Ingraham: The anti-free speech thugs
Conservatives on school campuses are deprived of their free speech rights; conservative activist Hayden Williams attacked at UC Berkeley.
It happened again this week. When college Republicans at Portland State University invited a little-known blogger named Michael Strickland to speak on campus, the harassment continued for an hour, as campus police just looked on. The speaker was effectively silenced, and the event basically ruined. And that perspective went unheard for the period of time schedule.
This is just yet another in a long line though of examples where conservatives on campus are deprived of their free speech rights. Yes, I'm going to say it again. Deprived of their free-speech rights.
On February 19, 2019 at the University of California, Berkeley, conservative activist Hayden Williams was punched and attacked. On November 1st, 2018, at Michigan State, a protester shouted down Dinesh D'Souza's during his speech. On October 11, 2018, at the University of Michigan, protesters welcomed the 75-year-old conservative social scientist Charles Murray, by shouting him down, calling him a racist, sexist and member of the KKK.
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Well, there are too many examples to recount here. But the effect in all cases is the chilling or the outright silencing of free speech. Now, I haven't even mentioned the speeches that were scheduled only to be canceled because of left-wing threats. Berkeley canceled Ann Coulter in April 2017 due to security concerns.
Unless you think moderate, more mild-mannered Republicans are immune from being targeted, well, think again. Texas Southern University withdrew its invitation to its home state Sen. John Cornyn, who was slated to be its commencement speaker, after activists on campus went nuts.
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This must stop. While it's good that police did arrest Zachary Greenberg on this alleged brutal assault on Hayden Williams at UC Berkeley, it shouldn't require a conservative getting injured for universities to start taking this seriously.
Colleges talk a really good game about valuing diversity, don't they? On its website, Portland State claims they value diversity and they go to great lengths to proclaim their duty to advance and protect "marginalized communities and those underrepresented in higher education."
There must be severe and swift repercussions for those who ultimately aim to terrorize, frighten, or defame anyone with opposing views. Now I'm not talking about banning legitimate protests or op-eds, or really the free harsh criticism of people. That's fine. I'm talking about punishing those who are essentially robbing others of their First Amendment rights.
Well, who is more marginalized on campus these days than conservatives, especially conservative guest speakers? Well, despite what happened to D'Souza, Michigan State claims to be "wholly dedicated to freedom of speech, not just as a public institution, but as an institution of higher education. Here ideas - not people - are meant to clash and to be evaluated based on their merits."
Well, that sounds nice. But words mean nothing if they're not backed up by action.
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So what am I talking about? There must be severe and swift repercussions for those who ultimately aim to terrorize, frighten, or defame anyone with opposing views. Now I'm not talking about banning legitimate protests or op-eds, or really the free harsh criticism of people. That's fine. I'm talking about punishing those who are essentially robbing others of their First Amendment rights. That's a no-no. College administrators and trustees who allow these organized intimidation campaigns on campus, they themselves must be held to account.
"The Ingraham Angle's" producers called 17 officials at Portland State University, and we also called the Office of Public Safety for comment. We asked all of them to appear on the show, including the Portland President Rahmat Shoureshi. All of them -- all of them --declined. But we did receive this response from their media relations folks:
"A campus public safety officer monitored the event to ensure the safety of participants. When an individual disrupted the event by ringing a cowbell, the officer used his professional judgment and determined not to threaten or restrain the individual so as not to escalate a potentially unsafe situation. After the disruption, the meeting continued, and PSU facilities management allowed college Republicans to extend their meeting beyond the scheduled end time that night because of the disruption and delay."
Well, there's a lot to unpack there. But the best way to look at that response is in this light. Imagine what would happen if some Neo-Nazi protester interrupted a black students association event in the same way, using similar vile language? Would campus police have just sat there, stood there? And another question: What message does just standing there send to other conservative students who want to invite a speaker who is actually a high-profile person? Again, the chilling effect continues long after the event is disrupted.
And when a state university does this, there are clear constitutional implications because you could argue that they're state actors. Their inability to ensure that students feel comfortable expressing their views on campus and that all speakers - liberal, independent, conservative, what have you - can speak without fear for their safety is the reason President Trump is now promising executive action.
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It's hardly a radical proposition. I say it's about time. But given the fact that groups like Antifa and other assorted domestic, far-left organizations conspire to deprive individuals of their constitutional rights to freely speak and associate on campuses, perhaps it is time for the Justice Department to consider some kind of RICO prosecution. A RICO civil suit could be filed.
Maybe a clever lawyer could devise a legitimate class action filing to defend Americans' God-given rights even on campus. The new Attorney General, Bill Barr, has a lot to think about there.
Adapted from Laura Ingraham's monologue from "The Ingraham Angle" on March 7, 2019.
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