Patterico's Pontifications

2/1/2017

Today in the Annals of Free Speech [Update]

Filed under: General — JVW @ 6:48 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Noted provocateur Milo Yiannopolous was scheduled to speak at 7:00 pm on the campus of — ta-da! — the University of California at Berkeley, but the appearance has been cancelled due to a large throng of leftists acting like leftists do in 2017:

The Breitbart News editor was set to deliver a speech inside a UC Berkeley campus building but hundreds of protesters began throwing fireworks and pulling down the metal barricades police set up to keep people from rushing into the building. Windows were smashed and fires were set outside the building as masked protesters stormed it.

The Berkeley Police Department said people threw bricks, smoking objects, and fireworks at police officers. Protesters took down a light pole and university police locked down all buildings and ordered a shelter in place.

Yiannopolous was invited by the local College Republicans to speak against college campuses declaring themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants. Under a great deal of pressure from leftist elements to prohibit the event, the Cal administration attempted to hold firm to free speech principles and proceed with the event. Apparently they were most unsuccessful.

UPDATE: Well, this is rich: apparently the Cal Office of Student Affairs was afraid that Yiannopolous’s speech would put illegal immigrant students at risk. I wonder what they think now that their police are dealing with firecrackers whizzing around their heads and bricks crashing down on their riot shields. Nothing like worrying about theoretical risk while ignoring real-world risk. Jeeze, academia.

[Cross-posted at the Jury Talks Back.]

– JVW

79 Responses to “Today in the Annals of Free Speech [Update]”

  1. Remind me again where the Free Speech movement started under Mario Savio.

    Oh, yes, Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Dec 2, 1964.

    “Operation of the machine” speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhFvZRT7Ds0

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  2. CNN is providing footage of the riots.

    JVW (6e49ce)

  3. The police should have used clubs and tear gas. Anyone who showed up to riot in a mask should be expelled. Fukking fascists.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  4. Oh ‘dem pesky 1960s.

    Do elephant bells have a familiar ring?

    “Feeling Groovy” – Simon & Garfunkel, 1966

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  5. Watching it now, no police presence that I can see. It is a shame that authorities allow these violent thug protests to occur, especially when they know what has been planned. That they let it happen is shameful.

    Forget it, Jake… it’s the People’s Republic of the Bay Area.

    Colonel Haiku (779a2a)

  6. Thank you for the post, JVW. Now I can unblock images and not see Madcow’s face.

    No comment on your topic. My opinion of Yiannopoulos is lower than my opinion of Maddow. He and the protesters deserve each other. College Republicans. lol

    Ok, I guess I did comment on the topic too.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. Milo has exposed the new Brownshirts without a single spoken word. Tremendous!

    The Evil is declaring itself and, at least in this instance, nobody was physically harmed. A win!

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  8. The police should have used clubs and tear gas. Anyone who showed up to riot in a mask should be expelled.

    Here’s the thing, though: it’s a mistake to assume that all of these people battling police are students. I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of them are the anarchists and other vile leftists from the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley axis of stupidity. When I was in school in Cambridge, Noam Chomsky’s acolytes weren’t so much the MIT and Harvard students as much as they were drawn fro the general radical riffraff that hung around Harvard Square. Lots of them were probably dropouts and people who never had the initiative to attend college, and I’ll bet the same holds true at Cal. I agree that that any students who participate need to face campus discipline including possible expulsion, but I also think that the Cal campus police and the Berkeley police need to start getting no-tresspass warrants against the local non-student agitators and arresting them when they show up on campus.

    JVW (6e49ce)

  9. CNN switches gears; goes after Trump for hanging up on the Aussie PM.

    Bad move, Donald. Never disrespect an ally that shares a common language with you. In the long run, it is your most basic and common bond.

    Mexico’s president? No-problemo.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  10. My opinion of Yiannopoulos is lower than my opinion of Maddow.

    Greeks. Whatta ya gonna do? (Kidding, kidding.)

    I go back and forth on Yiannopoulos. I think his “Dangerous Faggot” shtick aims for the lowest common detonator, and is just low-rent self-promotion (that has apparently made him reasonably wealthy and quite famous). That said, though, when he drops the act and actually debates I find him to be very quick-thinking, eloquent, and witty. What I have always appreciated about his legitimate debates is that he refuses to let the left define the parameters and terms of the argument. I wish we would see more of that Milo and less of the Dangerous Faggot.

    JVW (6e49ce)

  11. The left is getting more and more violent. They’re desiring a new French Revolution not realizing what will happen.

    Ignorance of history is extremely dangerous.

    NJRob (5530db)

  12. Therein is a test, trumbull is the kind of aussie fool whomwasvtricked into calling for an election early, and he survived by the skinnof his teeth.

    narciso (d1f714)

  13. I assume Milo has a speaking fee contract of some sort. Or maybe he does this stuff gratis to make his point. This rioting and violence over a mere speech in a University setting is sickening and the world is watching a major American campus on fire/being destroyed. These people do not even know what his primary messages are, I’ll bet. The real students (if there are any) have been lied to and agitated by outsiders, and joined by professional anarchist infiltrators.

    Milo is a unique lightening rod, both brave and profane at times. It’s only a small part of his message, but he was brilliant right after the Pulse Nightclub massacre and he seems to be exactly the kind of honest speaker and messenger that those in the gay community most need to hear with respect to who their enemies in this world really are.

    elissa (7a863c)

  14. At 630 pm it was one first, now I hear it’s three.

    Oh well, “mostly peaceful.”

    Who are the anarchists anyway? Any interest there, media?

    Anyone?

    Patricia (5fc097)

  15. Sores glockenspiel ensemble of course.

    narciso (d1f714)

  16. ==Who are the anarchists anyway? Any interest there, media?==

    HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHAHAHAHAHAHA

    *gasp* let me catch my breath

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    elissa (7a863c)

  17. You know, New Orleans banned the wearing of masks during Mardi Gras since some of the nasty element of that city was using the occasion to commit crimes and perform random sexual assaults in the streets. At what point do our major U.S. cities and college campuses ban the wearing of hoodies and face coverings during demonstrations? I’ve heard demonstrators claim that they are only to prevent tear-gassing incidents, but I think it’s quite obvious that it is also done to conceal identities.

    JVW (6e49ce)

  18. The left wingers at Bezerkeley are starting fires and breaking stuff in order to express exactly how much they oppose violence and oppression of foreigners who have funny names. (LOL)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  19. Steven Hayward at Powerline Blog has a first person report from Berkeley.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/02/berkeley-update-anti-fasicts-resort-to-fascism-to-shut-down-milo.php

    elissa (725e01)

  20. The ‘free speech movement’ at Berkeley was nothing of the kind, it was a model for agitation and fundamental transformation one might say

    narciso (d1f714)

  21. An interesting treatise by Jordan greenhill at mediumsuggests what this moment is about

    narciso (d1f714)

  22. have you quit linking links narciso?

    elissa (725e01)

  23. Probably rioters are coming up from Oakland. SOP in the Bay Area. The transit systems usually shut down whenever they anticipate an occasion for rioting.

    Gabriel Hanna (e10de5)

  24. Question for Neil Gorsuch:

    Have you and Donald Trump discussed his promise to end freedom of the press and make it easier to silence journalists critical of him?

    “If I become president, oh, do [the New York Times] have problems. They’re gonna have such problems. One of the things I’m gonna do, and this is only gonna make it tougher for me, and I’ve never said this before, but one of the things I’m gonna do if I win … is I’m gonna open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re gonna open up those libel laws. So that when the New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace, or when the Washington Post … writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money, instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected. With me, they’re not protected, because I’m not like other people… We’re gonna open up those libel laws, folks, and we’re gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.”

    “Opening up” the libel laws, if not done extra-legally by Executive Order, would require overturning the Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), which set the current standard (“actual malice”) for libel in cases involving public figures.

    As a Supreme Court justice, Gorsuch would obviously be in a position to help Trump stamp out one key element of the First Amendment.

    Dave (711345)

  25. UPDATE: Well, this is rich: apparently the Cal Office of Student Affairs was afraid that Yiannopolous’s speech would put illegal immigrant students at risk. I wonder what they think now that their police are dealing with firecrackers whizzing around their heads and bricks crashing down on their riot shields. Nothing like worrying about theoretical risk while ignoring real-world risk. Jeeze, academia.

    JVW (6e49ce)

  26. I was so looking forward to watching the livestream.

    I’m not surprised they shut down this event (the other one to be shut down the night of was at UC Davis)

    He left them with not much choice: Shut it down and look like goons, or let it go forward and be exposed as cucks. (Not: as hypocrites, because they don’t claim to believe in free speech)

    Most people would rather be perceived as a goon than to be made into a cuck.

    It’s the same reason Trump’s voters went to the polls, and pulled the lever for someone they knew to be a boor. They knew they would be accused of racism, sexism, Islamophobia, etc. But they would rather take that, than to live as cucks under the castrating queen.

    Knowing Milo, he anticipated the shutdown, and has a plan to be a nuisance somewhere in the area, probably on the campus itself, tomorrow.

    Daryl Herbert (7be116)

  27. nk – [Milo] and the protesters deserve each other. College Republicans. lol

    Protesters” 1

    Protesters” 2

    How virtuous of you not to pick a side.

    “Conservatives.” lol

    scrutineer (e49623)

  28. Fastidious.

    nk (dbc370)

  29. 6-no

    “No comment on your topic. My opinion of Yiannopoulos is lower than my opinion of Maddow. He and the protesters deserve each other. College Republicans. lol”

    One reason these lawless attacks have grown instead of being nipped in the bud is that so many are absolutely blind and equate peaceful assembly with lawless thugs seeking to silence free speech. When they come for you tell them how you cheered them on against Milo.

    Also love the fact that the photo of of the campus repubs at UC Berkeley shown earlier looked to be over half people of color.

    Harkin (470cbb)

  30. Nothing like worrying about theoretical risk while ignoring real-world risk. Jeeze, academia.

    You don’t think they split actual hairs, do you?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  31. Still, the irony.

    This is where campus free speech started, and it is clearly dead here, too.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  32. Does Berkeley have a half-wit mayor? Yes, Berkeley has a half-wit mayor.

    JVW (6e49ce)

  33. If anyone’s interested, Tucker talked to Milo by phone tonite just after he was evacuated by his own security detail. Interview embedded here along with more reporting:

    http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/02/violent-riots-at-uc-berkeley-shut-down-milo-yiannopoulos-event/

    elissa (725e01)

  34. #27, #29, the moral equivalency argument did motivate a lot of the #NeverTrump crowd.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  35. That Berkeley, the more I learn about them, the less I care for that town.

    They should have hired a sheriff, years ago one would think.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  36. I’m guessing a disproportionate glot of Calexit supporters, speaking guttural English, with weird unfamiliar sounding names like Shervin and Pishevar.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  37. If someone were to pay me, sort of like a merc, I’d be willing to wade in. Go all Wyatt Earp on anyone wearing a spook mask.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  38. I Binged ‘Sheriff of Berkekey Ca’

    # 4 on the list is University of Berkeley Police Department

    They get 2 out of 5 stars

    Yelp reviews stand in for internal affairs.

    Not too promising when the Department is rated below average by the public it serves.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  39. I feel so alone. (No, not really.)

    Here’s something to make all you alt.limp_wrist admirers sit up and take notice. For the second time today, the Washington Post has a story that’s favorable to Trump. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/01/tale-of-an-iraqi-woman-dying-because-of-trump-travel-ban-unravels/?utm_term=.994c348ff971

    nk (dbc370)

  40. It’s not rocket science, if there’s a rabble with a few wearing face masks, attack them first as a self defense.
    Those guys are ring leaders, and they mean you harm.

    You hit Mr. Facemask across the teeth with your baton, the rest are going to back up.
    They didn’t come for that sort of trouble otherwise they would be wearing face masks too.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  41. for fraks sake, what kind of candy ass attacks a blond girl with pepper spray?

    You know that sorry coward never felt a minute of pain in his life. You’d be doing him a favor with a pre-emptive dental work. That would be a life altering moment for him.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  42. Think of it as incentive to get his Obamacare paper work in order.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  43. Yeah, I was just looking at the UC Berkeley Police Department group picture.

    It’s a bunch of middle aged women with cafeteria lady physiques, and one guy named Mustaafah.

    When you look up the word disgrace on wiki – it’s the same picture.

    ,

    papertiger (c8116c)

  44. IMO, it’s collusion between the liberals and the university. They both don’t want Milo or any other conservative. So the students threaten and the university cancels. Then they wink at each other. Or, as in this case, the U tells the cops to lay off.
    The college republicans reportedly had to pony up security costs. Do they get their money back?

    Since the left has abandoned moral, legal, and social norms against violence, they have no moral, legal, or social norms to use against conservatives. So it’s now up to the big battalions.
    This is how the Germans got Hitler.
    And this is how we get more Trump.

    Richard Aubrey (a09608)

  45. I missed the New York Times op ed vilifying these homophobic and xenophobic thugs for their actions in barring a gay Brit from stepping onto their campus. I’ll go look again.

    windbag (47f3d7)

  46. What is conservative about Milo Yiannopoulos?

    I know, I know! Telling college boys that college girls are evil and will falsely accuse them of rape and a gay guy will give them a better blow job is a core conservative value. Number one on Russell Mead’s principles. Right?

    nk (dbc370)

  47. *Russell Kirk*

    nk (dbc370)

  48. nk. You think that’s the reason The Kids turned out? He has more to say than that. Of course, given the number of suits by guys against universities these days for lack of due process when falsely accused, maybe part of your point is correct.

    Richard Aubrey (a09608)

  49. BTW, the reason some were wearing masks was they were not students but rather hired agitators from the Soros Party.

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  50. Most likely, in Peru and other places they were the hallmark of the shining path

    narciso (d1f714)

  51. The snowflakes are getting tired of sitting around singing kumbaya. Consider yourself on notice that there is more where that came from. I’m not saying that I approve of violence. But at least people are showing, contrary to their detractors, that they aren’t weak and have a backbone. I can’t deny that I like that.

    Don’t confuse their kindness with weakness. They don’t have to be nice.

    This is only the beginning unless all this insanity comes to a halt.

    Trump’s demeanor is shamelessly in-your-face, and ruthlessly ugly. He should expect no less in return.

    Tillman (a95660)

  52. You hit Mr. Facemask across the teeth with your baton, the rest are going to back up.

    No…one bullet to the head of someone throwing a brick stops everything, hang the corpse upside down from a light post a la the Ceausescus and Mussolini, with a sign saying “Who’s Next?”.

    Sucks to be the one shot…

    Horatio (36f4b8)

  53. What am I? Wild Bill Hickock? No. A fat lip would do the trick. Gets a mention in the local papers maybe, and everybody goes home.

    I don’t hate anybody.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  54. Tillman, you’re a punk. You support violence when you lose the political process. You and your ilk are brownshirts. You are Mao’s red guard.

    NJRob (43d957)

  55. 55. That is a lie. I did not say I support violence. I don’t.

    So, Democrats are either either snowflakes or punks. Double bind. Got it.

    Tillman (a95660)

  56. Tillman has discovered the cure for his E.D.
    He doesn’t need a little blue pill — he just has to turn on the TV to watch left wing scumbags rioting, starting fires, and engaging in violence, and his blood starts pumpin’!

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  57. Words they burn their in safe spaced extremities

    narciso (72d34b)

  58. Cruz Supporter, those who can’t think, insult. That’s all you got.

    Tillman (a95660)

  59. Greetings:

    I’m still serving my deportation to the San Francisco Bay area, living several soviets to the southwest of beloved Berkeley so I’ve been watching these perpetrators for a couple of decades.

    Two things trouble me about these leftist disruptions.

    One is that the media fails to show any restraint in covering these events lest their coverage contribute to the provocations.

    The other is the total lack of follow-up in terms of those arrested (???), charged, tried, and perhaps (dare I ???) punished.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  60. All this and more can be summed up in one sentence:

    The extreme political left is going to great, and even illegal, lengths to defend its bubble..

    Sammy Finkelman (55138d)

  61. Tillman, it’s funny how you cheer for fires and violence on the one hand, but you all of a sudden call for civility! when someone throws a few sharp barbs your way in the comments section of a blog.
    You really got aroused by the fires and the violence in Berzerkeley. You’re talking about how this proves they’re not weak, and that they have a backbone, and that you can’t deny that you like it, and this is just the beginning, and there’s more coming!

    Viva Che Guevara!

    It’s not surprising — you’re an Alinskyite.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  62. Cruz Support, look up ad hominem. You obviously have little understanding of it. I did not personally attack you until you attacked me. I might have insulted your Dear Leader before then, but not you personally.

    As far as the violence, I am only reporting on what I see is happening, and the attitudes expressed, and have no control over anyone. I’m not a political leader.

    If I think that Dexter should be punished for killing people, but can appreciate that at least he only murders cereal killers, is that wrong? I don’t think so. It’s the same here. I disapprove of the violence, but at least it shows backbone.

    Tillman (a95660)

  63. We see now that when a snowflake sucker punches somebody, or sprays mace in a surprise attack, that is regarded by other snowflakes as a sign of “backbone”. And we are supposed to respect them for their new found sense of purpose? Sorry Tillman, you and your buddies are still snowflakes. Reveling that you are poisonous and underhanded doesn’t elevate you into ranks of respectable humans.

    Berkeley is a cesspool, and it has been such since the 1960s. Federal subsidies for all sort of foolishness have nurtured a culture based on the lowest common denominator. There are many decent people still working at Berkeley. They need to either stand up and fix this mess, or they should leave. No job is worth associating yourself with sort of thing.

    BobStewartatHome (e8d021)

  64. Oooh, I love it when guys fight over me. Eat your heart out, Madonna.

    Nilo Kiannopoulos (dbc370)

  65. BobStewartatHome, then go pray with Trump, cryin’ about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s poor TV ratings. This presidency is a fiasco.

    Tillman (a95660)

  66. Tillman, you’ve already expressed giddiness about the fires and violence in Berzerkeley, so there’s no use trying to attempt to walk back your approval of such vile anti-social behavior.
    You’re like a teenage guy who gets caught hiding Playboy under the mattress, then tries to convince Mother that he’s just been reading the articles rather than ogling the pictorials with some hand lotion and a towel. (LOL)

    You were ogling the fires and the violence. And as you admitted, you can’t deny that you like it!

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  67. @Tillman:He should expect no less in return.

    Which ATMs did Trump smash with hammers? What did he set on fire?

    Trump has offered no violence. He has offered words, words that bother you… and on that basis you consider violence justified.

    You won’t like the toothpaste comes out of that tube, and you won’t get it back in.

    Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1)

  68. Tillman: “But at least people are showing, contrary to their detractors, that they aren’t weak and have a backbone. I can’t deny that I like that.”

    If they truly had “backbone”, they’d be willing to peaceably debate ideas in a civilized manner, but that’s beyond their skill set.

    Instead these weaklings strike out with anger and violence. They start fires, sucker punch, shout down and riot.

    You fail to comprehend that this is just the tantrum after they realized coloring books and play-doh didn’t do the trick.

    My favorite part is the flyers they printed saying free speech had no place on the Berkeley campus, showing neither a sense of history nor irony.

    Harkin (470cbb)

  69. In. Other narrative news the pentagon watered down the fixed intelligence report on Islamic state

    narciso (d1f714)

  70. The threats are all fun until Tillman comes and craps all over them.

    Look, Tillman, we’re talking about two different elements of the left here:

    1) the campus crybullies who seek to curry administrative favor in order to have their opponents silenced, and

    2) radical anarchists who turn to violence for violence’s sake.

    Number one needs to be defeated in the battle of ideas, and number two probably needs to be treated as the KKK or the Mafia were treated, with the leaders indicted and incarcerated and their every move watched closely by law enforcement.

    JVW (dadb0c)

  71. Milo’s a special little monkey and any university on the planet would be super excited and happy for him to come talk to their students

    he’s very articulate and smart

    he reads books!

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  72. FYI, the UC police are actually state police officers – their jurisdiction includes every UC campus and hot pursuit (that is, they are not local police, but officers with state wide authority). They are supervised by the local UC Police Chief, trained by their own UC police hierarchy, and ultimately answer to the Attorney General, IIRC.

    It would be interesting to know if their lack of action was a local decision, or one forced by the UC Regents, or the Attorney General.

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  73. @Harkin:Instead these weaklings strike out with anger and violence.

    Knowing that they will not be retaliated against in any serious way, that they will be treated with kid gloves.

    If they keep it up, they won’t be anymore, and it will end right quick.

    Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1)

  74. They are supervised by the local UC Police Chief, trained by their own UC police hierarchy, and ultimately answer to the Attorney General, IIRC.

    How is that a recommendation?

    Sounds more like an excuse for the consistently miserable failure.
    As in, “The UC Berkeley Police System is f**ked up because of ….”

    papertiger (c8116c)

  75. More and more items getting lost in the ether/moderation filter.

    NJRob (b2c888)

  76. Looks like NYPD is not going to allow a repeat of last night with tonight’s “protesters” at NYU. This is another Conservative (not Milo )speaking who they are trying to shut down.

    http://nypost.com/2017/02/02/protesters-storm-nyu-over-conservative-speakers-seminar/

    elissa (fb919d)

  77. Someone should link to CNN’s Twitter feed re: what happened in Berkeley last night. Trust CNN. Another example of how one must have sh1t for brains to use CNN to support any contention… ANY at all.

    Colonel Haiku (20de56)

  78. Guess my remarks didn’t get removed from the moderation filter.

    NJRob (43d957)


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