BUZZ
‘By allowing the event to be shut down, the university ratified an impermissible ‘heckler’s veto”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a letter to UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons this past week regarding the disruption by student activists of Google A.I. Chief Jeff Dean’s speech earlier in the month.
The activists believe the technology is being used to “kill Palestinians,” and were shouting “UC, UC, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide.” They refused to leave when asked by campus police, and eventually Dean’s talk was shut down.
In its letter, FIRE’s Haley Gluhanich noted one of the activists jumped onto the stage with Dean and led his fellow demonstrators in the chant, “drowning out” what Dean was saying.
Gluhanich pointed out that despite the talk being a “ticketed” event, out of “free speech concerns” campus police did not prevent the activists from entering. Cops reportedly told event organizers they wouldn’t do anything “unless [the activists] turned violent.”
“[T]here can be no doubt that Berkeley knew it had not only the authority but the obligation as a public university bound by the First Amendment to use ‘bona fide efforts’ to stop event disruptions in order to protect the speaker and the audience’s expressive rights and ensure the event could proceed,” Gluhanich wrote.
By instead allowing the event to be shut down, the university ratified an impermissible “heckler’s veto,” putting campus speech at the mercy of those most willing to silence their opponents. Campus officials rewarded those seeking to silence Dean instead of protecting the expressive rights of Dean, the event organizers, and the audience. This sends the message that one can easily thwart campus discourse they dislike simply by disrupting it.
And contrary to the UCPD officers’ claim that nothing could be done to prevent disruptors from entering the event because of “free speech concerns,” disrupting an event is not protected expression, nor is attending a ticketed event without a ticket. Individuals do not have a First Amendment right to engage in unlawful, disorderly, or destructive behavior intended to silence their opponents’ expression. In fact, UC Berkeley’s own rules prohibit such conduct.
The Daily Californian reports Gluhanich also said that FIRE would be happy to assist with training campus police officers in “distinguish[ing] between protected expression and ‘disruptive conduct that prevents others from exercising their own freedom of speech.'”
UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof told the student paper the activists’ actions “were a clear and disturbing violation of the university’s ‘Time, Place, and Manner’ rules which are designed to protect the expressive rights of all.”
MORE: Actor Rob Schneider brings star power to lawsuit demanding UC Berkeley comply with records request
