The Berkeley mayor advised UC Berkeley to cancel conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos’ planned September Free Speech Week.
Jesse Arreguin, mayor of Berkeley, expressed concern on Monday about the Sept. 24-27 slew of events planned by Yiannopoulos after the Aug. 27 Antifa violence, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I don’t want Berkeley being used as a punching bag,” Arreguin told the Chronicle. “I am concerned about these groups using large protests to create mayhem.”
“I’m very concerned about Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter and some of these other right-wing speakers coming to the Berkeley campus, because it’s just a target for black bloc to come out and commit mayhem on the Berkeley campus and have that potentially spill out on the street,” Arreguin said.
UC Berkeley stressed that cancelling invitations to the university is not within its prerogative and that the school is helping the conservative student host group, Berkeley Patriot, to find a time and place for Yiannopoulos’ appearance.
“Where we do have discretion is around everything that has to do with the safety of our communities, and the well-being of those who may feel threatened or harmed by what some of these speakers may espouse,” UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told the Chronicle. “We can assure you that those priorities, along with our commitment to free speech, remain at the center of our planning and priorities.”
Free Speech Week will tackle threats to free speech endemic in movements and ideologies such as feminism and Islam. (RELATED: Milo Unveils ‘Free Speech Week’ At Berkeley To Tackle Feminism, Islam, BLM)
“He is a fat idiot,” Yiannopoulos told The Daily Caller News Foundation when describing Arreguin.
TheDCNF reached out to Arreguin for comment, but received none in time for press.
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