By UNM student Vivianne Gonzlez:
Over the past few months since the election of Donald J. Trump, the American left has found more and more excuses to riot, destroy property, start fires, and assault innocent victims and police officers.
Speaker and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has recently been pushed to the very top of that list of excuses. The controversial figure came to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to talk to a group of over 600 attendees. CFACT student Vivianne Gonzalez was on the ground, reporting on what she saw and the free speech showdown that occurred with the UNM administration.
Two weeks before the event, the student groups inviting Milo were slammed with a random security fee of $3,400. This was obviously a list minute obstacle designed to prevent the students from having sufficient time to raise the money for Milo to speak at the university. The backlash from that policy allowed the money to cover the fee to be raised in time on a Go Fund Me page. Thankfully, in defense of free speech, UNM acting president Chaouki T. Abdallah waived the security fee.
“The University of New Mexico is committed to the principles of free speech, and values our role as a marketplace of ideas in the community,” said Abdallah. “Within this context, I have carefully considered the concerns expressed by the Regents in last Friday’s meeting regarding the police and security services policy and how its application may impact free speech on campus. As a result, I am directing the immediate suspension and application of that portion of the policy that results in fees for security and police protection, pending a thorough policy review.”
Yiannopoulos, former senior editor at Breitbart, expressed his opinions on Donald Trump, liberalism, terrorism, illegal immigration and Islam. Although there was chaos and destruction outside of the Student Union Ballroom, inward Milo’s crowed responded with applause and laughter. UNM provided officers and secured the event, even gassing violent protesters trying to break the windows of the ballroom that Milo was speaking in.
One of his more controversial statements had to do with the subject of Islam. “Everywhere in the world where there is Islam, you’ll find women oppressed, homosexuals murdered, you’ll find gang rape,” he said. The comments angered a group of Muslim women in the audience.
“You’re wearing a hijab in the United States of America,” Yiannopoulos said in response to the women. “What is wrong with you?”
Milo then moved on to talk about immigration, arguing that wanting a border wall does not make you racist. He explained that the southern border needs to be secured, citing recent studies and statistics.
At the end free speech triumphed at the University of New Mexico. Everyone who attended the building was escorted safely and Milo was on his tour bus to the next college after the talk. The University of New Mexico was one of the few Universities who did waive the security fee for Milo’s events on his recent college tour.