Yiannopoulos visits Sproul for 15 minutes; UC Berkeley spends $800,000

Ultraconservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos prayed, signed autographs and took selfies for about 15 minutes on the steps of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley on Sunday, an appearance that cost the university an estimated $800,000, university officials said.

Hoping to prevent the kind of violence that shut down a scheduled speech by Yiannopoulos on Feb. 1, UC officials brought in an “unprecedented” number of police officers — they declined to reveal how many — from about 10 jurisdictions, including the little Kern County city of Taft, as well as police from other University of California and California State University campuses.

Security included a labyrinth of orange barriers, which prohibited access to Sproul Plaza until shortly before noon, requiring attendees to pass through a single metal detector to enter the area. In the end, only about 150 people in Sproul Plaza saw Yiannopoulos. Hundreds were still outside waiting to get in when he left.

Milo Yiannopoulos leaves Sproul Plaza after a brief UC Berkeley appearance that sparked protests on Sunday. Milo Yiannopoulos leaves Sproul Plaza after a brief UC Berkeley appearance that sparked protests on Sunday. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Yiannopoulos visits Sproul for 15 minutes; UC Berkeley spends $800,000 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

“Because we were operating and planning in the blind — we just were not getting information from the student group — we had to plan for what we felt was going to happen with speakers of this magnitude here,” said UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett. “And that’s why we staffed it the way we did.”

Bennett said that campus police and administrators would decide Sunday night whether to provide special security for the rest of the week.

Yiannopoulos arrived on the steps of Sproul Plaza shortly after noon, fulfilling his vow to show up even after student organizers canceled what had been billed as Free Speech Week, a four-day event that was to include Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former White House adviser, and controversial conservative author Ann Coulter.

Despite calling the event a defense of free speech, Yiannopoulos didn’t give a speech. He was shouted down as he tried to talk. He wasn’t allowed to use an amplification system, a rule university officials said would apply to “any private citizen who would seek to make use of the Sproul steps for a similar purpose.”

Wearing a U.S. flag hoodie and accompanied by an entourage that included private security, he greeted supporters for several minutes, knelt down to pray, took selfies, signed autographs and then started singing the national anthem as protesters yelled at him, challenging him on his views regarding immigration.

Then, security escorted him from Sproul Plaza while police held back people who tried to follow him.

“No, I didn’t get to say much,” Yiannopoulos told The Chronicle later in a text message, adding that he plans to return later this week or sometime in the next several months. “We will be back to Berkeley over and over again, until the university starts treating its conservative students fairly.”

He also criticized police, saying they prevented people from entering.

“Nonsense,” said UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof. He said the security screening was slowed after one person was caught with plastic knuckles, a weapon that wouldn’t be caught by a metal detector.

“Our job as a campus and as a police department wasn’t to facilitate this event,” Mogulof said. “What drove our arrangements and our preparations and our decisions was the safety and security of the public, the campus community and any private citizens that may have come onto Sproul.”

Several hundred people descended on the south side of the campus in anticipation of Yiannopoulos’ visit, split between those who supported him and those who didn’t.

Throughout the morning, verbal sparring and a few scuffles occurred between the two sides, as well as competing chants of, “USA!” and “Fascists go home!”

Police banned weapons of any kind as well as face masks, perhaps deterring groups like the black bloc or antifa from participating.

Eleven people were arrested on various charges, most for carrying banned weapons, police said.

As the protests wound down Sunday afternoon and the crowd dissipated, university officials said that they would likely be looking at changing policies on events and speakers.

It’s unclear if existing rules can accommodate these kinds of “unprecedented protests,” Mogulof said, adding that Chancellor Carol Christ is considering putting together an advisory group of students, faculty, experts and administrators to review those policies.

He noted that the event was initiated by a student group called Berkeley Patriot, organized by two students after Yiannopoulos’ first speech was canceled.

“We need to ask ourselves, ‘Should a relatively small student group have the ability to schedule four straight days of events?’” he said. “There’s a lot for us to examine and think about.”

Jill Tucker, Kimberly Veklerov, Lizzie Johnson and Nanette Asimov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, ljohnson@sfchronicle.com, nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JillTucker, @LVeklerov, @lizziejohnsonnn, @NanetteAsimov