Ann Coulter speech canceled at UC Berkeley, but guess what? She’s doing it anyway

A scheduled speech by conservative author Ann Coulter has been canceled at the University of California-Berkeley, but she’s not letting that stop her. She has vowed to come anyway in an unrepentant show of loyalty to the First Amendment.

This totalitarian action from UC-Berkeley harkens back a few months ago when riots outside the lecture hall closed down a Milo Yiannopoulos event, as well as last week when a speech by conservative commentator David Horowitz was banned. And isn’t it most strange that Berkeley can claim to be the birthplace of the free speech movement started in the ‘60s? That’s certainly ancient history.

The student organizers of the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) were told by the university that a “suitable venue” couldn’t be found for Coulter’s speech nor could her safety be guaranteed. YAF also stated that administrators imposed some stiff requirements if the speech were to happen, including scheduling it for the afternoon, allowing only students to attend, but only releasing the location just before Coulter hits the podium.

The funny thing is, Coulter actually agreed to the request but added her own stipulations, according to YAF:

1. That the University of California chancellor request that the Oakland chief of police refrain from telling his men to stand down and ignore law-breaking by rioters attempting to shut down conservative speakers, as he has done in the past; and

2. That UC-Berkeley announce in advance that any students engaging in violence, mayhem or heckling to prevent an invited speaker from speaking would be expelled. As Coulter explained, “If Berkeley wants to have free speech, it can have it.” The university’s response was to ban her speech.

In the end, UC-Berkeley decided it best to cancel the whole thing. A YAF statement said:

“This is as clear-cut a case as it gets that public universities are using taxpayer dollars to shut down conservative speech, while allowing liberal speech only. UC-Berkeley has for example, welcomed the corrupt former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, who has cursed at and mocked Donald Trump, currently the President of the United States. The university, and U-C chancellor Janet Napolitano personally, have revealed themselves to be using taxpayer money for an unconstitutional purpose. Even after Coulter went along with their ruses and guises to shut down her speech, they simply announced, like Kim Jung Un, that it was cancelled.”

However, YAF has announced that their sponsored lecture featuring Coulter “will go forward.”

Good.

When will these fascists realize the First Amendment applies to conservatives, too?

H/T Breitbart

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Foter.com / CC BY-SA