Free Republic

A campus Black Lives Matter protest against an American Civil Liberties Union speaker has provoked an internal debate over free speech on the Left. Students shouted down an ACLU leader visiting the College of William and Mary in Virginia last week, preventing a discussion about free speech by chanting "liberalism is white supremacy" and "ACLU, you protect Hitler too!" for a full hour. Outrage spread as video of the college Black Lives Matter chapter's disruption circulated among shocked scholars, progressive leaders, and alumni.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fezp8TRPBlM

This is a livestream of Milo Yiannopolous marching in Berkeley. The streamer is switching on a regular basis to different streams at the event.

“Trump supporters (conservatives) wanted to get beat up,” said civil rights lawyer Dan Siegel, according to the East Bay Times. Siegel repeatedly and loudly praised the inactions of the Berkeley Police Department, which allowed a huge mass of hooded, helmeted, masked, Antifa with studded gloves and clubs to jump the barricades and attack the half dozen conservative protesters who had gathered after a “No to Marxism” rally was canceled for fear of violence. There were about 450 police, and about 200 Antifa "soldiers" according to law enforcement reports. Police later claimed their inaction was "necessary to prevent greater violence in...

Berkeley’s mayor is pressuring the town’s flagship university to cancel its upcoming “free speech week” just days after the school’s chancellor vowed to defend the First Amendment on campus. As Campus Reform previously reported, University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ welcomed students to campus last week with a forceful defense of free speech, vowing to “hold accountable” those who use violence to shut down speakers.

Police temporarily "detained" Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson in Berkeley, CA., Sunday after he was "chased by a mob who took swings at him and pepper sprayed him," KCRA reported. The organizer of yesterday's cancelled rally, Patriot Prayer's Joey Gibson is driven behind police and arrested — "What happened Joey??" pic.twitter.com/tQJTh6lr7E — Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) August 27, 2017 According San Francisco Chronicle reporter Lizzie Johnson, police say Gibson wasn't arrested but was rescued from the violent mob: Gibson wasn't arrested, officials say. He's considered a "rescue." No further details. #berkeley https://t.co/eVtz5hyjJv — Lizzie Johnson (@lizziejohnsonnn) August 27, 2017 Via...

Becoming an anti-fascist, or Antifa, is easy. It just takes three steps: Find Nazis in the street and attack them If you can’t find any Nazis nearby, just call anybody you don’t like a Nazi Bask in the glowing support of the American mainstream press That’s what we saw yesterday in Berkeley. A very small number of people who assembled peacefully were beaten and harassed in broad daylight by a huge mob of masked thugs. And it’s accepted, because… well, because we really don’t like those people. They voted for Trump. They’re “Nazis.” But what happens when the hateful mob...

Their faces hidden behind black bandannas and hoodies, about a 100 anarchists and antifa — “anti-fascist” — barreled into a protest Sunday afternoon in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Jumping over plastic and concrete barriers, the group melted into a larger crowd of around 2,000 that had marched peacefully throughout the sunny afternoon for a “Rally Against Hate” gathering. Shortly after, violence began to flare. A pepper-spray wielding Trump supporter was smacked to the ground with homemade shields. Another was attacked by five black-clad antifas, each windmilling kicks and punches into a man desperately trying to protect...

BERKELEY, Calif. (KCRA) — Ten people were arrested Sunday as protesters and counterprotesters marched through Berkeley to a downtown park for a rally, police said. The people were arrested for "various violations thus far," Berkeley police said. Three of the people detained had violated the no-mask rule, KCRA reporter Mike Luery said. One woman arrested had allegedly assaulted a photographer, KCRA reporter Vicki Gonzalez said. Two men were arrested after exchanging blows. The SFGate reported they were quickly swept up by officers inside Civic Center Park. Police detained Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson at the protests. The SFGate reported he...

....News that Saturday's rally had been canceled was seen as a partial victory by counter-protesters. "Wow, it sounds like we're having success ahead of time," Shanta Driver, the Chicago-based counsel for By Any Means Necessary, said as she waited to board a plane Friday night to the Bay Area. Driver said the cancellation showed "white nationalists know they are a tiny minority in America, and there was absolutely no way they could rally in the city of San Francisco."

The counter protest to the Free Speech Rally on the Boston Common went off nearly as expected. The Free Speech people were already at the Boston Common bandstand, protected by a ring of Boston Police on foot, then a second ring of police on bicycles, then a third ring of metal fencing about 200 feet from the bandstand. At that distance, none of the protestors could throw anything and hit the Free Speechers in the bandstand. About half to two thirds of the protestors were there by 11 A.M., organizing, milling about, shouting obscenities while touting their equally obscene signs....

BOSTON — “SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!” counter-protesters screamed at a Donald Trump supporter wearing an American flag around his shoulders. “We’re not Nazis,” the man in question told The Daily Caller as he scuffled away from the mob. “We’re here to exercise our American tradition of free speech.” He was spat on. Water was thrown on him. His Make America Great Again Hat was knocked off, twice. Nobody broke up the conflict: they were too busy filming from their smartphones like an episode of “Black Mirror.” “YOU KILLED HEATHER [Heyer]!” someone screamed. His companion told them that he served in the...

Thousands of people protested against an alleged “white supremacist” rally in Boston on Saturday. Multiple outlets, journalists, politicians and other public figures declared that the event that drew an estimated 40,000 people to protest against was racist in nature. ThinkProgress covered the rally with this headline, “White supremacist rally fizzles, overtaken by massive anti-racism march.” The story mocked the idea that it was a “free speech” rally, stated that there it would draw “attendees from the same white supremacist groups that marched on Charlottesville last weekend,” and that some Klansmen had announced they would attend the rally. In a viral...

President Donald Trump praised protesters in Boston on Saturday, after an estimated 40,000 people arrived in the city to challenge a planned free speech rally of about 300 right-leaning people. “Our great country has been divided for decades. Sometimes you need protest in order to heal, & we will heal, & be stronger than ever before!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I want to applaud the many protestors in Boston who are speaking out against bigotry and hate,” Trump wrote. “Our country will soon come together as one!”

Boston Antifa is laughing at the thousands of Democrats who marched in support of their so- called cause during the Boston Free Speech Rally. The Alt-Left group ripped Democrats on Twitter for knowing nothing about “anarcho-communism.” “So we had all these idiot Democrats and DSA coming out to cheer us on and they know nothing of anarcho-communism? Holy shit,” boasted Boston Antifa. https://twitter.com/AntifaBoston/status/898964955634040834 Here’s Antifa bragging about “media support.”

Around 50 people showed up to attend the Free Speech Rally, none of them are known white supremacists and no white supremacist symbols were being displayed. ... Most of the people in the crowd are not engaging in violence, but Antifa is using those people as cover to attack the Boston Police officers. Earlier in the day, near the start of the counter-protest march, an Antifa member attacked a woman who was holding an American flag. The Antifa hit her, and dragged her across the ground as he stole her flag. The moment was captured on video.

For a second week, Saturday headlines are filled with news of growing protest rallies calling for the removal of Confederate Monuments from public spaces. Earlier today, a Free Speech rally in Boston hosted by Confederate supporters, ended abruptly as thousands of counter-protesters showed up for the event. Tonight at 7 p.m. at Dallas City Hall the nation’s eyes will be on Dallas for the In Solidarity rally planned. Organized via Facebook, thousands are expected to attend the rally calling for the removal of Confederate Monuments on public property. ..... This afternoon, via his Facebook page Mayor Mike Rawlings called for...

In case all the turmoil in Berkeley, Charlottesville, and now Boston isn’t clear, Antifa revealed its true feelings in a simple tweet on Saturday. “Free speech is dead” a graphic declares. “(Retweet) to piss on its grave,” the self-declared “Anarcho-Communist cause” writes, adding the hashtag #UniteTheLeft.

John Medlar, the 23-year-old spokesman, said he and other young men began communicating on the Internet to express alarm over what they viewed as support for protesters who set fires, damaged property, and started fights following the University of California Berkeley’s decision to invite controversial conservative figures to speak. “We were alarmed that people were OK with fringe anarchists burning down a campus and driving [out] speakers,’’ Medlar said. ... “We denounce the politics of supremacy and violence. We denounce the actions, activities, and tactics of the so-called Antifa (militant leftists) movement. We denounce the normalization of political violence,’’ the...

One week after violent protests rattled Charlottesville, Virginia, a scheduled free speech rally in Boston today was met with thousands of counterprotesters, but the day went off mostly smoothly, police said, with 27 arrests for assaults on police Officers, but few injuries..... After the free speech event has concluded, counterprotesters still swarmed Boston this afternoon, and riot police also responded in the city. ... Amid the confrontations, Boston police tweeted that individuals are asked to "refrain from throwing urine, bottles and other harmful projectiles at our officers."