-The student organizers of the “Free Speech Week” at the University of California, Berkeley have announced that they will no longer be hosting the event due to pressure from school administrators.

- Milo Yiannopoulos, however, insisted during a Saturday press conference that the event would begin as planned on Sunday, though he said Ann Coulter and Steve Bannon would have to be rescheduled.

By Nikita Vladimirov, September 23, 2017

The student organizers of the “Free Speech Week” at the University of California, Berkeley have announced that they will no longer be hosting the event due to pressure from school administrators.

In a letter to Berkeley’s Interim Vice Chancellor Stephen Sutton, the attorneys representing the student group Berkeley Patriot accused the university of “outright hostility” and threats toward the event organizers.

"We are going to be hosting an event come hell or high water tomorrow."

“Since announcing their intent to host the event, the student group has been subjected to extraordinary pressure and resistance, if not outright hostility, by the UC Berkeley administration and your employees,” the attorneys state in the letter posted online by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

“Your employees and the administration have failed to protect our students from physical assault and vandalism by UC Berkeley students and in some cases, faculty/staff,” the attorneys alleged.

The letter also blasts the administration for starting a “hate crime” investigation, and “insinuating that the students affiliated or associated with the Berkeley Patriot, were the subject of the ‘investigation’ or words to that effect.”

“The intent of the threat was clear,” the attorneys wrote. “Cease speaking out or face criminal investigation. Well, our clients’ heard the Chancellor’s threat. They will be quiet, for now.”

Yiannopoulos, however, has reiterated that the “Free Speech Week” will go on despite the Berkeley Patriot’s exit.

“We have been let down by the student organizers, but I will not back down,” Yannopoulos wrote in a Facebook post. “We have reached a deal with the police…We shall go on to the end. We shall speak in Berkeley, we shall speak on the plazas and the steps. We shall defend free speech, whatever the cost may be. We shall never surrender!”

During a press conference Saturday afternoon, Yiannopoulos also announced that the Berkeley Police Department will be present at the slated event on Sunday, and that he will “take care” of those who spent money on travel for the event.

“We are going to be hosting an event come hell or high water tomorrow,” he said. “We have been in touch with Berkeley PD. [I am] very happy to say that the police are behind us and they will be staffing Sproul Plaza tomorrow in force.

“We will be expressing our constitutional rights to free speech—free expression—on Sproul Plaza, the home of the free speech movement, tomorrow as planned, with or without student help, with or without the cooperation of UC Berkeley itself,” he added.

Yiannopoulos also said that the conservative columnist Ann Coulter and former Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon will have to be rescheduled “for later” and reiterated that the blame for the development “lies squarely with UC Berkeley.”

“Please, if you are watching this and you spent money coming to UC Berkeley—the university did this to you, but I will fix it,” Yiannopoulos promised. “I am not prepared to see UC Berkeley leave people out of pocket when they have come to support me and our other speakers.”

Berkeley Patriot’s decision to discontinue its sponsorship of the event may also lead to additional legal action against the university in the near future, the group's attorneys wrote in their letter to Sutton.

“You are further notified that our clients are contemplating initiating litigation against the responsible parties and the administration for violation of our clients civil rights,” the attorneys warned.

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9836

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Milo Yiannopoulos holds small Berkeley rally after Free Speech Week nixed

Rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos blew kisses, posed for selfies and addressed a few dozen supporters at the University of California, Berkeley, while a slightly larger crowd protesting his appearance was kept separate by police.

Yiannopoulos, wearing sunglasses and an American flag hoodie under a denim jacket, spoke without amplification Sunday on the steps of Sproul Hall. Fans hoping to hear his speech were herded through metal detectors, while demonstrators protesting it were kept behind barricades on Sproul Plaza. There were no indications of initial violence, Fox 2 reported.

Yiannopoulos vowed Saturday to appear at an unsanctioned rally despite the cancellation of a planned four-day event dubbed Free Speech Week.

The conservative student group Berkeley Patriot, which had been organizing the event with Yiannopoulos, told university administrators that they would cancel it, the university said. The group's representatives told the San Francisco Chronicle they feared for their safety.

"It is extremely unfortunate that this announcement was made at the last minute, even as the University was in the process of spending significant sums of money and preparing for substantial disruption of campus life in order to provide the needed security for these events," UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said in a statement.

Yiannopoulos said he was blindsided and "personally irritated" by the news, but he insisted on holding a rally with fellow rightwing commentators Sunday.

"We are going to be hosting an event come hell or high water tomorrow," Yiannopoulos said in a live video on Facebook and vowed to proceed with or without UC Berkeley's or the students' cooperation.

University officials said they had worked around-the-clock and spent more than $1 million to ensure there would be adequate security for the events.
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Over the last few days, student bulletin boards on Sproul Plaza were papered with fliers calling on counterprotesters to "Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos," saying his brand of inflammatory speech against Muslims, immigrants, women and transgender people was hateful and should not be allowed. The fliers advised supporters to bring bandannas to cover their faces in case police fire tear gas.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/24/rig...c-berkeley.html