Thugs’ Speech Veto
Letting the Antifa goons win
Iwas scheduled to speak last week at Dartmouth College by invitation of the chapter College Republicans and Turning Point USA. The Thursday “Extremism in America” event was meant to highlight America’s long history with far-left violent extremism, a subject politicians and media oft ignore and deny.
Gabriel Nadales, a former member of California militant leftist groups, was the cospeaker. But we never got to step on stage to a live audience.
Soon after the event was announced, Antifa and its army of online trolls threatened violence to shut it down. In turn, Dartmouth administrators gave the extremists exactly what they wanted: The Hanover, NH, college canceled the in-person event at the last minute, citing vague “safety issues.”
To be sure, the threats against myself, Nadales and prospective attendees were concerning. Local law enforcement had to clear Moore Hall with a bomb squad and dogs before I arrived.
About a week prior to the scheduled event, the group Northeast Antifa published a disturbing flyer featuring a photograph of my bloodied face from when an Antifa mob beat me in 2019 in Portland, Ore. I was hospitalized for a brain hemorrhage from that assault and robbery.
“Anti-fascists from all over New England will be mobilizing January 20th, 2022 at Dartmouth College to disrupt and prevent fascist propagandists like Andy Ngo from normalizing their reactionary beliefs on college campuses in the Northeast,” tweeted the group. It instructed fellow comrades to “wear black” to hide their identities and avoid future prosecution.
On Instagram, the group threatened me directly. “This is to Andy Ngo himself: when you
f–k with us you are not f–king with college students,” it wrote. “When you enter our home you start playing by our rules, not yours. New England is anti-fascist, and we will hold that line until death.”
The Vermont chapter of the far-left militia John Brown Gun Club responded in a tweet, saying it had called up reserves and would be there with a “battalion of Antifa.” In 2019, a member of the group’s Washington state chapter, Willem van Spronsen, carried out an armed attack on the Tacoma Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility using firebombs. When he aimed his rifle at responding police, he was shot dead. He left behind a manifesto proclaiming, “I am antifa.”
In Portland, an Antifa member I’ve reported on named Jonathan Dylan Chase offered to pay anyone who gets arrested for assaulting me.
On Reddit, a thread announcing Antifa’s call to direct action went viral on the Socialist Rifle Association subreddit. There, some of the pseudonymous users posted about killing me and coming armed to the event to stop the “pests.”
Hanover police, nearby-Lebanon police and the Grafton County Sheriff’s Office met the threats with a robust and commendable response. Dozens of officers secured the lecture hall where we were scheduled to speak. They secured every entrance and exit at the building, Moore Hall.
The message was clear: Law enforcement will ensure First Amendment activities are protected in Hanover, NH. Dartmouth’s administrators, however, felt otherwise.
Two hours before the event was set to begin, and with many attendees already en route, the administration canceled it. Over the phone, senior assistant dean for student life Anna Hall said the decision was made by “several” people but refused to say who when asked by a student organizer. The organizers were given the ultimatum of “transitioning” to a Zoom meeting or nothing at all. They reluctantly chose the former.
Attendees who drove hours across New England were turned away at the door. The administrators would not even let in the family of the organizers or those who were personally vetted. Inside, Nadales and I spoke on a staffer’s old laptop in an empty lecture hall. The video stream was plagued with sound issues.
Antifa’s response was unsurprising. But what should surprise us is Dartmouth College’s decision to legitimize Antifa’s cancel strategy. The crowdsourced online threats were bluffs meant to force the rest of us into self-censorship.
The lack of condemnation from the New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and other so-called civil-rights groups signals that those actions are permissible. By giving in, Dartmouth just handed Antifa a blueprint on shutting down future events. And sure enough, the same Antifa accounts that made the threats took a victory lap.