This article is 6 years old

Yiannopoulos Visits UCB Despite Free Speech Week Cancellation

News

Photograph by Paolo Harris-Paz

The Berkeley Patriot, a conservative, student-run, online publication at University of California, Berkeley (UCB) organized Free Speech Week, an event where many conservative speakers were invited to campus to speak about their beliefs. Although the events of the week were set to occur from September 24 to 27, the Berkeley Patriot canceled their plans immediately before the week began. Despite the cancellation, speakers still came to Berkeley, and rallies and protests took place.

Early in 2017, both Milo Yiannopoulos, a controversial political commentator and former Breitbart editor, and Ann Coulter, another well-known conservative commentator, were invited to speak at UCB. The university canceled their speeches due to violent protests on and around the UCB campus. Conservative critics accused the administration of being too liberal and censoring free speech.

The Berkeley Patriot planned the four day event in partnership with Yiannopoulos. The group attracted national publicity with announcements that multiple speakers, including Coulter and Steve Bannon, former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, would come to Berkeley for the event. However, both Coulter and Bannon announced they had declined the Berkeley Patriot’s invitation. In addition to the speakers’ cancellations, UCB stated that the Berkeley Patriot had not booked venues on time. Prior to the week’s beginning, media reports  and expectations regarding the events of the coming days were unclear. Due to previous instances of violence and protesting that occurred as a result of the arrival of controversial speakers in Berkeley and conflicts regarding free speech,UCB was very cautious leading up to the Free Speech Week. Sabrina Reich, Administrative Sergeant for the UCB Police Department, told the Jacket, “When it comes to managing these types of events and demonstrations, there is no cookie cutter approach because every event is unique.”

In spite of the cancellation, Yiannopoulos came to Berkeley, and UCB put in place a “highly visible police presence” according to Reich. The university spent eight hundred thousand dollars on the security costs of Yiannopoulos’s twenty-minute visit to Sproul Plaza. Yiannopoulos was met by a managed crowd of about three hundred. He took selfies with fans and walked around the UCB campus waving a “Feminism is Cancer” sign.

When asked how previous violent protests affected the university’s approach to this event, Dan Mogulof, Assistant Vice Chancellor of UCB’s Office of Public Affairs, spoke about the behaviors of ANTIFA, (Anti-Fascist) protesters the night Yiannopoulos’s first speech at UCB was canceled. “[They were] ready, willing, and able to use violence and turn a college campus into a battleground.” Mogulof said, “When something like that happens, you have no choice but to assume that it could happen again … that deeply influenced the recommendations provided to the university by our law enforcement professionals.”

Mogulof explained that, legally, any citizen is allowed on campus because it is a public university.

Following Yiannopoulos’ appearance on September 24, demonstrations took place on September 26 and 27. Many from across the country and political spectrum came to the campus. Anti-fascist groups, including By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), were present on campus, as was Patriot Prayer, a Portland based conservative group. Multiple arrests were made, one of which was Yvette Felarca, a Berkeley Unified School District teacher at Martin Luther King Middle School.

The events of the past year have spurred debate about how to define free speech and to what extent it should be guaranteed on campuses. Tirien Steinbach, Executive Director at East Bay Community Law Center stated, “I am a strong believer in free speech. I really think that having uncomfortable conversations, meaning that people disagree, and that those differences in viewpoint and vantage point being discussed freely, is really crucial and important and needs to happen more.” However, Steinbach thinks free speech needs some regulation: “I do not believe in unfettered free speech, and I don’t believe it is necessary that I as a lawyer defend the right of people to speak in a way that is truly intended to dehumanize and incite violence.”

Claudia Polsky, professor at the UCB School of Law, also values the First Amendment, but thinks it may need to evolve to make clear the difference between free speech, hate speech, and other forms of destructive speech: “Not every restriction on speech is inevitably a step towards censorship.”

Polsky thinks that preserving free speech entails bringing intellectual leaders to campus rather than political provocateurs, so students are able to witness discussion of conservative viewpoints that support tolerance of dissenting views, which she considers a core value of the university and faculty.

Dean of UCB of Law Erwin Chemerinsky stated, “The campus must act to ensure speech, including by controversial speakers, but it also must ensure the safety of students, staff, and faculty. The law of the First Amendment is clear that no speaker can be excluded because of the viewpoint expressed.”