those in power.
He certainly had the right to say what he said. State laws against using vulgar language in public (as opposed to school rules against using it at school) are probably unconstitutional.
But he certainly had no right to throw the coins; although that was expressive conduct, it was still conduct, and he can be arrested for the pure conduct part, provided that anyone who did the same would also be arrested even without the expressive part.
He is a cheap bastard. It should have at least been 10 dollar bills,
Nah, they wouldn’t throw properly, they’d just flutter to the ground. Maybe he should have used $1 coins.
Pieces of silver.
But it wouldn’t involve arrest, and if it did we would sue and make a big case out of it.
Here the issue is not his speech but his non-expressive conduct.
What he said was offensive but not profane. Unless someone thought they were “fighting words” and they may have been, you should be allowed to make an ass of yourself. Claiming what he said was disturbing the peace might be a stretch as it was no more disturbing than Dave filming on a sidewalk.
This wasn’t disturbing the peace, this was poor taste and uncivilized behavior.
The word he used was profane. But is it constitutional to ban profane language? I’m 99% sure it isn’t, but a lot of places still have such laws on the books.
See People v Boomer, a 2002 case in which the Michigan Court of Appeals struck down that state’s law against using “any indecent, immoral, obscene, vulgar or insulting language in the presence or hearing of any woman or child”.
Portnoy needs one camera on him and one camera pointing away from him so knuckleheads like this can get their 15 seconds of shame. There is nothing like shining a light on the cockroaches of the world.
There’s a fundraiser for this bigot that going gangbusters. So many new haters out there. I mean why fix your life when you can just rage against the Jews!
Throwing a glass is Disturbing the piece. That’s why he was arrested. I wish the same punishment on people that fail to return their shopping carts because apparently the death penalty is out of fashion.
BEING an obnoxious a$$h*le isn’t a crime. ACTING like an Obnoxious A$$H*LE while creating a disruptive ruckus IS a crime when it violates a well established law or ordinance.