An appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California Berkeley scheduled to take place on the first day of Black History Month was canceled Wednesday amid protests. Yiannopoulos, an editor for a publication the Southern Poverty Law Center said in 2016 was "embracing ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right," had been invited by the Berkeley College Republicans.
"The decision to cancel the event was made at about 6 p.m., and officers read several dispersal announcements to a crowd of more than 1,500 protesters who had gathered outside the student union, where Yiannopoulos was to speak," a press release from the UC Berkeley office of public affairs announced Wednesday night. "He immediately was escorted from the building and left campus."
The initially non-violent protest, university officials said, took a more aggressive approach when a "group of about 150 masked agitators" reportedly started to employ fires, barricades, Molotov cocktails, and more.
UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett claimed to NBC News that officers did not deploy tear gas or make arrests. "I believe our officers exercised tremendous restraint," she said. According toSFGate, police were investigating a hit-and-run incident Wednesday night involving a white BMW sedan and protesters.
Predictably, Donald Trump took to Twitter after the cancelation to accuse the university of not allowing "free speech" and practicing "violence on innocent people." Trump also threatened to pull federal funds:
Related Stories
Twitter Demands Another Beatdown of Richard Spencer Over Quebec Shooting Comments
Richard Spencer made some disgusting comments about the Quebec shooting and now people on Twitter want him to get punched again.
A Complete Dictionary of White Supremacist Slang and Symbols
The swastika isn't the only neo-Nazi signifier—here's your complete guide to white supremacist iconography.
Racists Are Rebranding Themselves as the 'Alt-Right' and Twitter Is Not Having It
Twitter users are calling out the racists who describe themselves euphemistically as the "alt-right."
But perhaps Trump should read Sam Sedgman's recent op-ed in the Guardiandeclaring Yiannopoulos a peddler of hate. "For free speech organizations to stand up and defend Yiannopoulos is a dangerous miscalculation," Sedgman writes. "It further supports the narrative that he's a radical visionary being oppressed by the system, rather than an opinion-spamming hack who brings out the worst in people."
