Coulter Speech at Berkeley Has Entire Campus on Edge
Some at the University of California in Berkeley are making preparations for the worst after another “controversial” speaker has been invited to give an address on campus in late April, just two months after the school was rocked by destructive riots that prevented a speech by libertarian-conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
According to KNTV, conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter has been invited by the College Republicans — the same group that invited Milo — to speak at Berkeley.
“The Berkeley College Republicans have invited Ms. Coulter to speak at UC Berkeley because she has been one of the most vocal critics of illegal immigration in all its manifestations and was one of the earliest supporters of President Trump, from when he initially announced his candidacy down to the present day,” stated group spokesperson Naweed Tahmas.
The College Republicans have teamed up with the Young America’s Foundation, which will be paying the bulk of Coulter’s $20,000 speaking fee, as well as a new non-partisan group known as BridgeCal, which has dedicated itself to facilitating civil discourse between opposing parties on political matters.
“We want to create a space where all political views and opinions are welcome, but they are going to be challenged through debate and discussion …This is the proper way we need to deal with political disagreements,”explained BridgeCal founder and president Pranav Jandhyala, who added that progressive speakers would be part of the series as well.
But of course there remained a fear that the situation could quickly deteriorate as it did when Milo showed up to speak, with a replay of the destructive riots that became national news for days and fully exposed the anti-free speech tendency of the American left.
“We are pretty apprehensive right now about everything,” Jandahyala told KPIX. “But at the same time, what’s pushing us forward is our optimism. We truly believe we can put on a great event.”
BridgeCal and the College Republicans have also teamed up to demand that the school provide tighter security for the event as compared to the near-non-existent security during the Milo incident.
“This time we are definitely going to push them to provide more security than they did last time,” Jandahyala said. “More officers on the ground instead of in the balcony.”
According to Breitbart, UC Berkeley issued a statement making it clear that it did not endorse the political viewpoints of any particular speaker invited to the campus.
“The administration wishes to make clear that an invitation of this sort in no way suggests our endorsement of a particular point of view, and we will continue to affirm our commitment to the values of diversity, equality and tolerance that underlie the greatness of Berkeley and, indeed, of our nation,” read the statement.
Obviously, it remained to be seen if Ann Coulter’s scheduled visit to the UC-Berkeley campus will result in intellectually honest debates of the immigration issue or will degenerate into another violent silencing of someone’s right to speak freely.
http://conservativetribune.com/berkeley-controversial-speaker/