Berkeley Campus Chaos Spurs Questions at Free-Speech Bastion

President Trump wasted no time politicizing the protest, tweeting a bold threat that he would strip federal funding from UC Berkeley, one of the most prestigious university’s in the nation. The university gets $400 million to $450 million for research every year, of which around $121 million comes from the National Science Foundation and $125 million from the Health and Human Services department, according to Reuters. Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The Threshold web site has not been updated recently, listing Threshold author Donald Trump as “Presidential candidate Donald Trump“.

The White House has not said whether Trump was actually threatening to cut funding or making some kind of rhetorical point.

Milo was escorted out and the event was canceled.

“In our view, Mr. Yiannopoulos is a troll and provocateur who uses odious behavior in part to “entertain”, but also to deflect any serious engagement with ideas”, UC Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said in a statement released through the university’s website last Thursday.

But why were people protesting Yiannopoulos in the first place?

‘This was a group of agitators who were masked up, throwing rocks, commercial grade fireworks and Molotov cocktails at officers, ‘ said UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennet.

Mogulof attributed the destruction that took place on campus to almost “two dozen black clad individuals using power military tactics.”.

That a building named for the great orator has been vandalized to prevent speech should be an indication that we have a serious problem on some college campuses – and across the country. Others used a metal barricade to smash in doors.

Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at Breitbart, has single-handedly caused another free speech crisis on campus.

The events at Davis and Berkeley were organized by conservative student groups.

There were no arrests.

Dan Mogulof, a UC Berkeley spokesman, said campus officials went to “extraordinary lengths” over weeks of planning to help the Berkeley College Republicans prepare for the event. But surely, those who have the power to shut down one’s free speech are in fact the privileged ones, right?

The protests at the University of California Berkeley were peaceful on Wednesday from 5pm till 6pm, the Guardian reports, until “several dozen protesters wearing black face masks and carrying glittering flags arrived”.

The President is right to be broadly concerned about the state of free speech on campus. “Hate speech isn’t welcome in our community”.