The campus that is the home of the historical free speech movement, UC Berkeley, has banned conservative commentator and author Ann Coulter, citing security threats.
According to Young America’s Foundation, student organizers of an upcoming Ann Coulter event at the university were emailed by Berkeley administrators who claimed they were unable to “find a safe suitable venue” for Coulter.
“Young America’s Foundation, BridgeCal and Berkeley College Republicans have been working together to produce a lecture at UC-Berkeley on April 27, 2017, by Ann Coulter, a twelve-time bestselling author, whose book, ‘Adios, America!’ – a No. 2 New York Times bestseller — is widely credited with shaping President Donald Trump’s immigration views,” announced Young America’s Foundation in a press release, Wednesday. “The topic of her speech was immigration.”
“UC-Berkeley, a publicly-funded university, first imposed a series of ridiculous requirements on the speech allegedly in the name of ‘safety.’ Coulter, we were informed, would be required to deliver her speech in the afternoon; only students would be allowed to attend; and the speech location would not be announced until close to the event,” they continued. “Against our advice, Coulter agreed to all these requirements. In return, she requested two measures, which actually had something to do with safety.”
1) That the University of California chancellor request that the Oakland chief of police refrain from telling his men to stand down and ignore law-breaking by rioters attempting to shut down conservative speakers, as he has done in the past; and
2) That UC-Berkeley announce in advance that any students engaging in violence, mayhem or heckling to prevent an invited speaker from speaking would be expelled.
As Coulter explained, “If Berkeley wants to have free speech, it can have it.”
The university’s response was to ban her speech.
“This is as clear-cut a case as it gets that public universities are using taxpayer dollars to shut down conservative speech, while allowing liberal speech only,” Young America’s Foundation proclaimed. “UC-Berkeley has for example, welcomed the corrupt former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, who has cursed at and mocked Donald Trump, currently the President of the United States. The university, and U-C chancellor Janet Napolitano personally, have revealed themselves to be using taxpayer money for an unconstitutional purpose. Even after Coulter went along with their ruses and guises to shut down her speech, they simply announced, like Kim Jung Un, that it was cancelled.”
“We have no intention of acceding to these unconstitutional acts,” the organization concluded. “The Ann Coulter lecture sponsored by Young America’s Foundation will go forward.”
Ron Robinson, the President of Young America’s Foundation, further declared in a quote that “Berkeley disappoints anyone who really believes in free speech.”
“Their actions to ban conservatives while giving leftists a platform reinforces this fact,” Robinson claimed. “It’s a shame that Berkeley is robbing its students of the opportunity to receive a well-rounded education.”
Just last week, an event with conservative commentator and former Breitbart contributor David Horowitz was also canceled at UC Berkeley.
“Administrators have banned Horowitz from speaking on the campus proper and have assigned him a facility half a mile away,” a press release from the David Horowitz Freedom Center claimed last week. “Administrators insisted Horowitz could speak only at 1 PM when afternoon classes are starting and most students would have difficulty attending.”
The David Horowitz Freedom Center also added that Berkeley administrators had “taken a page out of Orwell.”
In February, an event at the college with former Breitbart Senior Editor Milo Yiannopoulos was also derailed after left-wing students in masks violently shut down the show— setting fire to property, charging buildings, smashing windows, and assaulting attendees.
“Anti-fascists” started several fires, smashed windows and ATMs, looted downtown stores, attacked cars, and assaulted dozens of MILO fans, male and female, who they falsely accused of being “Nazis.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that rioters caused around $100,000 in damages at UC Berkeley, while the damage to downtown Berkeley was reported to be around $400,000 to $500,000.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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