Ann Coulter backs out of UC Berkeley speech

In this Feb. 12, 2011 file photo, Ann Coulter waves to the audience after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. University of California, Berkeley students who invited Coulter to speak on campus filed a lawsuit Monday April 24, 2017, against the university, saying it is discriminating against conservative speakers and violating students’ rights to free speech. Campus Republicans invited Coulter to speak at Berkeley on April 27, but Berkeley officials informed the group that the event was being called off for security concerns. less In this Feb. 12, 2011 file photo, Ann Coulter waves to the audience after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. University of California, Berkeley students who invited ... more Photo: Cliff Owen, Associated Press Photo: Cliff Owen, Associated Press Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Ann Coulter backs out of UC Berkeley speech 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Ann Coulter has backed out of her plans to speak at UC Berkeley on Thursday, but city and campus police fear the fuse has been lit — and they’re bracing for a riot.

Protesters and supporters of the right-wing provocateur vow to show up despite Coulter’s cancellation of her speech, and police plan to have a “high number of highly visible” officers on campus.

“I can tell you we will have a very, very low tolerance for any sort of violence on campus,” said UC Berkeley police Capt. Alex Yao. “We're still planning forward for a riot-like situation.”

Berkeley has informed state and local law-enforcement agencies that their assistance might be needed, Yao said.

Coulter canceled her visit Wednesday after groups sponsoring her event withdrew their support.

“It is a dark day for free speech in America,” she said in a tweet. “If we had continued to fight we would have won.”

The two groups financially sponsoring the event, the Young America’s Foundation and BridgeUSA, a nonpartisan campus group, backed out after Coulter insisted on coming despite UC Berkeley’s concerns that it didn’t have a venue available that the police could adequately protect Thursday.

Fringe groups on both sides of the political divide had publicized their intent to descend on the university Thursday for Coulter’s appearance. Right-wing groups, for example, were using online chat groups to organize a campus visit, calling on supporters to be “battle ready.”

Some, in largely anonymous Internet posts, called on protesters to bring makeshift weapons ranging from bike locks to sharpened pikes.

Kyle Chapman, arrested in the last skirmish in Berkeley, and leader of the Proud Boys, a national far-right organization, urged attendees to show up, saying, “We will be victorious” against “communism and tyranny.”

On Twitter, he wrote that the “rally” was on for 2 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, which was the site of two previous rallies, by groups supporting President Trump, that turned violent after protesters arrived.

Self-described anarchists who had been debating how to respond to Coulter’s speech on Reddit this week suggested Wednesday that they ought to hold a cookout in Sproul Plaza or a “dance party,” wary of giving the far right what it claims to want: violence. But others said such a tactic, even if unexpected, would accomplish little and urged for yet another head-on confrontation with the far right.

The Minuteman Project, a citizen militia focused on border protection, however, said that though it had organized 800 people to travel to Berkeley to protect Coulter, their presence would no longer be required given her cancellation, founder Jim Gilchrist said in an email.

Paula Aiello, a Bay Area activist of four decades and a founder of a new leftist group called Respect Berkeley, which advocates for nonviolence, said she and others planned to attend the rally to keep some measure of peace. She also said they would not get into the “middle of the fray” because it was shaping up to be a “free-for-all” once more.

On Feb. 1, UC Berkeley police canceled a planned speech by far-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos after a riot began just before his speech was to be delivered. On April 15, 11 people were injured and 20 arrested when Trump supporters and opponents fought at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. park, and on March 4, 10 people were arrested and many injured after a similar confrontation at the park.

Yao said that deployment and staffing of police would be “significantly different” than what the public saw during the Yiannopoulos event. That’s when masked anarchists methodically took down three rows of metal barriers to reach the student union, where Yiannopoulos was waiting to give his speech.

Berkeley city officials, meanwhile, were preparing for protesters and “planning for a number of possibilities,” said Matthai Chakko, city spokesman.

Coulter initially was invited by the Berkeley College Republicans to speak Thursday, but university officials said the student group booked the speaker without getting permission to use a campus venue.

“They may have won the battle, but certainly not the war,” said Naweed Tahmas, a member and spokesman for the Berkeley College Republicans. “The Berkeley College Republicans will not cower in the face of the university’s obstructionism, nor will it cower to left-wing agitators that the UCPD and administration has proven to be feckless in defending us against.”

The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement Wednesday, saying free speech took a hit in this case.

“The unacceptable threats of violence that have led to the ‘hecklers’ veto’ of Ann Coulter’s speech at Berkeley are inconsistent with free speech principles that protect us all from government overreach,” ACLU legal director David Cole said. “Hateful speech has consequences, particularly for people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants, and others who have been historically marginalized ... For the future of our democracy, we must protect bigoted speech from government censorship.”

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said the ACLU’s response suggested the organization may not have been “aware that we’ve offered alternative dates” for Coulter’s talk and may not have been “familiar with the details” of the university’s dilemma.

“Everything we’ve done to date is in an effort to facilitate free speech, not stand in the way of it,” he said.

UC Berkeley officials have said there were “specific, significant, and real” threats of violence related to the appearance, and there was no venue on that particular date that the UC Berkeley police could adequately protect.

“If UCPD believes there is a significant security threat attendant to a particular event, we cannot allow it to be held in a venue with a limited number of exits; in a hall that cannot be cordoned off; in an auditorium with floor to ceiling glass; in any space that does not meet basic safety criteria established by UCPD,” said Chancellor Nicholas Dirks in a statement Wednesday. “This is the sole reason we could not accommodate Ms. Coulter on April 27th, and the very reason we offered her alternative dates in early May and September, when venues that satisfy safety requirements are available.”

Before backing out, Coulter had declined the university’s offer of the other dates, insisting on speaking Thursday despite the lack of a venue.

Student organizers of the Coulter visit said they were undeterred and would be inviting her back in the future.

“I have complete faith in the intelligence of our students here to determine what in Ann Coulter’s speeches are fact and what are arguments and what is merely polemics,” said Troy Worden, 21, president of the Berkeley College Republicans. “If the university’s professors are doing their job, they would teach their students to distinguish between entertainment and rational argument. I think Ann Coulter offers a mix of both.”

Worden says he wanted students to “engage with conservative ideas just as they engage with liberal ideas every day of the week.”

Jill Tucker, Kimberly Veklerov and Michael Bodley are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com kveklerov@sfchronicle.com mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker, @KVeklerov, @michael_bodley