The leaders of the University of California at Berkeley lacked power to prevent Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking on their campus yesterday. A subset of the university’s faculty urged their Chancellor to do just that. His spokesman replied, “Our Constitution does not permit the university to engage in prior restraint of a speaker out of fear that he might engage in even hateful verbal attacks.”
Most protesters opposed the event peacefully. Some did not: “security officials claim about 150 ‘masked agitators’ joined the demonstration, setting fires, throwing molotov cocktails and rocks and attacking some members of the crowd.” Yiannopoulos’ speech was cancelled in the interest of public safety.
The faculty members seeking to censor Yiannopoulos did not cover themselves with glory, but the people resorting to violence were the true villains in this narrative. They achieved through violence what could not be achieved by law.
Of course, it is possible the university did not try very hard to hold the event. But the Chancellor faced down a part of his own faculty, and the Berkeley College Republicans thanked the university police and the administration “for doing all they could to ensure the safety of everyone involved.” It does not appear the administration came up short. To the contrary, they appear to have fulfilled their obligations. They deserve praise.
This morning President Trump tweeted “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view — NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”
Notice U.C. Berkeley is the subject of both actions. But the Berkeley Chancellor supported the speech, and we have no evidence that he or any other person acting on behalf of Berkeley incited violence yesterday.
I do not see how attacking people who have observed constitutional norms will encourage others to also respect free speech.
Walter Olson has more on the federal funds aspect of all this.
On Friday, February 3, at noon, Cato will host a discussion of President Trump and free speech. You can register here or walk in tomorrow.
