Protests shut down UC Davis speech by Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos

Milo Yiannopoulos
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A crush of student protesters shut down a Friday evening event featuring controversial Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos and "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli at UC Davis before either man's speech could begin. Chanting "Say it loud, say it clear, racists are not welcome here," protesters blocked access to the venue until campus security officers informed the UC Davis College Republicans, who were hosting the talks, that the event could not continue with guaranteed safety for attendees.

UC Davis released a statement saying protesters were not responsible for any property damage or violence and only one arrest was made. Still, Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter said he was "deeply disappointed" in the Davis campus community for failing to demonstrate "respect for all views, even those that we personally find repellent." "As I have stated repeatedly," he added, "a university is at its best when it listens to and critically engages opposing views, especially ones that many of us find upsetting or even offensive."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.