Conservative commentator and speaker Ben Shapiro on Thursday spoke to an appreciative audience at California State-Los Angeles over a blaring fire alarm protesters rang to obstruct his speech and despite the front door to the auditorium being barricaded by a protest mob so audience members had to come in through a back door.
A Twitchy post cut through the political spin to the protests against free speech and said, “‘The fascist Left’: ‘Bloviating jack—es’ try to silence Ben Shaprio at CSULA.”
The Media Research Center reported, “Right now, YAF students and staff are essentially being held hostage in the lecture hall where Ben Shapiro just spoke at CSULA by protesters who are blocking the exits. Police have told us they can no longer guarantee anyone’s safety.”
Shapiro, in a video posted by MRC, said audience members were having to be “sneaked in” through a back door because of anti-speech protesters congregating and blocking the main entrance.
“In 2016, you have to use the back door if you want to participate in free speech,” Shapiro said. “You get to block the front door if you’re a member of the left.”
He cited one of the school’s own sociology professors, Robert Weide, who earlier in the week had called YAF students “white supremacists” and invited them to fight him.
Shapiro reported Weide had called campus security on students putting up posters about the event because, “You wouldn’t want posters microaggressing you.”
Shapiro reported the professor wrote on a sign outside his office, “‘The best response to microaggression is macroaggression.’ In other words, if I’m offended I get to take physical action against you. I get to be violent with you.”
He continued, “For those of you who don’t speak ‘Low-IQ’ what professor Weide means the best response to hearing things you don’t like is hurting people who say those things.”
When a protester pulled a fire alarm to try to disrupt his speech, Shapiro said, “They’re not going to stop us.”
See a short video:
The disruptions and anti-speech threats developed at least in part, he said, because the school’s president, William Covino, is a “totalitarian” who canceled the event “that he had no right to cancel.”
“He refuses to stand up for free speech.”
He charged the protesters with “thug tactics” and accused the administration of glorifying the attempts to shut down free speech.
Officials at California State University-Los Angeles only a short time before the speech had blinked in the standoff over free speech, announcing they were allowing Shapiro to speak to a school group that had invited him to campus.
The announcement came only a short time before Shapiro’s appearance at the invitation of the student group called Young Americans for Freedom.
They had arranged for Shapiro to speak about diversity.
In an unsigned statement released by the university’s communications office, the school had said there had been “emails and social media posts that caused concern for the campus community.”
“Given threats and expressions of fear, President William A. Covino proposed a rescheduled event that would be civil and inclusive, and in which Mr. Shapiro and speakers with other viewpoints could offer their perspectives in an organized forum.”
But Covino actually told the students he was rescheduling Shapiro’s speech so that the university could add other speakers with different viewpoints, and then Covino abruptly canceled it completely, prompting officials with the Alliance Defending Freedom to blast the suppression of free speech.
They pointed out that there are no constitutional provisions to let school officials abruptly call something “controversial,” then charge high “security” fees and then shut down an event entirely.
The school backtracked with a statement from Covino, “My decision was made in the interest of safety and security. I am disappointed that Mr. Shapiro has not accepted my invitation to speak in such a forum. He has indicated that he will come to Cal State LA to speak today at the University-Student Union Theatre, where he was originally scheduled to deliver this talk.”
He continued,” I strongly disagree with Mr. Shapiro’s views.”
ADF Senior Counsel David Hacker said, “Silencing the speech of students on a public university campus – the very marketplace of ideas – because of their views is not only illogical, it’s unconstitutional. The university has made the right decision in allowing the Young Americans for Freedom event to proceed as planned and as we requested, without censorship and without unconstitutional fees.”
Ben Shapiro
The group said the school’s suggestion to have Shapiro speak alongside speakers the school chose was unreasonable.
YAF, Hacker said has “every bit as much right to hold this event as any other student group does, and the university can’t stop that because it prefers to water down the speaker’s message with other viewpoints that officials find more palatable to their own political views.”
Further, he said, “The courts have made it clear that university officials cannot deem an event ‘controversial’ and then weigh down students with burdensome fees to engage in constitutionally protected free speech just because some people consider it controversial, but it’s even worse to take that a step further and try to silence the speech altogether.”
One of those causing concern was Weide, who had attacked the YAF students over their beliefs.
In was in an email to student Mark Kahanding that Covino ordered the cancellation.
“I have decided that it will be best for our campus community if we reschedule Ben Shapiro’s appearance for a later date, so that we can arrange for him to appear as part of a group of speakers with differing viewpoints on diversity,” Covino ordered at the time.
He claimed his decision to stop Shapiro’s speech and bring in other speakers “will better represent our university’s dedication to the free exchange of ideas and the value of considering multiple viewpoints.”
Fox Business reported, “[Shapiro] and YAF intend to hold the speech on Thursday despite the CSULA ban and threaten to sue if they are blocked from the auditorium where the speech was scheduled to take place.”
“The campus fascists have taken over,” Shapiro told Breitbart News. “I pay taxes in the state of California; I’m paying for these whiny children to be indoctrinated by radical leftists. For CSULA to pretend that they’re trying to provide balance isn’t just stupid, it’s insultingly stupid. I am the balance, and they’re too afraid to let me speak. These aren’t diversity warriors. They’re jackbooted thugs. If they want to call the men with guns to shut down free speech, they’ll demonstrate clearly just who they are. I’ll be there on Thursday. See you there, snowflakes.”
ADF said the student organization may end up taking legal action.
“The First Amendment does not require YAF to consolidate its viewpoint with others,” Hacker noted. “The number of events on university campuses with speakers who have different viewpoints from Mr. Shapiro’s and YAF’s are plentiful. No need or legitimate basis exists for canceling YAF’s event.”
According to Fox Business, “Covina did not cancel liberal focused speeches which include counter culture radical Angela Davis and Time Wise, who will lecture students on ‘Exploring Whiteness’ on Wednesday February 24th, or Serene Khader on the topic, ‘Do Muslim Women Really Need Freedom?”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/protest-mob-fire-alarm-fail-to-stifle-shapiro/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/protest-mob-fire-alarm-fail-to-stifle-shapiro/
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