Last week, on Wednesday, February 1st, violent riots broke out at UC Berkeley protesting the scheduled on-campus speech of conservative writer, Milo Yiannopoulos. The demonstration led to violence when a small group of protestors started breaking windows, throwing smoke bombs and flares. This caused the school to go into lockdown, and Mr. Yiannopoulos was evacuated from the campus immediately. Coincidentally, his speech was scheduled the same day as his college grant program for white males began taking applications.
After the protest was over, Yiannopoulos lashed out at the protestors, stating that “the Left” was “absolutely terrified of free speech and will do anything to shut it down” (CNBC). However, President Trump also had some choice words for UC Berkeley. In a tweet the day after the protests, the President threatened not to fund the college. “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view- NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” (Donald Trump). I think that the protestors had the right to protest, because freedom of speech is one of our country’s most important values. However, I don’t think violence was the answer, despite the fact that Mr. Yiannopoulos has some very controversial views concerning race and gender. I also think that it was very wrong of President Trump to criticize the protestors. Yes, violence was not the best option, but you can’t threaten to stop funding a UC college. That’s not possible, and if that did happen, there would be a lot of backlash. Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/01/uc-berkeley-on-lockdown-amid-protest-over-milo-yiannopoulos.html
2 Comments
Sarah Park
2/6/2017 08:55:35 am
Great article, and I agree with you that Trump shouldn't stop funding the UC school.
Reply
Katie Walsh
2/8/2017 09:52:56 am
I agree with you that Trump shouldn't stop funding a school because of this, Good article!
Reply
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