College Republicans’ Lawyer Suggests Deploying National Guard If Mayor of Berkeley Cannot Maintain Order

Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco lawyer representing the UCB College Republicans, held a press conference Monday to discuss the case being brought against UC Berkeley and suggested deploying the National Guard to provide security if Berkeley’s mayor could not maintain control of the city.

One reporter asked Dhillon (at 29:00 in the video) whether or not the President should federalize the National Guard and have them provide security to speakers at UC Berkeley. In response, Dhillon said:

Well again, I don’t think it’s Ann Coulter’s or YAF’s or Berkeley College Republicans’ problem to solve that problem. First of all I think the Governor has to call out the National Guard. The President declaring martial law in Berkeley so that Ann Coulter can speak is a bit extreme. I’m not suggesting that would be an appropriate outcome, but I think the problem runs deeper than this Ann Coulter event.

To be clear, what we have here is a shadowy policy that is, like I said, double secret; we didn’t find out about it until we were on the verge of a lawsuit. And we have a policy that’s going to be applied in the future to other speakers in the future unless it’s going to be brought out into the open, debated, and accommodated between the needs of the students who want to hear interesting speakers and the university which has an interest in the safety of all people, I accept that.

But to unilateraly declare that certain facilities — all the desireable facilities are “not securable” in the sole discretion of the university, when they were securable for Vicente Fox last week — that does not pass the smell test of credibility. And so that’s the problem we’re dealing with, the double standards.

Absolutely, if the Mayor of Berkeley cannot maintain control of his city, the Governor should call the National Guard, because that’s a serious public health issue.

Watch the full press conference below:

https://www.facebook.com/CBSSanFrancisco/videos/10154686640994436/