"It is time for new laws that will make higher education leaders take the 1st Amendment seriously.
They told me if Donald Trump were elected, voices of dissent would be shut down by fascist mobs. And they were right!
At the University of California, Berkeley campus, for example, gay conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos had to be evacuated, and his speech cancelled, because masked rioters beat people, smashed windows, and started fires.
Protesters threw commercial fireworks at police.
According to CNN: “The violent protesters tore down metal barriers, set fires near the campus bookstore and damaged the construction site of a new dorm.
One woman wearing a red Trump hat was pepper sprayed in the face while being interviewed by CNN affiliate KGO. . . . As police dispersed the crowd from campus, a remaining group of protesters moved into downtown Berkeley and smashed windows at several local banks.
No arrests were made throughout the night.”
According to CNN, the protests caused over $100,000 in damage.
Yiannopoulous wasn’t the only victim of silencing efforts..."
Whether or not Berkeley loses its federal funding over the Milo riots (and it won’t), I think it’s time for action to address this double standard.
- First, state and local law enforcement agencies need to target violent rioters who seek to silence speakers. It is a felony under federal civil rights law to conspire to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights, among which is free speech. In addition, many states have laws (generally called Klan laws) that punish people who engage in mob violence or intimidation while masked. These should be applied as well.
- Second, perhaps it’s time to have a Title IX-style law banning discrimination according to political viewpoints on campus..."
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