The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that it is investigating the University of California, Berkeley, over the security arrangements for the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event. Antifa and others threatened many entering or leaving the event, including reportedly blocking hundreds from the sold-out event to celebrate free speech and the legacy of murdered Charlie Kirk.
Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon shared a letter to UC Berkeley Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, instructing her to “preserve all records” in her possession that are “relevant to the agency’s preparation, execution, and response to the Turning Point event.”
In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how universities have used security issues to cancel conservative speakers as well as a lack of protection by both universities and cities. The result is that Antifa and other groups can easily disrupt events. The long-standing concern is that some university and municipal departments have been passive-aggressive in facilitating this “heckler’s veto” of speakers.
In the book, I call for the federal government to prioritize the protection of free speech events in the same manner as it has protected other rights, including civil rights. There should be a priority in protecting what John Stuart Mill called these “circles” where ideas are shared and debated.
The university fielded a sizable security force for this event and I am not making any assumptions about a lack of efforts by the university. However, there are allegations that the security allowed violent protesters to be in close proximity to people entering or leaving the event. The result is that many were threatened, spat on, and shoved by protesters. Many could not make it into the event.
The contrast was striking. These protesters were screaming threats and spitting on people who wanted to attend an event supporting free speech. It was intolerable for these protesters that opposing views could be expressed or heard on campus.
There were signature elements of Antifa at the event with black-clad extremists fueling violence and threatening anyone who wanted to hear the speakers.
Without prejudging the outcome of the investigation, the notice to Berkeley serves a valuable purpose in warning universities that their actions will be scrutinized in such controversies. Too often, universities allow hecklers to disrupt events, as when Stanford law students stopped Judge Kyle Duncan from speaking at the law school.
The TPUSA event was long planned, as were the protests. This was not some flash mob but an organized effort to try to cancel the free speech event. The preparations by the university do not appear to have been sufficient, but that does not mean that it was evidence of premeditated or passive-aggressive conduct. However, the review of the preparations is an important warning that, for the first time, universities will face inquiries over such breaches or failures in protecting First Amendment activities.
“Antifascist” means fascist. “Antiracist” means racist. “Mostly peaceful” means burning down cities, looting, destroying small businesses, and killing dozens of people.
Welcome to Left-world where everything means the opposite of what it says. It’s overdue for the DOJ to crack down on this Nazi-like behavior of violence and intimidation designed to destroy other people’s free-speech rights.
Dear Prof Turley,
Who is speaking for TPUSA? Is their message the same as Charlie Kirk’s message? What is the mission/legal status of TPUSA?
Afaict, ANTIFA has been designated a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ (see Trump’s NSPM 7). I would be shocked if they were interrupting TPSUSA college campus engagements in broad daylight . .. and surprised Berkley and the DOJ allowed them to do so, blatantly.
>”The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that it is investigating the University of California, Berkeley, over the security arrangements for the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event.” ~ story
*one can only hope The Department of Justice (DOJ) will investigate the University of Utah over the security arrangements at Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA event there. .. to the extent there were any.
FYI, Kirk’s assassination was at a university in Utah, not the U of U.
Correct, Utah Valley University. Not University of Utah.
LOL.. poor DG he can’t even get this info right.
Nobody’s perfecct, dusty.
Tell that to you’re loony Ano friends.
The left is SO peaceful.. well maybe not
________________________
A Muslim far-left extremist who severely beat a TPUSA attendee on the face after robbing him at UC Berkeley has been identified as Jihad Dphrepaulezz.
The 25-year-old listed @CAPublicHealth
as his employer. Dphrepaulezz is a rapper known as “A.R. The Believer.” He tried desperately to hide his face from the cameras after his disguise was pulled off. He came to the attack wearing gloves.
The communist rebellion is out of control.
“Crazy Abe” Lincoln would have imposed martial law and suspended habeas corpus by now.
C’mon, Donald!
“Crazy Abe” Lincoln would have imposed martial law and suspended habeas corpus by now.
That crazy Democrat Confederate Kluxxer, Mad King George X, is having problems with his login today, but his copy ‘n paste of his almost daily posts is still working just fine.
ALL THE LAWS BUT ONE: CIVIL LIBERTIES IN WARTIME
https://www.amazon.com/All-Laws-but-One-Liberties/dp/0679446613
Chief Justice William Rehnquist spent 300 pages explaining and dealing with Confederate Commie GeorgeX’s Marxist wet dreams and revisionist historical and Constitutional analysis of both Lincoln and the Confederate Democrat Civil War (as seen through the eyes of today’s Democrat Kluxxers who have now turned to communism when their Civil War ended in a crushing FAFO).
Given that George has proved his reading comprehension has never gotten beyond what he developed in kindergarten, Justice Rehnquist’s work and explanations may as well be laying on the surface of the moon as far as George is concerned.
Incoherent non sequitur, Mr. Marx.
Take you meds and call 911, Karl.
The feds collecting a $100 million dollar fine from UC Berkeley would seem reasonable for this intentional lack of security
Noticed BBC is running for the woods after they faked Prez Trumps interview.
I wonder how many millions that is going to cost them.
These are most-certainly are NOT “security failures.” They are security BREACHES: DISREGARD of obligations, promises, rules/acts, contracts, and laws.
IFIFY
These are most certainly not “security failures.” They are security breaches — acts of disregard for obligations, promises, rules, statutes, contracts, and laws. What others call “failures” are, in truth, deliberate violations: conscious neglect of duty, willful dereliction of responsibility, and betrayal of public trust.
Yeah, Berkeley is in violation most likely of contracts, equal protection but it’s viewpoint, equal protection staffing faculty, rules and conduct…yeah there’s enough.
Yet more political violence to add to the data, but where are the MAGA mobs beating up trans-persons? What physically violent, racist, rightwing fringe groups are defended and embraced by mainstream Conservative politicians and voters? The few pathetic incidences spotlighted are always an outlier and welcomed by Leftists as a tactical weapon to bash the right and to affirm Leftist sentiment. The Left and media point to ICE operations as rightwing political violence rather than as law enforcement operations conducted to correct the wholesale Federal immigration abuses undertaken 2021-24. Remember that hate, racism, oppression and exploitation are ONLY rightwing-reactionary issues in defending systemic, institutionalized, societal injustice. Leftist “protests” and even assassinations are only legitimated, triggered response to these injustices. ALL listed Leftist grievances ARE VIOLENCE, so physically violent “protest” is always an option when deemed valuable.
We’ve seen Bill Maher, Kathy Hochul, and now even Chuck Schumer earn the ire of the radical extremist Left…they’re not harangued even remotely in same manner by the political right. Had any of these liberal-moderates attempted to speak at Berkeley it could have been nearly the same scene. Contrast the Berkeley venue with any of these same Dem moderates speaking at Liberty, Hillsdale, or even at TPUSA itself, and none of this spectacle occurs. Should mainstreaming, normalizing, and de-stigmatization of political violence truly occur on the Right as it currently is on the Left, then it will become a media feeding frenzy and justify escalation and mass response from the Left. Recall how they liked it both ways in the 1960s-80s as well; “Give Peace a Chance!” even as arson and bombings were plotted and carried out.
This isn’t about campus security—it’s about whether the First Amendment still means anything when mobs decide who may speak. The heckler’s veto has become institutionalized: universities claim neutrality while letting intimidation do their censorship for them.
Jefferson warned that “timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” That’s exactly what we see when schools appease the mob instead of protecting the forum. The DOJ’s move is overdue. Liberty doesn’t die from debate—it dies when fear governs the gates.
And when the crowd screaming “punch the fascists in the face” behaves like fascists, it’s more than irony—it’s the collapse of moral reason in the very place that was meant to cultivate it.
OLLY,
Great comment!!!
….and what better place for evil to demonstrate “the collapse of moral reason,” than “the very place that was meant to cultivate it.” The irony is so much more than ironic, for that implies a certain poignancy, which does not exist. We should better call it grotesquery.
Beautifully said, Dianna — grotesquery was the perfect word. You captured exactly what happens when moral reason collapses in the place meant to cultivate it.
I often describe America’s civics as a three-legged stool — Liberty, Reason, and Virtue. Kick out any leg and the Republic falls.
Antifa shows the collapse: Liberty turned to license, Reason to rage, Virtue to mockery. TPUSA stands for the opposite — the defense of speech, debate, and moral courage.
That’s the real divide today: those who steady the stool, and those who let apathy and corruption eat it away like termites from within — until nothing solid is left to stand on.
A foul spirit. Don’t go there.
If “don’t go there” means don’t speak my mind, that’s exactly where I’m going. Free people don’t need warnings to tell the truth. Silencing opinion isn’t virtue, it’s cowardice dressed as civility. The Founders went there too, first with words and petitions, and only later with muskets. History shows the pattern every time, when those in power silence speech, they don’t stop rebellion; they start it.
OLLY, Dianna,
Great line of conversation! This is the kind of comments people come to read on the good professor’s blog.
Thank you, Upstate. That means a lot. It’s good to be in such company, where strong minds can meet without malice.
Conversations like this prove that Liberty, Reason, and Virtue still have a place at the table, and that’s no small thing in times like these.
Were the Founders “such company, where strong minds can meet without malice…” in 1776?
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence
“What is your duty — to engage in polite discourse while the United States abandons the Constitution and descends, perhaps irrevocably, into a condition of absolute collectivism?”
Fair question and a vital one. The Founders were indeed “such company” at first; they argued, petitioned, and reasoned long before they rebelled. Civility wasn’t weakness to them, it was discipline. But when every petition was met with silence and scorn, they understood that liberty without moral courage is already lost.
Our duty today begins where theirs did, to speak truth openly, peaceably, and persistently. If that fails, history will decide how far courage must go.
Bold challenge, one that must be handled carefully, as it is not clear who you are or your motives, Anon.
Suffice it to say that honest arbiters of truth and justice (both Civil and Biblical), are people who choose and celebrate discourse, people who love peace and not violence/murder, and will face duty if it calls, but only after ALL avenues of civilized persuasion have been exhausted.
We’re in the process of using those avenues within the power of intellect to affect the diabolical change of course in this country.
Cowardice, dressed as civility, perhaps, or could it be foul spirits recognizing light: “…a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.” (Mark 1:23-26)
Beautifully said, Dianna. That passage fits perfectly. Truth does have that effect; it unsettles what’s false and forces it into the light.
Whether in scripture or in civics, the reaction is the same; when truth speaks, the unclean spirit screams. Our task is to keep speaking it anyway, calmly and clearly, until reason and virtue reclaim the room.
There are many there, Bec. That’s the point. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
It’s been there 50 to 75 years. Rooted so …
Calif seceded. By all means with courage give it a go.
The loud cry you speak of can already be heard. Listen to and watch Constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro at Hastings Law and Judge Duncan at Stanford Law. They’re currently jumping off cliffs, Ms Bec.
Ok, Olly, but methinks it’s truly foul. There are spirits of things. Maybe exorcism?
Let us know how you fare.
If the price of speaking truth is an exorcism, I’ll take the risk. Some spirits call the light “foul” because it burns when it touches them. That’s how you know you’re shining it in the right place.
“Some spirits call the light “foul” because it burns when it touches them. That’s how you know you’re shining it in the right place.” So true.
And, while intellect, used rightly, is a beautiful thing, it cannot “deliver us from evil.”
For those who need more light, more strength, to withstand the evil that has come upon this country, it is better to know that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life than to rely only on the intellect.
Correct. If it’s hecklers veto as seen in the constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro at Hastings Law what can be done? No spitting or fights in the room, just continued chanting. It’s speech being used.
The entire bay area , Stanford, Hastings UC San Francisco and Berkeley are occupied.
You’re right. When speech is used to drown out speech, it stops being expression and becomes control. The Founders protected debate, not domination.
What’s happening on those campuses isn’t protest, it’s occupation of the mind.
Does anyone else find it ironic that the people claiming to be “anti-fascist” are the ones acting like Hitler’s Brown Shirts?
BTW the brown shirts were not fascists, but national socialist aka nazis.
the brown shirts were national socialists – and they were fascists.
Fascism is a form of socialism.
It is NORAMLLY also nationalist, but that is nto s strict requirement of fascism.
The Brownshirts were also exterminated by Hitler once their violence was no longer necessary. Night of thr long knives.
ANTIFA is an oxymoron. Mostly moron.
Breaking news! Trump is a pedophile.
Such an amazingly clever attempt at distraction 💤 😴 🛌
Yeah, the President of United States on the verge of being identified as a pedophile is a distraction to the story of security arrangements at a university conference. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You’d be heartbroken to know how many of those you DO worship have a stake in hiding “pedophilia.” And, so it must have been utterly lost on you as to what it meant when President Biden showered with his young daughter.
Or the migrant woman with her 10 year old pregnant daughter seeking an abortion as the mother pimped her child for a place to live?
Oh yes, it’s everywhere isn’t it.
The diary is available for perusal. Ashley Biden is just like Hunter. Both are deeply dysfunctional with cocaine, heroin, alcohol and addictions of the adulterous kind. Her age isn’t indicated in the diary. It leaves innocence but poor judgement in the mix.
Biden’s children are and were handsome people. Ashley like Hunter are dysfunctional without any evidence of morality, right and wrong. She kept the diary in rehab.
Trump claims he never met Trump nor knows who he is.
Can you believe Trump lost to Kamala Harris a woman who when she dropped out of the race in 2024 had a whopping 2% approval rating among Democrats? A woman who never won a primary race ever? A woman who after the Democrats kicked her on her ass blamed Democrat voters for being sexist? I mean how could anybody lose to someone with such qualifications that like that One of the most qualified human beings to ever run for president Kamala Harris!
I mean what qualifications do you need beyond being black and having a vagina?
Edit meant to say can you Believe Trump won not lost
Kamala is also AAPI. It was so historic. At last Asian-Americans could vote for a president who looks like them (or they)!
Breaking news you’re a pointy headed nimrod.
Close, but you mean biden.
Nice try
*. PT references Judge Kyle Duncan and hecklers veto at Stanford. The session is available via video and audio.
Constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro faced worse at Hastings Law. It is also available for perusal.
Hastings has changed its name to UC San Francisco Law. Boalt law at Berkeley also changed its name or deleted John Boalt reference. It’s now simply Berkeley law, I think. Stanford is Stanford law of the infamous hecklers veto of Judge Kyle Duncan.
These institutions aren’t interested in nor do they allow free speech. The reasons are black reasons and lgbtq reasons primarily. At some point the names Stanford and Berkeley will surely go.
There’s always a pronounced interest in feces and areas associated with the anatomy in the movement. These are squat and defecate territories and have been for nearly 75 years. Reason unkn to commenter.
This is an embarrassing topic for leftists. Hence all the trolls changing the subject. Ignore them.
Ignore them. Having a problem keeping up old man?
^ Gibberish. Makes no sense. ^
Too soon old, too late wise
You should pay attention and never miss an opportunity to remain silent.
Lame… Not even worth a laugh
Maybe you do? Ano
OldManFromKS,
As we have seen, and the good professor has been pointing out, how badly behaved leftists really are. From flipping tables, trashing conservative literature, violence, vandalism, disorderly conduct and even spitting on people. They are desperate to deflect from how they are unhinged and deranged they really are. The ironic part is they send one of the dumbest of them here in attempts to deflect with even dumber comments.
* I do.
The Lolita express.
And Bill Clinton was their most frequent flyer
Hey @Dustoff – lay off poor William Jefferson Clinton. As we have all seen, using interns for oral sex in the Office of the President – and perjury before a grand jury are perfectly acceptable attributes as supported by the current leadership of the Minority party.
Sarcasm, however is never considered as such and as this article points out, is one of the “crimes” which justify the assassination of any labeled individual even “ASSOCIATED” with those hated (actual issues, policies, and civil discourse are irrelevant – and should be used to send those identified to reeducation camps).
Hillary Clinton Suggests ‘Formal Deprogramming’ For ‘MAGA Extremists’ Who Still Support Trump
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2023/10/06/hillary-clinton-suggests-formal-deprogramming-for-maga-extremists-who-still-support-trump/
No bullies from Antifa.
BREAKING: ANTIFA protesters have rushed the entrance of tonight’s TPUSA event attempting to break down barriers.
Attendees were all rushed behind a police arrest and another anti-TPUSA protester has been arrested
Gotta say, AOC has more brains than you.
BTW folks, he’s lying.
Prove me wrong.
Even the video is nice. Most of all when the PD was forced to fight back
What video. No proof eh?
Not hard to find it, if you can. You fools post BS all day long and never post a link.
Turning Point USA event at UC Berkley sparks protests, violence, arrests
https://justthenews.com/nation/turning-point-usa-event-uc-berkley-sparks-protests-violence-arrests
Fights break out ahead of Turning Point USA event on UC Berkeley campus
https://www.ktvu.com/news/turning-point-usa-uc-berkeley-protest
My oh my Professor Turley. Have you forgotten that ANTIFA doesn’t exist so they couldn’t have possibly spit on people. It must be really hard to exhibit restraint when being spit on but then again it couldn’t have possibly happened because both the spit and ANTIFA don’t exist. ANTIFA and spit are just an idea.
Anonymous can feel the moisture building in her mouth for just such an occasion.
Lol the DoJ has been ignoring this issue for decades and only care that it it is TPUSA. More weaponizing the government against Trump enemies.
^ Paid DNC troll. Ignore. ^
Yes DOJ has been ignoring this for years – and those current and former DJ members who did so should be held accountable.
The Rule of law reuires that ACTUAL law is enforced.
Failure to enforce laws that those in power at the moment do not like is lawlessness and anarchy.
You would be screaming if DOJ announced that they would not prosecute people who broke up No Kings protests.
Yes this is going after the enemies of Trump. Making yourself an enemy of those in power does not manufacture immunity for violent and unlawful conduct.
Illegal conduct must be prosecuted whether those doing it are friends or enemies of those in power.
The problem with the left targeting Trump between elections is that they did so for Lawful conduct.
The BBC has just been disasterously exposed for deliberately misrepresenting Trump’s remarks on J6 as lawless when they were not. It is defamatory conduct such as that that leave so many of you on the left beleiving that Trump actually committed a crime. We had a whole SC investigation into obviously lawful conduct.
The standard for lawful is not – I do not like this.
The law is applied blind to the ideology or motives of those being accused.
But we still have left wing nut lawfare continuing. The minnesota Supreme Court told the Minesota Sec State to put up or shitup regarding idiotic election claims from 2020. Contra the left assembling alternate slates of electors is not only legal but the courts long ago set that it was the prefered way to challenge presidential elections in congress. Hillary considered it in 2016. As did gore in 2000. Democrats have attenmpted to challenge the electors of every republican president in my lifetime.
If you are claiming that the votes of the certtified electors should not be counted you are near automatically claiming that the votes of alternate electors should be counted. If there are no alternate electors – then that state will not be counted.
Neither Gore nor Clinton could have won their respective elections merely by Challenging Trump or Bush electors in FL or the 2016 swing states. Further ignored by the left – the constitution dictates that the State Legislature is the final authority on all election related matters regarding a State. Courts can decide if the actions of the legislature violate the US or state constitutions – 3/4 of state elections in 2020 violated their state constitutions. Of the swing states that went for Biden in 2020, only NV did not violate its state constitution in the manner it conducted the election. SCOTUS should have heard the TX and 20 other states challenge to the swing states unconstitutional 2020 elections.
You can piss and moan about SOME of Trump’s claims of 2020 election fraud. But there is absolutely zero doubt that the 2020 election was not lawfully conducted. While some of this has been fixed since – Delaware as an example has properly declared mailin voting a violation of the state constitution. Which it obviously is in 38 US states that have Secret Ballot election reuirements in their state constitution.
Regardless, my point is that you must enforce the actual law – whether you like it or not, whether you like the result that will produce.
If you do not like the law or the constitution – they change it.
On issue after issue that is a major problem today.
If you are unhappy about the deportation of illegal immigrants – do not f#$k with ICE or CBP who are just doing their job and enforcing actual US law that has been in place most of my lifetime. Go to congress and petition government to change the law.
The J6 protests are exactly what those unhappy with the lawless 2020 election were permitted to do.
Petition government – those with the actual legitimate power to change the law.
If you are unhappy with Trump’s EOs that enforce existing US law – go to congress and change the law.
While I have serious problem with the obviously lawless decisions of cherry picked lower courts in challenging Trump’s EO’s
Going to court to challenge the executive is perfectly legitimate – whether from the left or the right.
And they courts can legitimately adjudicate following the constitution and the law as written whether the conduct of the executive is lawful or constitutional. What they can not do is adjudicate whether the conduct of the executive is desireable of not. The onlything within the courts jurisdiction is does it conform to the law and the constitution.
If you wish to address what the law SHOULD be rather than what it is – you do that with congress.
John Say,
Good comment but what you suggest, is something sane and normal people do. Our leftists friends are not of the follow the law and order types. They would rather throw things at ICE, attempt to kill LEOs, stage riots, assault anyone whom they disagree with. Just watch some of the videos of the violence that took place outside of the TPUSA event.
It will be interesting to see if Dhilon finds a number of the faculty closely linked to ANTIFA.
Are you a drag queen?
Another dump comment from Ano.
Dustoff the drama queen. How rich.
Hey ANO, this is a drama queen
__________________
Are you a drag queen?
I would hope every faculty member is anti-fascist.
In name they all probably are. But as demonstrated by the very name “anti-fascist” or “Antifa,” these days when someone claims to be anti-fascist there’s a good chance that in their actions and attitudes they are fascist.
OldManFromKS,
That is correct. By their words and actions, they prove they are the thing they claim to be fighting against.
“Antifa,” these days when someone claims to be anti-fascist there’s a good chance that in their actions and attitudes they are fascist.”
Excellent point. That’s something our left-leaning friends on the blog fail to recognize. Perhaps one of them will enlighten us as to why they call the left’s own fascist behavior “anti-fascist.”
That is a common trait of the left. The 1984 newspeak.
Words are violence. black is white. up is down.
Discriminatinng on the basis of race is not racism.
Men are women.
The left would have no standards but for double standards.
Intolerant Antifa fascists and neo-Nazis are a disgrace to liberty and freedom. Shame on these little Hitlers.
The Justice Department should do their job and investigate those individuals involved in the Epstein files!
Like Hillary and Bill Clinton?
Agreed!!
Flight logs show Bill Clinton flew on sex offender’s jet much more than previously known
“Former President Bill Clinton was a much more frequent flyer on a registered sex offender’s infamous jet than previously reported, with flight logs showing the former president taking at least 26 trips aboard the “Lolita Express” — even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights, according to records obtained by FoxNews.com.”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/flight-logs-show-bill-clinton-flew-on-sex-offenders-jet-much-more-than-previously-known
Ano
Ask biden. He had four years and did what??????????????
Zip.
Might be a reason for that. Ask Billy boy C.