Seems what started as a protest against Milo turned into a general riot that spread downtown:
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/02/...oulos-protest/
Quote:
Update, 10:30 p.m. Following the fighting and vandalism in downtown Berkeley, demonstrators moved back to the South Campus area near Bancroft and Telegraph. Berkeley Police said about 200 demonstrators were still involved. Estimates of the cost of the damage in downtown Berkeley, around Telegraph, and on the campus, will not be available until tomorrow. Berkeley public works is in the downtown now cleaning up and boarding windows.
I can't think of anything more counterproductive than this. They think they are "fighting fascism"? They are playing right into his hands. Milo couldn't have scripted the reaction any better himself. Discrediting themselves.
And if what you are protesting is Milo, why go downtown and start smashing windows and setting fires?
When the Left Glorifies Violence Against People It Dislikes, Trump Wins
Quote:
The black bloc's violent tactics could produce a backlash. The Women's March figured out the right way to fight fascism.
A lot of people experience a sense of visceral joy when someone they hate gets punched in the face. But there's a body of social science research that suggests they won't like the long-term public policy results.
Over inauguration weekend, a member of the black bloc—a group of masked anti-Trump insurrectionaries—punched white nationalist leader Richard Spencer in the face on the streets of Washington, D.C. Elsewhere, black bloc members smashed the windows of a local Starbucks and Bank of America, even though neither company could be properly characterized as pro-Trump. (Starbucks' CEO endorsed Clinton, and Bank of America gave Clinton more money than Trump.) They set a limousine on fire, even though the limousine belonged to a Muslim immigrant.
When it comes to enacting social change, are broken windows and displaced limousine drivers merely the cost of doing business? No. In fact, violent and destructive protesting is less efficient than nonviolent protesting, according to the research.
"Why Civil Resistance Works," a study written by Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, found that nonviolent tactics were much more effective than violent tactics. Researchers surveyed anti-governmental resistance movements in the 20th century in a variety of countries: nonviolent means achieved their aims 53 percent of the time, while the violent means worked only 26 percent of the time.
"Whereas governments easily justify violent counterattacks against armed insurgents, regime violence against nonviolent movements is more likely to backfire against the regime," wrote the authors. "Potentially sympathetic publics perceive violent militants as having maximalist or extremist goals beyond accommodation, but they perceive nonviolent resistance groups as less extreme, thereby enhancing their appeal and facilitating the extraction of concessions through bargaining."
Another study, by Princeton University Assistant Professor of Politics Omar Wasow, found that violent extremist movements in the United States in the 1960s and '70s inspired a conservative backlash that helped elect Richard Nixon to the presidency. Nonviolent protests, on the other hand, did not provoke a backlash.
UC-Berkeley Protesters Set Campus on Fire, Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos Event
Quote:
Censorship wins again—and so does Milo.
Berkeley is burning tonight: the university campus that birthed the Free Speech Movement played host to a despicable display of violence and censorship Wednesday evening that culminated in the cancellation of a planned speech by controversial Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Anti-Yiannopoulos protesters wearing black scarves over their faces hurled fireworks at the building where the alt-right leader was supposed to speak. They also tore down barricades and smashed windows. They used gasoline to start a significant fire on the street that threatened to engulf a nearby tree, and forced police to push people back. Authority figures deployed rubber bullets and tear gas in an attempt to control the situation. A student who attended the event told me that it seemed like the majority of the violent protesters were not students, but older, masked rioters from the "antifa" movement.
. . .
As I write this, at 10:00 p.m., the violence and chaos are ongoing. Yiannopoulos was forced to evacuate the campus.
Anti-Yiannopoulos protesters described themselves as anti-fascists and anarchists. "We reject fascist America," the said.
They don't so much reject it as enable it. Most people will watch the chaos unfold and wonder what's wrong with college students and social justice activists these days—why they must resort to violence and destruction to silence people they don't like.
By engaging in such tactics, anti-Yiannopoulos protesters effectively distract from the fact that Yiannopoulos's own views are loathsome. They turn Yiannopoulos into a free speech martyr, which is exactly what he wants. When Milo is censored, Milo wins.
So thanks a lot self-styled "anti-Fascist" useful idiots for doing exactly what they want you to do. Keep it up and you might just help Trump win a second term!