The Berkeley Riots Were A Cowardly Act of Domestic Terrorism

What the media won’t tell you: Last night’s “protest” at UC Berkeley was actually a violent organized riot.

Wednesday night, Feb. 1, a violent organized riot occurred for over 3.5 hours which started around 6pm pacific time at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union auditorium on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Thousands of peaceful protesters showed up to protest a scheduled talk with Milo Yiannopoulos, a conservative editor for Breitbart News. According to campus officials the protest soon turned violent as over a hundred and fifty masked terrorists dressed in black, some with shields and helmets, began physically assaulting people trying to attend the event using pepper spray, flags, blunt objects, and fireworks.

The radical left-wing terrorist organization known as Antifa, which stands for Anti-Fascists, successfully lit a generator on fire causing a massive fire which was ignorantly cheered on by protesters as they chanted hate speech in an attempt to shut down Milo Yiannopoulos’ right to free speech. The UC Berkeley campus, which was the birth place of the Free Speech Movement, was ironically forced to cancel the event to protect the safety of students.

After the fire chaos erupted.

Milo was safely taken away from the area, and the police secured the MLK auditorium. The police repeatedly told the crowd to disperse, and threatened to use chemical agents, but did not appear to confront the crowd based on the live video footage I witnessed during a 4-hour period. The police occasionally went into the crowd to retrieve severely injured people, but did nothing to prevent further violence. Meanwhile, the peaceful protesters began dancing to music, and celebrating as fights continued to break out, and Antifa broke windows and lit fireworks directed at the MLK auditorium. The police did not act.

As more dispersal orders were given by the police, the riot soon spread to downtown Berkeley without a single police officer in sight. Between 6:30–9:30PM I did not see a single police officer, or police vehicle in the downtown Berkeley area on any of the live video feeds I was watching including live helicopter footage. You can view my commentary of live video streams on Periscope.

The police simply stood down, as Antifa attacked civilians with blunt objects, attacked vehicles, and destroyed several banks, small businesses, and corporate owned franchises such as T-Mobile and Starbucks. While I was not there in person, I witnessed well over a dozen people being assaulted via live video streams, including the driver of a car being pepper sprayed, and another man beaten unconscious in the streets. I even witnessed another driver who hit the gas with a suspected Antifa member still on the hood of his car, and watched helplessly as several people who were live streaming were attacked and had their live streams taken offline.

The police did not intervene, and simply allowed over 150 masked Antifa members to terrorize the downtown area of Berkeley until nearly 10pm at night with few consequences. This was NOT a peaceful protest, this was a highly organized riot, and the city of Berkeley simply let it happen.

Trigger warning: Extreme violence and language in the video below.

The Aftermath

Last night at UC Berkeley we witnessed a signficant blow to civil liberties in America.

These were not acts of protest, but acts of cowardice, hatred, and bigotry. These were not liberal, or progressive values, and this radical left-wing Antifa group are not protesters. I do not use the term “terrorist” lightly, and personally believe the war on terror is mostly bullshit. However, domestic terrorism is no joke, and should not be tolerated by any American regardless of your political beliefs.

Much to my surprise, our civil liberties are being threatened not at the hands of a corporatist government, but instead at the hands of ignorant and violent radical left-wing domestic terrorists with suspected ties to George Soros (if anyone has more information on Antifa’s connections to Soros please respond below with sources).

The Constitution of America protects the right to free speech, and it is a value I personally hold very close to my heart as a journalist and political analyst. I personally do not follow Milo Yiannopoulos, nor do I care to, but I absolutely will defend his right to free speech.

Taken by lunarprospect on Reddit who was at UC Berkeley.

What is even worse, is the police and mayor of Berkeley did nothing to protect the rights and physical well-being of the people and students of Berkeley, let alone property. They displayed incredible cowardice in allowing an armed and organized group of over 150 radicals to terrorize their campus and city.

If I could see the violence that was clearly happening from the comfort of my own home, then why were the police and mayor unable to assess the gravity of the situation?

The mayor of Berkeley has issued the following statement deflecting blame for allowing the police to stand down, while using obnoxious political double-speak:

In my opinion, Jesse Arreguin and whoever else decided the police should stand down failed the people and students of Berkeley, and should tender their resignation.

The riots even drew the attention of President Donald Trump, who threatened to cut off federal funding to UC Berkeley. While I don’t agree with the President, the members of Antifa need to understand that their actions did not stop Milo Yiannopoulos, they actually gave him a platform with the mainstream media to reach millions of people last night. Their intention of stifling his right to free speech completely backfired, drew the ire of the President, and will rightfully classify them as a domestic terrorist organization.

“If we allow violence to be used against ideas, then that means anyone can arbitrarily decide that an idea is a threat to their existence, and then use philosophy to justify violence on any person they choose.”-Derrick Broze

Violence is NOT a form of protest.