By Sam Brasch
Colorado Public Radio News
Political provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who calls himself “the most fabulous supervillain on the internet,” is coming to the University of Colorado Boulder. The gay British editor at Breitbart News has gained fame for his gleeful attacks on what he calls political correctness.
Violence broke out Wednesday night at the University of California, Berkeley, the latest stop on Yiannopoulos’ speaking tour, and cleanup was underway Thursday as the campus struggled with questions about why the violence spun out of control and what has happened to the open-minded Berkeley of the 1960s.
“It was not a proud night for this campus,” school spokesman Dan Moguluf said, later adding, “We are proud of our history and legacy as the home of the free speech movement.”
Dozens of police were called to Berkeley from nine UC campuses. The student union where the talk was scheduled was locked down hours before the event. Layers of metal barricades were erected around the building with riot police standing guard inside.
The protests started peacefully around 4 p.m. As night fell, the crowd swelled to more than 1,500, police estimated, and “more than 100 armed individuals clad in ninja-like uniforms who utilized paramilitary tactics” infiltrated the crowd and began hurling commercial grade fireworks, Molotov cocktails, rocks and other objects at police, Mogulof said. One student, a Trump supporter was attacked and beaten
Officials knew there was a potential for violence and went to “extraordinary lengths” to prepare for the event, Mogulof said in a statement. But school authorities say they believe the instigators were not Berkeley students.
Berkeley was the last stop on Yiannopoulus’ college tour, which had sparked protests and sporadic violence around the country. He is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed internet troll whose comments have been criticized as racist, misogynist and anti-Muslim.
Yiannopoulos has made no shortage of controversial statements. To pick just a few, he recently said that, “Dumpy lesbian feminists and shrieking harpies in the Black Lives Matter movement are not persuasive.” In addition, he said, “It’s just a man in a dress isn’t it?” as he projected a photograph of transgender woman student during a talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Yiannpolous himself called the tour a “declaration of war” in a podcast with Breitbart News.
That has proved prescient. His lectures have inspired fierce protests at U.S. universities and a shooting at the University of Washington in Seattle. Police told The Seattle Times that the shooter claimed to have acted in self-defense after being assaulted by someone he thought to be a white supremacist. The victim remains in serious condition.
The prospect of Yiannopoulos in Boulder has prompted alternative events for students. Laverne Cox, a transgender actress known for her role on “Orange is the New Black,” plans to speak at CU Boulder the same night. Faculty and students have also put together another event called Buffs United. It will feature songs and spoken word from the CU community.
Even so, protestors hope to stop the sold out Yiannopoulos event.
Two student groups are behind the invitation: the College Republicans and new a student chapter of Turning Point USA. That second group is part of a well-funded national network of over 1,000 chapters at U.S. high schools and colleges that aims to rebrand conservative values for the Snapchat generation.
Nick Reinhardt, a Sophomore at CU Boulder, first learned about Turning Point at the university’s club fair. CU Boulder didn’t yet have a chapter. Students from chapters at other Colorado universities had come to the event.
“It looked like a great organization,” noting their polished marketing that references everything from “Game of Thrones” to “Parks and Rec.”
Charlie Kirk, an activist in Illinois, started Turning Point in 2012 with the help of a wealthy retired marketing executive. Kirk was just 18 years old at the time. The group now boasts over 1,000 student organizations with five campus chapters in Colorado. Reinhardt founded the CU Boulder chapter with the help of other students in 2016.
“What drew me in is it didn’t deal too much with social issues. It’s solely about the fundamental conservative ideals of the free market and limited government,” Reinhardt said.
For a full report go online to Colorado Public Radio at http://www.cpr.org/news
