They got here. They noticed. They obtained every thing they wished — fist fights, fireworks and flash bangs.
On Monday, Turning Level USA introduced its touring roadshow of conspicuous Christian conservatism to its bête noire: UC Berkeley, aka floor zero for anarchism, anti-fascism, antisemitism, atheism, communism, transgenderism, etcetera, etcetera.
This was Turning Level’s first go to to a California campus for the reason that homicide of Charlie Kirk, its co-founder, in September.
What adopted was predictable.
Brooding over the actual fact their college’s services would quickly be utilized by an out-of-state group whose management has opposed the separation of church and state, the Civil Rights Act, sexual freedom, tutorial freedom, local weather science and democracy itself, Berkeley college students erupted.
Like Pavlov’s canine salivating earlier than they even see Alpo within the bowl, Cal college students allegedly began vandalizing earlier than Turning Level’s occasion, that includes skilled goofball Rob Schneider, even started.
Over the subsequent a number of hours, a crowd of lots of assembled outdoors Berkeley’s Zellerbach Corridor, the place “America’s Comeback Tour” was staged. There, they chanted anti-fascist jingles, held anti-Trump indicators, taunted Turning Level attendees and, in a pair circumstances, hurled glass bottles at riot shield-wielding law enforcement officials. Somebody even threw a rock at a cop; and, at the very least, one individual was transported to a hospital after getting hit within the head.
By the top of the day, at the very least 4 folks have been arrested. Two have been booked for “physical altercations” – one for “pushing on the barricade separating a crowd of protesters” from Turning Level attendees and one other for climbing over mentioned barricade and sitting on it.
Are these crimes worthy of investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Activity Pressure and the Division of Justice’s Civil Rights Division?
They’re for the Trump administration, which has now launched two probes – a rare escalation triggered by just a few bloody noses, rocks, bottles and a few standard-fare college-protest theatrics.
From the second the primary bottle flew, the right-wing media machine was primed, instantly pumping out tales, all variations of the identical themes – violent leftists, campus anarchy and Christian conservative victimhood.
Berkeley college students didn’t understand it, however they walked right into a bear lure. Each punch thrown, each keffiyeh worn, each pro-antifa signal held was fodder for the right-wing echo chamber that feeds on pictures of universities in chaos and uncontrolled. This gives cowl for the Trump administration’s unprecedented assaults on increased schooling. (In reality, Berkeley is already the goal of a number of federal investigations.)
A protester is detained by police previous to Turning Level USA’s on-campus occasion at UC Berkeley on Monday. Noah Berger — AP
Turning Level is aware of this. They present as much as universities to bait, not debate. And Berkeley’s protesters grew to become props, unpaid actors and unwitting accomplices in conservatives’ content material technique.
The tragedy isn’t simply that the ascendant alt-right is enjoying this insidious sport, cloaked behind Christian sanctimoniousness; it’s that Berkeley’s high-scoring, high-achieving scholar physique by no means acknowledged the script.
Protests don’t must be docile, however they need to be good. “No Kings” protests demonstrated the way to be forceful with out being violent. When college students act like predictable lab animals, they assist the Trump administration to additional undermine their universities’ autonomy.
Berkeley college students might have thought they have been protesting Turning Level. However the stakes have been, and are, a lot bigger. Tutorial freedom at Cal and much past now hangs within the stability, and their conduct will tip the scales.
