Nearly Fifty Years On and "The Free Speech Movement" is About as Free as Stalin's Soviet Union

Supreme Court Precedent Says Berkeley Must Let Ann Speak–And Protect Her From Antifa, Too!

By John Reid on April 23, 2017

In the mid-1960s, left-wing University of California Berkeley students refused to abide by the administration’s restrictions against campus political activism, launching the so-called Free Speech Movement, which is widely credited for sparking campus radicalism across the country. Alameda Deputy County District Attorney Ed Meese prosecuted the students, and Ronald Reagan made their lawlessness a top campaign issue in his successful 1966 California gubernatorial election. Subsequently Reagan became President and Meese became his Attorney General—and the campus radicals took over universities from the top down. With their cultural power consolidated, free speech no longer serves the Left, and the birthplace of the “Free Speech Movement” is doing its best to keep Ann Coulter from speaking.

Ann Coulter is not the first victim. In February, violent mobs shut down Milo Yiannopoulos's speech on campus. Trump supporters have held two pro-free speech rallies since the event, which “Antifa” thugs also attacked. Citing these safety concerns, the University put such burdensome requirements on a planned speech by David Horowitz that the College Republicans had to cancel it. Now they are trying to do the same with Ann Coulter. But the College Republicans have learned not to try to play nice with the administration—and Coulter, of course, learned that lesson long ago.

The City and the University’s response to each act of violence was the same. They would denounce the speakers’ views as intolerant and divisive prior to the speech. The Antifa would violently shut down the speech, while the police stood by and did nothing. Then, the officials offered a mealy-mouth denunciation of violence, but did nothing to stop it the next time.

-go to links-