Questions Remain After Berkeley Allows Violent Mob to Shut Down Conservative Speaker

University of California at Berkeley police guard the building where Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to speak Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

After a violent, rampaging mob shut down a scheduled speaking event featuring Breitbart editor and conservative firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley last night, many are wondering why the police didn’t do more to help. Agitators hurled fireworks and smoke bombs, smashed windows, set fires, destroyed property, and assaulted at least four Trump supporters during the hours-long riot. If the riot police had been doing their jobs, their paddy wagons would have been overflowing with rioters. Instead, it appears only one person was arrested.

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The goal of the communist and anarchist agitators was to prevent Yiannopoulos from speaking at the free speech event—and they succeeded.

It was straight-up domestic terrorism, and for some reason the city of Berkeley allowed it to happen:

https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/826991184635654145

https://twitter.com/The_Trump_Train/status/827228314649649154

https://twitter.com/sahilchinoy/status/827005465615810560

Here, you can see police in the background, just standing there, watching:

One person was chased down the street and beaten unconscious by agitators screaming, “Beat his ass!”

Was the assailant arrested? Probably not. Dozens of police were present and only one person reportedly got arrested.

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Out of more than 1,500 protesters only a “small minority” caused trouble, according to Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin. But if it was just a small number of troublemakers creating problems, the riot police should have been able to handle it. Instead, there was rampant anarchy in the streets.

Dan Mogulof, a UC Berkeley spokesman, said campus officials went to “extraordinary lengths” over weeks of planning to help the Berkeley College Republicans prepare for the event.

Dozens of police officers were brought in from nine of the University of California’s 10 campuses to assist, he said. But it was not enough to prevent what Mogulof said was an “unprecedented” assault on campus.

Arreguin set the tone for the night early on:

As the night wore on, the good mayor changed his tone.

That was Arreguin’s last tweet of the night. By morning, he was in damage-control mode.

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He said the weak response from the police was the department’s strategy and commended them for doing an “excellent job.”

Here is the mayor’s official statement on Wednesday night’s events:

PJ Media reached out to the UC Berkeley Police Department for comment but had not received a response at the time this article was published.

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