Editorial: Trying to find the line between outrage and agitation

This past week’s student-led march in solidarity against the Trump administration’s muslim ban may have gone over well on Muhlenberg’s campus, but pro- tests on other campuses quite literally crashed and burned.

Last Wednesday, a peaceful protest at the University of California-Berkeley turned violent as a group of non-students kicked in barriers and threw firecrackers and smoke bombs, according to an article on CNN.com. It was also reported that a Facebook post prior to the protest showed that students were intending to peacefully protest a scheduled speech on campus by the radical right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos. After the pro- test began, the students were joined by members of a violent non-student group called Black Bloc, according to CNN.

Yiannopoulos is a radical alt-right leader known for outrageous statements which many students at Berkeley and elsewhere find offensive. Berkeley’s own student newspaper actively encouraged students to attend the protest.

We stand by UC Berkeley’s decision to host the speaker as well as its students’ decision to protest.

While Muhlenberg College itself cannot sponsor a partisan speaker, as per its Policy for Partisan Political Activity, officially recognized student organizations can and must fund these types of events. Although the College has the ability to refuse to host the speaker, that has not happened to date—at least to the knowledge of Mike Bruckner, Vice President of External Affairs and Community Relations.

We agree that anyone, especially those with views that are deemed less popular, should not be denied the ability to speak on a campus solely based on the affiliation of their speech. This is given that a school organization wishes to pay for their time and that the speaker follows all other institutional policies.

On the other side, students also have the right to congregate and rally to show their disapproval, so long as they do so within the confines of the law—meaning that no bodily harm comes to protesters or bystanders.

That being said, as much as free speech is welcomed, hate speech and agitation towards violence must be opposed in the same breath. The students who began the non-violent Berkeley protest against Yiannapoulos were utilizing their freedom of speech by congregating to show their frustration. The problem arose when the protest shifted to factionalized violence, leading to property destruction and bodily harm.

There are limits to free speech, specifically when it infringes on another’s right to bodily safety.

While we condone the students for standing up for what they believe in, we also believe in holding safe protests and condemn those who violently interrupted.

We at The Weekly are ardent supporters of the First Amendment and all the privileges provided by it. However, hate speech and incendiary remarks will not be tolerated in our publishing.

To reiterate our editorial policy, The Weekly Editorial Board welcomes letters from the campus community on any and all topics, timely or otherwise.