After a protest at UC Berkeley turned violent, campus officials announced that a scheduled speech by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled.
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 barricades police set up to keep people from rushing into the building.
The Berkeley Police Department said people were throwing bricks, smoking objects, and fireworks at police officers. Protesters took down a light pole and the building where the event was to be held had windows broken.
”This is what tolerance looks like at UC Berkeley," said Mike Wright, a Berkeley College Republican member said as smoke bombs went off around him. Someone threw red paint on him.
Protesters argued that hate speech isn't free speech, countering the university's explanation — free speech — on why it allowed the event to go on as scheduled.
Yiannopoulos was invited to speak at the campus by the Berkeley College Republicans, a student group that was warned Tuesday by university officials that the event could result in the targeting of undocumented students. Yiannopoulos, an editor for the right-wing Breitbart News website, was expected to use the event in Berkeley to kick off a campaign against ”sanctuary campuses" that have vowed to protect undocumented students as President Trump cracks down on illegal immigration.
Three lines of zip-tied metal fencing separated the crowd of protesters from campus police officers who had secured the building where Yiannopoulos is speaking. Protesters held ”We reject a fascist America" and derided Yiannopoulos as a mouthpiece for President Trump.
Campus police were intent on avoiding a repeat of the chaos at UC Davis on Jan. 13, when protesters overwhelmed their barricades and shut down Yiannopoulos' speech.
”It's not a question of free speech," a protester said via megaphone, riling up the hundreds of protesters in attendance. ”It's about real human beings."
