Berkeley Brownshirts: Pro-Palestine Protestors Resort to Choking People

I have been to UC Berkeley once in my life. I was fresh out of college and pursuing my call to be a priest, and was trying out the idea of studying under a priest in San Francisco. I saw that my college fraternity had a chapter at Berkeley and dropped by the house one night. The brothers gave me a tour of the area, and I remember thinking that the atmosphere was too strange for words. And this was back in the early 90s when I was still a raging lib. Much like progressivism, Berkeley has gotten meaner and more dangerous, not weirder. Well, they both have gotten weirder, but they have also become more vicious.

Jewish students at UC Berkeley are speaking out about an incident last month in which the local anti-Semites let their terror flag fly. On Feb. 26, the pro-Israel student group Bears for Israel hosted an event in conjunction with other pro-Israel groups on campus. The event was titled "Israel At War: Combat the Lies." Its featured speaker was IDF veteran and lawyer Ran Bar Yoshafat. Yoshafat's topic was international law. The announcement of the event was met with a response from the group Bears for Palestine, which said it intended to shut it down.  

But this was no mere protest. Campus Reform talked with one of the student organizers, Danielle Sobkin. Sobkin said that the event was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. but by 5, students in nearby classrooms could hear the shouts of the protestors. The event was moved to a nearby playhouse, but Bears for Palestine showed up there, pushing against campus police officers. Sobkin said that she could feel the building shake from protesters pounding on doors and windows. At one point, a freshman girl was pulled into the crowd and choked by the protestors. Yes, you read that correctly: she was choked. Another was injured trying to keep the doors closed and was given a hand brace during a subsequent trip to urgent care. A third person was also pulled into the vortex and was spat upon and called a dirty Jew. 

The event continued after being moved to a third location.

Sobkin said that campus police did nothing and did not even bother taking names. The school has since said that it intends to launch a criminal investigation into the matter, stating in part:

After we sent last week’s message, UCPD and OPHD received reports that two of the Jewish students who organized the event, as well as some of the attendees, were subjected to overtly antisemitic expression. UCPD is investigating these two alleged incidents, which also included allegations of physical battery, as hate crimes. They are also investigating other reports of illegal conduct, including one additional allegation of physical battery upon a student. One criminal suspect has been identified to date for trespassing.

To its semi-credit, UC Berkeley added, “This university has a long history of commitment to and support for nonviolent political protest that respects the First Amendment rights of others. That is not what occurred on Feb. 26. It was not peaceful civil disobedience. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

The school has a gift for understatement. This was not civil disobedience or a passion for justice that got out of control. This incident speaks to a level of pathology that could provide reams of material for several Ph.D. dissertations. The actions of Bears for Palestine and its accomplices could be charitably described as "feral" at best. 

Exclusively for our VIPs: Nation of the Flies

Frankly, I don't care if these animals felt triggered, had pronoun issues, have not yet matured, or whatever other excuses may be offered. And you shouldn't either. These creatures acted out of pure instinct, and there is no reasoning with such beings. Pulling someone into a crowd and choking her is not an act of protest. It is attempted murder.

What you should care about is that UC Berkeley, despite its response, was the spawning ground for these protestors, and it is likely that nothing substantive will come from its investigation, although I hope I am wrong. You should also care that, barring any substantive changes, given the trajectory of the nation, these people will likely be in charge of banks, corporations, courts, and governments in the next few years.