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Berkeley cancels Ann Coulter’s speech over fears of more violent protests
By William Wan | April 19, 2017
After riots and violent protests in and around their campus during the past three months, officials at the University of California at Berkeley said Wednesday that the school is canceling a planned speech by conservative firebrand Ann Coulter because of safety concerns.
In a letter to a campus Republican group that invited Coulter to speak, university officials said that they made the decision to cancel Coulter’s appearance after assessing the violence that flared on campus in February, when the same college Republican group invited right-wing provocateur and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to speak.
The violence and protests caused by Yiannopoulos’ invitation garnered national attention and forced officials to put the campus on lockdown. And after the university canceled the Yiannopoulos’ talk, President Trump criticized the school and threatened in a tweet to pull federal funds from UC-Berkeley.
The decisions by UC-Berkeley to cancel both events involving high-profile Republicans are especially notable given the campus’ role during the 1960s and 1970s as the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement and its long tradition of social protest.
Coulter said in an email to The Washington Post on Wednesday that the university had been trying to force her to cancel her speech by “imposing ridiculous demands” on her but that she still agreed “to all of their silly requirements.” She said that she believes her speech “has been unconstitutionally banned” by the “public, taxpayer-supported UC-Berkeley.”
Coulter said the university insisted that her speech take place in the middle of the day, that only students could attend, and that the exact venue wouldn’t be announced until the last minute. She said that she agreed with the conditions, but that apparently wasn’t good enough.
“They just up and announced that I was prohibited from speaking anyway,” Coulter said, noting that her speech topic was to be immigration, the subject of one of her books. “I feel like the Constitution is important and that taxpayer-supported universities should not be using public funds to violate American citizens’ Constitutional rights.”
A conservative national group that was helping to organize the event, Young America’s Foundation, said Coulter also made demands of her own, including that any students engaging in violence be expelled. In her email, Coulter said she is still planning to give her speech, and YAF spokesman Spencer Brown said she has told them she plans to appear at Berkeley on April 27.
“If Berkley wants to have free speech, they are going to get it,” Brown said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...r-speech-over-fears-of-more-violent-protests/
- Ben Shapiro LIVE at UC Berkeley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elqhp99Fz0I
- UC Berkeley plans extreme security ahead of Ben Shapiro's speech event (Sep 13, 2017)
- The Free-Speech Battles of Berkeley (Sep 5, 2017)
- Protester at UC Berkeley who refuses to remove mask is cuffed and arrested (April 27, 2017)
- Ann Coulter controversy tests Berkeley's free speech credentials (April 27, 2017)
- ACLU on the cancellation of Ann Coulter's speech (April 26, 2017)
- Ann Coulter cancels her speech at Berkeley amid safety dispute (April 26, 2017)
- Young America’s Foundation sue Berkeley after campus blocks Ann Coulter speech (April 24, 2017)
- Berkeley reverses decision to cancel speech by conservative pundit Ann Coulter (April 20, 2017)
- UC-Berkeley: The place where free speech ends and violence begins (Apr 18, 2017)
- Berkeley cancels Ann Coulter’s speech over fears of more violent protests (April 19, 2017)
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Berkeley cancels Ann Coulter’s speech over fears of more violent protests
By William Wan | April 19, 2017
After riots and violent protests in and around their campus during the past three months, officials at the University of California at Berkeley said Wednesday that the school is canceling a planned speech by conservative firebrand Ann Coulter because of safety concerns.
In a letter to a campus Republican group that invited Coulter to speak, university officials said that they made the decision to cancel Coulter’s appearance after assessing the violence that flared on campus in February, when the same college Republican group invited right-wing provocateur and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to speak.
The violence and protests caused by Yiannopoulos’ invitation garnered national attention and forced officials to put the campus on lockdown. And after the university canceled the Yiannopoulos’ talk, President Trump criticized the school and threatened in a tweet to pull federal funds from UC-Berkeley.
The decisions by UC-Berkeley to cancel both events involving high-profile Republicans are especially notable given the campus’ role during the 1960s and 1970s as the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement and its long tradition of social protest.
Coulter said in an email to The Washington Post on Wednesday that the university had been trying to force her to cancel her speech by “imposing ridiculous demands” on her but that she still agreed “to all of their silly requirements.” She said that she believes her speech “has been unconstitutionally banned” by the “public, taxpayer-supported UC-Berkeley.”
Coulter said the university insisted that her speech take place in the middle of the day, that only students could attend, and that the exact venue wouldn’t be announced until the last minute. She said that she agreed with the conditions, but that apparently wasn’t good enough.
“They just up and announced that I was prohibited from speaking anyway,” Coulter said, noting that her speech topic was to be immigration, the subject of one of her books. “I feel like the Constitution is important and that taxpayer-supported universities should not be using public funds to violate American citizens’ Constitutional rights.”
A conservative national group that was helping to organize the event, Young America’s Foundation, said Coulter also made demands of her own, including that any students engaging in violence be expelled. In her email, Coulter said she is still planning to give her speech, and YAF spokesman Spencer Brown said she has told them she plans to appear at Berkeley on April 27.
“If Berkley wants to have free speech, they are going to get it,” Brown said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...r-speech-over-fears-of-more-violent-protests/
Arkain2K says: "If you truly values Democracy, you'll have to accept that vote results don't always go your way. If you truly values Free Speech, you'll have to accept that other people's opinions aren't always what you like to hear. To riot against that is to riot against the very foundation of our Nation."
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