UC-Berkeley readies police as Ann Coulter plans to speak in public plaza on campus [View all]

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The University of California at Berkeley is bracing for massive protests in a public plaza on campus after learning that conservative commentator Ann Coulter plans to give a speech there Thursday afternoon.

Sproul Plaza, site of the iconic Free Speech Movement protests in the 1960s, is both symbolic and logistically challenging for the university. On an open campus, anyone can flock to the plaza.

“If somebody brings weapons, there’s no way to block off the site – or to screen them,” Nicholas Dirks, UC-Berkeley’s chancellor, said Tuesday. For an event inside, the university would have metal detectors and other ways to search for weapons. Officials know that some of the demonstrators, such as those known as Black Bloc, know how to penetrate the crowd and use it as a shield, Dirks said. “In an open space you have almost no control over that,” he said. “The challenges are immense.”

The state flagship university has become ground zero for an intense confrontation between the far left and the far right. Some protesters are trying to stop controversial speakers from appearing on campus, while others objecting that such actions violate their right to free speech. In February and twice more since then, masked extremists turned those protests over the boundary between free speech and hate speech into violent confrontations, with fires set, people hurt and hundreds of thousands of dollars of property damage.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/04/25/uc-berkeley-readies-police-as-ann-coulter-plans-to-speak-in-public-plaza-on-campus/

---

I saw a WaPo breaking banner.

Here we go - at least they mention Black Bloc and the hope is that people don't confuse them with peaceful protestors.