BEWARE THIS MAN: State College President Bans Breitbart’s Shapiro
by Breitbart News
22 Feb 2016
On Monday evening, just three days before Breitbart News Senior Editor-At-Large was scheduled to give his speech at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) titled “When Diversity Becomes a Problem,” the president of the university officially cancelled the lecture, citing the need to organize a more “inclusive event.”
In an email to the Young America’s Foundation chapter at CSULA, university president William Covino wrote, “After careful consideration, 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. Such an event will better represent our university’s dedication to the free exchange of ideas and the value of considering multiple viewpoints.”
Shapiro and YAF have vowed to take their event to campus anyway, without the permission of the school. “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 see them on Thursday.”
YAF announced in a statement, “In recognition of the school’s dire need for ideological diversity, Young America’s Foundation and CSULA YAF, in cooperation with Ben Shapiro, fully intend to hold the event, which is part of YAF’s Fred R. Allen Lecture Series, without the university’s approval. The Foundation is prepared to take legal action if the school fails to recognize these students’ rights.”
Covino clearly had no problem with the university hosting radical leftists ranging from Dr. Cornel West to Angela Davis and Tim Wise without the need for a conservative counterpoint. “Balance at CSULA only runs one way,” Shapiro said. “This event obviously threatens the feelings of the precious snowflakes at the university. Tough.”
The shutdown follows weeks of controversy, after Professor Robert Weide threatened to wrestle students for sponsoring the event, and Black Lives Matter activist Professor Melina Abdullah, who took to Facebook to complain, “I say this event is a problem…What we go’n do y’all?!?!” One of the commenters, Ruben Martin, replied, “You want I should hoiwt’em bwoss? I’s got a fews ideas me n’d’fellas been kickin ‘round. Only ting iz he won’t be talking or lookin so nice no more. We’ll take the cannolies…” CSULA students have said the event poses a “threat to their lives” and is “damaging to their mental health.”
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2016/02/22/beware-this-man-state-college-president-bans-breitbarts-shapiro/
What's most troubling is how young these folks are. They should have held their own rally or meeting and presented their own ideas. Or better yet, they should have participated in a debate with Shapiro. Instead, they resorted to threats, anarchy, setting off alarms, blocking doors, and even promoted physical violence. These are future leaders.
Campus Protesters Try to Silence Conservative Speaker, Demand College President’s ResignationNatalie Johnson / @nataliejohnsonn /
February 26, 2016
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro talks about diversity despite a disruption when protesters at California State University, Los Angeles blocked entrances to the event in an attempt to shut it down. (Photo: Jacqueline Pilar/Young America's Foundation)
Student protesters swarmed California State University, Los Angeles to barricade the entrances of a theater where conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was set to deliver a speech about censorship and diversity on college campuses.
Led primarily by the school’s Black Student Union and Black Lives Matter chapter, the hundreds of demonstrators, including some professors, poured into the Student Union building Thursday afternoon to block other students from attending the event.
Many in the dense crowd of protesters shoved and shouted at attendees who tried slipping through the doors.
Members of the conservative Young America’s Foundation, host of the event, called “When Diversity Becomes a Problem,” said they were forced to sneak groups of four to five in the back door leading directly to the theater to avoid catching the attention of protesters who hadn’t yet obstructed the last entrance.
Amy Lutz, a program officer at YAF, said the group was able to funnel roughly 100 students into the theater on the CSU-LA campus before protesters surrounded the entrances, preventing anyone from entering or leaving for the duration of Shapiro’s speech.
“It was frightening. I felt like we were hostages in this room, because we couldn’t get out,” Lutz told The Daily Signal.
She said more than a dozen police officers stayed inside the theater, ordering attendees to stay put until the crowd dissipated. A demonstrator pulled the fire alarm midway through the lecture, but Shapiro carried on with his remarks despite the shrill noise and pounding at the doors.
“Here’s my message to the bloviating jackasses outside: Toughen up, you spoiled brat snowflakes, if you actually want a better world,” Shapiro, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, said to cheers.
Police escorted Shapiro out of the theater at the end of his speech, citing “safety concerns.”
Much of the crowd moved from the theater to the executive’s office to hold a sit-in and demand the resignation of CSU-LA’s president, William Covino, for allowing Shapiro’s appearance.
Lutz said the reaction from the protesters underscores a troubling problem among universities across the United States. She said:
Not only is free speech under attack, but it’s also very difficult to be a conservative on a college campus. It’s very difficult to speak up, and a lot of students choose to be silent because they know in extreme cases, like this one at CSU-LA, people will aggressively fight back if they choose to speak their mind.
Melina Abdullah, a professor and chair of pan-African studies at the university, took to Twitter and encouraged students to protest Shapiro’s appearance, calling his event “hate speech.” She claimed police were sent to arrest students for protesting.
The Daily Signal could not independently confirm this statement.
Emily Jashinsky, a spokeswoman for YAF, told The Daily Signal that tens of thousands of viewers tuned in to Shapiro’s speech online Thursday night. She said the level of interest illustrates that the country is “growing increasingly frustrated” with censorship on college campuses.
On Monday, Covino emailed YAF members informing them he had canceled Shapiro’s appearance for security reasons, opting for a “more inclusive event” highlighting speakers with “differing viewpoints on diversity.”
The university president reversed his decision Thursday, hours before Shapiro’s speech was supposed to begin, when YAF refused to reschedule.
“I strongly disagree with Mr. Shapiro’s views. But if Mr. Shapiro does appear, the university will allow him to speak,” Covino said in a prepared statement provided to The Daily Signal by YAF. “We will make every effort to ensure a climate of safety and security.”
Jashinsky said YAF was “disgusted” by the president’s response. She said:
This was absolutely no occasion for celebration. This president [Covino] grudgingly embraced the concept of free speech. This is the president of a public university, who in his statement doesn’t condemn attacks his own professors have made on their students.
One of those attacks, she said, came from a professor who threatened to wrestle roughly a dozen YAF members for inviting Shapiro to speak.
“[Covino] doesn’t condemn any of the hostility toward conservative students,” Jashinsky said. “It should have been a full-throated endorsement of free speech, regardless of whether he agrees or not with what’s being said.”
David Hacker, senior counsel and director of the Center for Academic Freedom at the legal aid group Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal he is exploring legal options on behalf of YAF.
Hacker, who was on campus during the protests, said he is waiting for a response from the university to a letter he sent Monday to its counsel.
The letter demands that the university rescind an “unconstitutional” $621.50 fee slapped on YAF to pay for security officers because of the event’s “controversial” nature.
“The university engaged in viewpoint discrimination against these conservative students, and it shouldn’t have done that,” Hacker said. “You can’t put a price tag on the view of somebody’s speech.”
http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/26/campus-protesters-try-to-silence-conservative-speaker-demand-college-presidents-resignation/
