Ann Coulter has canceled her appearance at UC Berkeley on Thursday. Photo: Natalie Orenstein
By Natalie Orenstein and Frances Dinkelspiel
Following several days of will-she-won’t-she, Ann Coulter has said she will not appear in Berkeley on Thursday, but the exact reason for her cancellation is still unclear.
Early on Wednesday, she told the New York Times that she would not appear at UC Berkeley “because she faced threats of violence and felt she was left without the support of local law enforcement who have said it cannot guarantee her safety.” Then Fox News cited a Reuters interview where Coulter laid some blame on the Young America’s Foundation, which removed its sponsorship of her speech. “I looked over my shoulder and my allies had joined the other team,” she wrote.
When Coulter finally got around to addressing the situation on Twitter, she blamed UC Berkeley.
The Young America’s Foundation, which pulled its endorsement of the talk Tuesday because of concern about violence, also blamed UC Berkeley.
“It was not YAF who backed out of an event—there was no event because at no time did UC Berkeley offer a venue or time for the YAF lecture to take place,” a group representative wrote in an email.
“This is a matter of the university and the university police obstructing our right to free speech,” said Naweed Tahmas, a spokesman for Berkeley College Republicans. Cal is “feckless. BCR will not cower in the face of university obstructionism.”
Even the ACLU framed it as a Free Speech issue.
The heckler’s veto of Coulter’s Berkeley speech is a loss for the 1st Amendment. We must protect speech on campus, even when hateful.
It’s an argument with which UC Berkeley strongly disagrees. Chancellor Nicholas Dirks put out a statement this morning insisting that Cal never canceled Coulter’s speech, nor prohibited her from coming to campus. The university was not trying to trample on Free Speech. UC, however, had to impose security restrictions on when and where she could talk since numerous groups made it clear they intended to use Coulter’s talk as an excuse to engage violently with one another, he wrote.
“This University has two non-negotiable commitments, one to Free Speech, the other to the safety of our campus community members, their guests, and the public,” Dirks wrote. “In that context, we cannot ignore or deny what is a new reality. Groups and individuals from the extreme ends of the political spectrum have made clear their readiness and intention to utilize violent tactics in support or in protest of certain speakers at UC Berkeley. … “This is a University, not a battlefield.”
Even though Coulter has now confirmed she will not be speaking at UC Berkeley, there will still be a protest.
Lauren Southern and Brittany Pettibone, two right-wing activists who spoke at the April 15 rally in Civic Center Park that devolved into violence, said they are planning to make some remarks on Thursday in Coulter’s stead as a matter of principle, in the name of Free Speech. They will be joined by Gavin McInnes, the co-founder of Vice media, a conservative pundit and the founder of The Proud Boys, a new national organization that deems itself pro-Western, pro-Trump and who believes women should be venerated when they hold conventional domestic roles. Many Proud Boys were involved in the fighting on April 15. No time or place for their speeches was announced “for obvious reasons,” said Southern.
However, Kyle Chapman, who has twice been arrested in Berkeley in connection with violence, tweeted that there would be a rally in Civic Center Park at 2 pm.
UC Berkeley police will make their presence known on campus on Thursday. They intend to approach any rally differently than they did the rally that forced the cancellation of the Yiannopolous talk.
“What I can say is our deployment and staffing is going to be significantly different than Milo,” said UC Police Captain Alex Yao. “If you are on campus tomorrow you will see a large number of law enforcement. We will have very, very low tolerance for any sort of violence on campus.”
The university does not plan to cancel classes although access to some buildings might be restricted said UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof. Officials will send out alerts through Nixle and Twitter, he said.
Our Fuck Antifa Rally is ON! Let’s show Antifa and UCB that we will not be silenced. 2151 M.L.K. Jr Way, Berkeley, CA 94704 2PM BE THERE! https://t.co/UJJN7fa0gX
A spokesman for By Any Means Necessary said he did not think the group’s members would show up at Cal on Thursday but would instead focus on protesting on May 1. But the cancellation is a “victory,” according to Hoku Jeffrey, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2005 and is now a Southern California coordinator for BAMN.
“I think it’s great,” said Jeffrey. “It’s a real victory for the forces of freedom and equality. Berkeley is a sanctuary campus and it’s going to remain that way and we made clear we are not going to allow any campus deportations.”
Despite Coulter’s cancellation, there is fallout from the situation.
Young America’s Foundation and the Berkeley College Republicans have filed a federal lawsuit contending that UC Berkeley had suppressed conservative speakers’ freedom of speech and had violated their First Amendment rights. The lawsuit will continue.
Troy Worden, president of Berkeley College Republicans, speaks to reporters at a press conference at Cal. Photo: Natalie Orenstein
“We are announcing a new free speech movement,” said Troy Worden, president of Berkeley College Republicans. “We don’t want to set a precedence where the university can directly collaborate with anti-fascist groups.”
Pranav Jandhyala, co-founder of the non-partisan group, BridgeUSA, which had agreed to pay $3,000 of Coulter’s $20,000 speaking fee, said the group still wants to bring Coulter to campus, but under different circumstances.
“We’re going to withdraw ourselves from any events that take place tomorrow,” he said. “Our whole goal was to facilitate discourse and fix polarization. This event has created more polarization than anything.”
UC Berkeley has repeatedly said that it wants to work to bring Coulter to campus, but in a way that ensures her safety and the safety of bystanders. That was why it initially canceled Coulter’s April 27 appearance, saying short notice from the student groups and threats of violence had prevented the university from securing a safe venue for the talk. The university offered a venue on May 2, but Coulter rejected that date because it fell during Dead Week, when students are busy studying for finals.
Dirks said Tuesday the university will work to clarify its policies for controversial speakers.
“We will work cooperatively with members of our campus community who would sponsor events to ensure that those events can occur and that the campus can actually benefit from the dialogue their invited speakers might generate,” said Dirks. “To this end, we are working to clarify our policies and practices so that all know what is expected and how sponsors can best engage us to facilitate the success of their planned events. We trust that cooperation and good will among the members of our own community can help us jointly defend our campus against the threats to both speech and safety currently being posed by outside groups.”
In an accompanying statement, Mogulof wrote that Coulter’s safety concerns “are the exact reason we want her to come on a day when a protectable venue is available. We have always been concerned for her safety.”
UC Police and Berkeley police had been working together to plan for a violent outburst at the Coulter’s talk and still plan to be on alert. The Downtown Business Association sent an alert to members warning them to be prepared for possible violence. At the Feb. 1 protest involving Milo Yiannopolous, dozens of Antifa activists swarmed through downtown and smashed windows and ATM machines and looted at least one store. They caused $100,000 in damage at UC Berkeley and hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage downtown.
Berkeley police appear to be getting ready for the now-cancelled visit by Ann Coulter by restricting parking in front of the Public Safety Building. Photo: Emilie Raguso
Coulter isn’t threatening injury and destruction. You might find it good to arrest a few blackshirts, they caused a bit of damage before Berkeley was added to the Right’s speaking tours.
Madfoot713
>That’s a circular response
No, it’s not, it’s the meaning of freedom of speech.
LOL nice try with your obvious inflammatory troll post
Madfoot713
They’re required to provide the students equal access to their facilities and respect their constitutional rights.
WasatchHaole
One really disturbing thing that has come to light is that BAMN is acting as cult, moving the teenagers they recruit across country to separate them from friends and family, blocking their contact with the outside world, then compelling them to obey under the threat of taking away food and shelter. They haven’t provided their “soldiers” with proper and professional medical care. They govern by compulsion. Basically, they are totally fascist within their own organization. They are violating laws by engaging in Human Trafficking. If you know someone involved in BAMN, please give them this information:
National Human Trafficking Resource Center
1-888-373-7888 or text BeFree (233733)
WasatchHaole
Save Kekistan! ;-)
laura
The editors include remarks about departing with Coulter. So what, it changes nothing. In fact, it makes the arguments all the stronger.
It is a dark day for free speech.
“The mayor of Berkeley himself has justified lackluster police responses by claiming that if police had been more aggressive then “more people could’ve gotten hurt.” Let’s be clear about what this means: The police are failing to protect liberty in part out of a desire to protect the rioters from physical harm. That’s why entire city streets have seemed to be empty of police presence. That’s why rioters have been able to beat innocent citizens with impunity. That’s why so few arrests have been made.”
Gotta admit I agree with every word of the NRO editorial today.
“Cowardice at Berkeley”
……For those at Berkeley celebrating what they believe to be a moral victory, consider this: As much as you may detest Ann Coulter, she has never used violence or the threat of violence to keep someone from speaking. She is a better citizen than you are, with a deeper commitment to genuinely liberal and humane values. You may call yourselves the anti-fascists, but your black-shirt routine — along with your glorification of political violence and your rejection of liberal and democratic norms — suggest that the “anti” part of that formulation is not entirely appropriate. Perhaps you are only young and ignorant, but if you had any power of introspection at all, you would see that you are the thing you believe yourselves to be fighting. You are the oppressors, the censors, the violent, the hateful, the narrow-minded, the reactionary. So, what now? University of California system president Janet Napolitano should be dismissed. Napolitano used to head up the Department of Homeland Security. She had executive responsibility for keeping al-Qaeda out of New York and Washington, but she can’t secure a lecture hall on a California college campus? That beggars belief. The issue here is not an inability to act responsibly but an unwillingness to do so. She should go. The Berkeley police department, which among other things has encouraged violent protests and cooperated with their organizers by offering to make “symbolic arrests,” also requires new management. It is engaged in systematic viewpoint discrimination in violation of federal law.
Lots of simplifications going on in the comments here. The Republican party is not monolithic, Lord knows. Look at the attempt at Trump Care: Appease the right of the party and the moderates say, “No way. You can’t screw all those people (especially those who voted for me) out of their health care!” And down it goes…
There is an election coming and all the Representatives must run. There is also a census coming, and with that, redistricting. The Republicans don’t want to lose their gerrymandered districts. Remember, unlike California (where the people got rid of it) the red states still allow their elected representatives to select their voters, instead of the other way around. That’s why so many Republicans in Congress are putting a bit of distance between themselves and President Trump. Can’t be too careful now.
This is proving most interesting to us moderates. It’s like sitting at the side of the net and watching a tennis match with live grenades. Dangerous, but fascinating.
emraguso
That’s because he hasn’t been arrested.
paxallen1067
The last thing Cal–hereinafter called ‘The Institution’–has ever been is radical, much less liberal. Historically, this noise is due to student (and other T.I.-offended groups, like staff) action against/in spite of UC policies. (Yes, Virginia, the school admin are pods..) The I. is gobbling up real estate in its nearest electron shells to house its more, ever more population increases. Goodbye, tax base. Nearby new mostly market-rate housing will be effectively used as living closets.
So, when Ann craps about Cal, there are reasons she could use, but they just don’t burn as brightly..
If you want to be left alone, why are you coming to our city with White Nationalist speakers,(yes, they are) and holding a rally next door to a high school… right around the time school gets out. I think it’s pretty obvious that you are trying to upset the parents of Berkeley, and that your new event has nothing to do with UCB/Ann Coulter/Free Speech. Should be noted, I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, but since you brought up Milo… I am gonna HOPE that the above is the reason you are rallying next to a high school.. I HOPE that all it is.
Yeah “coming to Berkeley” was probably a slip, as it makes it kinda obvious that he/she isn’t a resident.
William M Popper
“…Land of the Free, Home of the Brave?…”
angdonlon
BAMN cannot make the 2:00 time since they will still be teaching.
stngythng
plural??? proof, show some proof.
stngythng
I think folks like “Spenser” get spoon fed an ideology that stooges such as this couldn’t possibly create in their lil ole minds.
Used to be the “Martians kidnapped me and forced me to do it”, now it’s unsubstantiated fake “facts” gleaned from the internet.
I’m starting to think that the Free Speech Movement in the 60’s wasn’t really about the left valuing free speech. Maybe it was the leftists using the Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, tactic of holding the other side to their own values. Free Speech is an American value and a fundamental 1st Amendment constitutional right. But maybe it isn’t really a left-wing value at all. Boy was I fooled!
Repukkkes Suck
“The Proud Boys, a new national organization that deems itself pro-Western, pro-Trump and who believes women should be venerated when they hold conventional domestic roles”
—————————-
Did I mention already that these wingnuts were a collection of ideologically incoherent mouthbreathers united primarily by their desire to punch hippies and irritate liberals? I think so but it’s worth pointing out again.
But for liberals and their “radical” “anti-Western” ideas, Ann Coulter wouldn’t be making millions writing books and being unfunny on cable TV and radio. But for liberals and their “radical” “anti-Western” ideas, “rebels” like Lauren Southern and Brittany Pettibone would be frying on stake or lying at the bottom of a pond. They really are a pack of weirdos. A real conundrum. Well, until you recognize that they’re all about the money-grubbing and the toxicity and very little else.
Concernedresidentofearth
I don’t normally come across the types of people that follow Anne Coulter, but they have joined these comment sections which is their right. The number of nutty beliefs they hold doesn’t bode well for the country. And the inability to understand nuance, subtlety, irony, and hypocrisy leaves me scratching my head about the future of self government. How can a people self govern when so many heads are filled with nonsense?
Pietro Gambadilegno
Some profs? You are just making it up and have no basis for saying that.
Concernedresidentofearth
What does that mean?
Repukkkes Suck
“We are announcing a new free speech movement,” said Troy Worden, president of Berkeley College Republicans.
—————–
I’m announcing a new free speech movement, too! And unlike Troy Worden, I know how to dress myself.
angdonlon
No they are made up of Berkeley Middle School teachers along with some profs.
lodule16
Poppycock.
anposter
Put that way, one wonders if they’re even human beings.
Repukkkes Suck
We never had a pathologically lying preznut before who encourages lowlifes like Ann with his endless inane tweets.
Repukkkes Suck
“anyone who would hire a Berkeley graduate has to expect a Lysenkoist,”
————————–
Thank goodness there are no Republicans graduating from UC! I suppose they must have all been executed. Right?
Good grief.
Repukkkes Suck
“anyone who would hire a Berkeley graduate has to expect a Lysenkoist,”
———
Where did they dig you up? Serious question. How does a human brain get this warped?
Repukkkes Suck
>I hope A.C. actually did feel a little fearful.
That’s an awful thing to say
———————–
Compared to what? More awful than “—– people are inferior because my holy book says so and therefore I’m entitled to discriminate against them”? I don’t think so.
And, seriously: “ultra-rightists just want free speech”? Jeebus H Crisp but you need to put down whatever you’re smoking, or else you’re just a disgusting liar.
Have fun LARPing Please post a photo before you go, I know we will all be interested to see if you dress up as a 14th century knight, or a roman-esque gladiator. I vote gladiator, all though it’s probably going to be cold tomorrow mid-day so the skirt and sandals might not be advisable. Knight is probably better weather wise.
Pietro Gambadilegno
You are completely out of touch with reality. Antifa is not made up of UC Berkeley students or professors. If you lived in Berkeley, you would know that.
Igor Davis
“Thuggish”. In my 27 years in Berkeley, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word used to describe CAL before.
Completely_Serious
First, Cal says, “We need some time to find a safe place for you. And some time to train the cops.” And Ann says, “No.” Now, she says, “Since you can’t keep me safe, I’m not coming.”
Sigh.
Bateman
Seems it was always just a cheap publicity stunt – she gets to decry what she speciously claims is UC trampling her rights, and maybe sell a few more books as a result. Mostly, she comes off sounding like a whinging victim.
Leave the students alone. THEY have work to do, unlike -apparently- you.
Meliflaw
I hope A.C. actually did feel a little fearful. I, too, have felt fearful and angry, and so have many neighbors–most of whom dislike Coulter, but support her right to free speech–during those times when ultra-leftists and ultra-rightists invaded our public spaces for no better reason than to scream and fight. (Note that of the 20 arrested last time, only 3 live here.) Well, she’s grabbed another 15 minutes of fame for her resume, and perhaps another book contract as well. Such a nasty woman.
Pietro Gambadilegno
Coulter is a special snowflake.
Concernedresidentofearth
What an idiot and what a bunch of stupid nonsense.
Does Coulter/BAMN help move the country toward single payer health insurance? Help fight climate change? Figure out how to convince Americans that spending $600 billion on the military is idiotic? Do they do anything productive at all? No. They are all irrelevant sideshows. In fact, for the right, it’s an entire industry made up of Milo, Coulter, Alex Jones, and, literally hundreds of others. They do nothing for the country, and many actively harm it.
