Berkeley braces for right-wing speaker
BERKELEY, Calif. — The University of California, Berkeley will seal off large parts of its campus like a fortress with a closed perimeter and a “very large” visible police presence Thursday when the birthplace of America’s free speech movement faces its next potential clashes.
City and campus authorities anticipate demonstrations at a speech by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor, and are preparing for possible violence with a variety of new strategies and tightened security.
For the first time in two decades, officers will be armed with pepper spray after the City Council modified a 1997 ban at an emergency meeting this week.
The tactics to boost security are the latest indication of growing frustrations in Berkeley and other liberal cities that have become targets of violent political protests since the election of President Donald Trump and battlegrounds for extremist groups that support and oppose him.
Shapiro’s event, organized by campus Republicans, is being watched as a warm-up act for later this month when provocative, right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos says he plans to hold a “Free Speech Week” on Berkeley’s campus with a 20-person lineup that includes Ann Coulter and Stephen Bannon, Trump’s ex-chief strategist and head of Breitbart News. Campus officials say the event is not yet confirmed.
It will be Yiannopoulos’ second attempt to speak at Berkeley this year, after an event in February was abruptly canceled when masked, hooded left-wing anarchists dressed in black rioted outside the event — setting fires and smashing windows on campus and on nearby city streets.
Police and UC Berkeley officials were criticized at the time for giving demonstrators wide latitude and standing aside as the masked anarchists hurled Molotov cocktails at officers and caused $100,000 worth of damage.
UC Berkeley’s Provost Paul Alivisatos sent a recent campuswide message detailing security plans, saying no one wearing masks or carrying weapons of any sort will be allowed on campus.
Berkeley police Chief Andrew Greenwood said police will make “very strong, rapid arrests” Thursday night if any protesters have weapons or wear masks.
The security measures include closing Sproul Plaza, the campus’ central hub that was the epicenter of the 1960s Free Speech Movement.
“Things have changed,” UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.
“We’re a quantum leap away from the sort of arrangements we needed to make in the past for events that have strong political support or opposition.”
In contrast, a similar event featuring Ben Shapiro on campus in 2016 before President Donald Trump was elected and also hosted by Berkeley College Republicans had “basic security.”
It went off peacefully.