Despite what you might be seeing on Facebook or cable news, many Americans agree that destroying private property is a legitimate form of protest.
When the English government largely ignored the voices of the colonists, Sam Adams and the other Sons of Liberty dumped millions of dollars of private property into the Boston Harbor – and we celebrate that today as the first step colonial subjects took toward freedom.
Since then, the United States has seen a slew demonstrations, marches, riots and minor revolts that resulted in the destruction of property.
It’s not the destruction of property Americans dislike - it’s why the property was destroyed. So, let us not judge the UC Berkeley riots because they resulted in property damage; let’s judge the few rioters for their silly reason for rioting. On Wednesday, about “150 masked agitators” disrupted a peaceful protest on the Berkeley campus by tearing down police barricades, shattering windows and lighting fireworks at police.
These people were moved to violence by Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at Breitbart news and proponent of the alt-right, who was supposed to give a speech on campus. Berkeley officials cancelled the speech two hours before he was set to speak for public safety reasons.
This act of violence has given Yiannopoulos more of what he so desperately wants: attention.
This bigot has made his career through poorly reported articles and largely ignorant speeches. Yet, the 33-year-old troll calls himself a “free-speech fundamentalist” and garnered much fame from those who protest him.Of course, real free-speech fundamentalists stand up to government censorship. Yiannopoulos tries to take that title because college students don’t like what he has to say and for being kicked off social media. He’s not much of an intellectual thinker. He calls those who disagree with him “cucks,” and says “America has a Muslim problem.”
Not an ISIS or even “radical Muslim” problem. Anyone who is a Muslim is a problem. Last year, he was banned from Twitter for encouraging his followers to tweet racist and demeaning tweets to Leslie Jones, a black female comedian who also starred in the recent Ghostbusters remake. He also called Jones a “black dude.” The ban only gave Yiannopoulos even more fame. This isn’t the first time one of his talks has been cancelled because of a demonstration on a college campus.
Several videos can be found of college students interrupting a Yiannopoulos speech. This only made him more beloved by the alt-right. Now, rioters at Berkeley have given Yiannopoulos another anecdote he will undoubtedly flaunt in his pursuit to build his personal brand.
This recent burst of violence is disappointing when one considers that Berkeley is the birthplace of modern student protest. The campus was the site of some the first largescale Vietnam War protests and the birthplace of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was essential during the Civil Rights movement. These movements fought against misguided and oppressive government practices. What did Wednesday’s unrest fight? A man who has made it his job to trigger a response.
Martin Luther King Jr. said that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” The nation heard Berkeley, and the school looked foolish. We are living in a time of fear and anger, but we cannot let our emotions take hold of us. No one will ever agree when or why a protest should cross the line into a riot. But those who are willing should use more caution. Yiannopoulos is worthy of distain, but his career is based on reaction to him. Without demonstrations, his fame would stall and slowly fade.
