Posted on 04/21/2017 9:25:25 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Ann Coulter has rejected the University of California, Berkeley's re-invitation to speak on campus, according to Fox News.
On Thursday, a day after calling off Coulter's upcoming appearance for security reasons, university officials backtracked and paved the way for her to speak to students on May 2.
But the right-wing provocateur responded via Twitter on Thursday, indicating they've already spent money for the previously scheduled event on April 27, and she's not available to speak on the new date. Then she
On Twitter, she also brushed off Berkeley's statement "claiming they 'rescinded' cancelation." Instead she condemned officials for adding "NEW, more burdensome" conditions on her constitution rights. University officials on Thursday said they've found a venue for the rescheduled event, but they did not reveal the specific location.
Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said they originally canceled Coulter because of student safety. But because she is vowing to speak anyway, the university found a new venue.
"As the home of the free speech movement, we fully support the right of our students to host speakers of their choice," Dirks said. "We also have an unwavering commitment to providing for the safety and well being of speakers who come to campus, our students and other members of our campus."
The university said an "expanded search" has uncovered a venue on campus that meets their security criteria.
UC Berkeley officials said Wednesday that they were "unable to find a safe and suitable" venue for the right-wing provocateur who was invited to speak by campus Republicans on April 27. Further details about the decision reversal were not immediately available.
The hubbub sparked Tuesday when Vice Chancellor Scott Biddy sent a letter the Berkeley College Republicans, saying that university officials in consultation with campus police had determined they could not ensure the safety of Coulter, audience members or protesters expected at the event.
News organizations obtained a copy of the letter Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, UCPD determined that, given currently active security threats, it is not possible to assure that the event could be held successfully ... at any of the campus venues available on April 27th," the letter said. University spokesman Dan Mogulof said that posters went up on campus last week threatening disruption of the event and officials discovered "targeted threats" on various websites indicating the possibility of planned violence.
"We realize that this is disappointing news," Biddy's letter said, promising that campus police and officials will work the Berkeley College Republicans to find another time and date for Coulter's speech.
UC Berkeley said it did not have enough advance notice to provide security for the Coulter event.
"We learned about the invitation to Ms. Coulter by reading about it in the newspaper," university officials said.
Berkeley College Republicans said that's not true, that they provided plenty of notice about their plans.
The cancellation comes days after violent clashes between far-right and far-left protesters Saturday at a rally supporting President Donald Trump in downtown Berkeley.
An appearance at UC Berkeley by former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled after protesters rioted outside the event in February.
UC Berkeley police said there won't be a repeat of what unfolded during the Yiannopoulos melee, when people who had infiltrated the protest started smashing windows and lighting fires.
"Our approach is going to be different than the approach for the Milo event, again based on our after-action review," UC Berkeley police Capt. Alex Yao said.
Organizers of the event released their own statement Wednesday, expressing discontentment at the change in plans.
They wrote: "UC-Berkeley, a publicly-funded university, first imposed a series of ridiculous requirements on the speech allegedly in the name of 'safety.' Coulter, we were informed, would be required to deliver her speech in the afternoon; only students would be allowed to attend; and the speech location would not be announced until close to the event."
Although Berkeley College Republicans advised Coulter not to agree to those stipulations, she did, they wrote. In return, she asked the chancellor to help ensure appropriate police response to "law-breaking by rioters attempting to shut down conservative speakers," according to the statement.
Coulter reportedly also asked Berkeley officials to warn students that "engaging in violence, mayhem or heckling" to prevent the speech would result in expulsion, the statement said.
The Berkeley College Republicans reported Coulter as having said, "If Berkeley wants to have free speech, it can have it."
The group lashed out in its statement, accusing university officials of misusing taxpayer money for an "unconstitutional purpose" and comparing Biddy and UC President Janet Napolitano to North Korea's authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un. l "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," they wrote.
Group members have stressed that they have "no intention of acceding to these unconstitutional acts. The Ann Coulter lecture sponsored by Young America’s Foundation will go forward."
Coulter herself said in a tweet Wednesday she's still planning on coming to Berkeley to speak and blasted the school for canceling the event.
Maybe she's doing it for the publicity or maybe not. One can cynically claim that about anybody doing the right thing, that they are doing the right thing because of ulterior motives.
Who cares.
It's the right thing and it's important what she is doing.
Why are you so hung up on the Cult of Personality, where one is obsessed on liking or disliking somebody?
The administration does not run the school. The rioters do.
Of course she is but she is also in this important free speech fight and the total control of the education system by the left. If we don’t win at least some ground on campuses we can kiss all our freedoms goodbye as well as any conservative political power short of gaining it by blood.
Because she’s not nice. She had endorsed Christie and Romney in 2012, then she takes credit for Trump.
Can POTUS compel the National Guard to keep the peace, since Gov Moonbat would never do it?
It would take overwhelming numbers. If not, maybe a few thousand off duty police and bikers.
Hold the rally on the front steps of the Berkeley police department.
David Horowitz has been doing this for years. Campuses will always be anti-conservative.
Smart move by Coulter.
I would not trust my safety to Berkeley. They have no real incentive to keep certain speakers safe and a lot of incentives not to.
There are far less risky ways to get publicity. I've had my past issues with Ann Coulter myself, her taste in Presidential candidates is often not aligned with mine. But, she does have the courage of her convictions and she does argue for our side with great wit and intelligence. She's just snarky enough to have an unannounced special guest, too, which would be fun.
Berkeley mayor is a member of ANTIFA
http://archive.is/dWKfR
“Unfortunately, UCPD determined that, given currently active security threats, it is not possible to assure that the event could be held successfully...due to the fact that our security officers and Berkeley police are completely stoned out of their minds...they feel far too groovy to be aggressive...” /S
But now she’s not going to Berkeley.
It’s the right thing and it’s important what she is doing.
You must’ve read a different article. What I’ve read indicates that she’s vowed to speak on April 27, apparently with or without a venue provided by the university.
Who cares. She's too skinny, she's got a long face, whatever. It's not like you're going to marry it.
What counts right now is what she is doing at Cal and it's important.
You sound just like CNN and the Huffington Post.
Bet she has sold more books than you.
Has anyplace wanted you to be a speaker?
I’m not going to forget her attacking the Tea Party a few years ago and also calling Mitch McConnell a great leader then.
“If she comes to the Sproul Hall Plaza, that is naturally the well-known, decades old, preferred Riot Expressway Area in Berkeley.
The riot will unfold with the precision of fine Swiss watch.
I don’t care where she starts out speaking, later on she will need a portable bullhorn with lots of spare batteries.
And she needs a helmet and clear swim goggles.”
LOL. Great post.
She is regularly on local radio programs as well as several national programs and political TV shows.
That is not indicative of ‘ hasbeennrss.’ Au Contraire.
She was one of the earliest persons to publicly support Trump in media.
I don’t get all this attack here. We all had to at times support candidates that were not good, because the alternative was some radical leftist like Obama or Hillary or Deval Patrick.
Ann is a great Trump supporter. I’d rather have 10 more people like her than a 1000 FR armchair supposed conservatives.
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