Free speech debate, protests flare at Turning Point event at UC Berkeley

Berkeley

Attendees of a Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley and protesters against the conservative organization debated whether free speech has at all eroded on the storied liberal campus – but not with each other.

The Berkeley event Monday evening was the final stop on the “This is the Turning Point” tour, which was briefly paused and revamped after founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated during an event at Utah Valley University in September.

Through turns, the event was part sermon, part political standup comedy show and part celebration of life for Kirk – who was represented by an empty chair on stage draped with the white “Freedom” t-shirt he was wearing when he was killed.

Frank Turek, a conservative author and religious adviser to Kirk, recounted the day the 31-year-old father of two was killed in Utah and responded to claims by conservative influencer Candace Owens that Kirk’s death was an inside job.

“If you’re going to suggest someone’s guilty, you need evidence, and she doesn’t,” Turek said.

Hours before the event started, hundreds of students, alumni and others protested the campus presence of the organization and its support of President Donald Trump. Inside, attendees accused the protesters of liberal intolerance and perpetuating cancel culture.

Free speech “is the right for me to say something that pisses you off,” said comedian Rob Schneider, a Bay Area native who headlined the event. “Free speech is all speech.”

The event included a segment where people were invited to bring up disagreements with Schneider, Turek and other guests. Most of the comments or questions from the overwhelmingly conservative audience were friendly, though a couple of students pressed Schneider on his past comments and moves by Trump to silence dissent.

“How can people think that Donald Trump wants to uphold our (Constitutional) amendments if the Trump administration continues to support the suppression of speaking out into the genocide” in Gaza, the student asked.

Schenider relented that “it is a mistake from the Trump administration to silence” speech of any kind before also accusing the Biden administration of supporting efforts to “silence” conservative voices on social media.

Attending conservatives basked in jokes about Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the outcry over actress Sydney Sweeney’s recent ad for American Eagle denim and the state’s liberal policies.

“If you live somewhere that bans plastic straws but not fentanyl you’re doing something wrong,” conservative comedian Jobob Taeleifi quipped after recounting how he had watched someone take drugs on public transit hours earlier.

“The reason we keep coming back to places like this is because, despite all of the craziness, despite all the local policies, we believe that the Bay Area can be saved.”

Protests, scuffles outside

Police and private security maintained a perimeter around Zellerbach Hall, where the event took place, clogging the few controlled entrances while multiple groups of protesters jeered at attendees and cursed fascism.

Several confrontations broke out and were quickly quelled by police. Earlier Monday, four students were arrested and cited with felony vandalism while attempting to hang a large insect made out of cardboard on Sather Gate.

“Between the current administration and all of the really hateful things that are being spread, it comes to a point where you need to stand up for everyone around you,” freshman Jonathan Gonzales-Heyer said before the event.

The 18-year-old history major said while the university prides itself as the birthplace of the campus free speech movement in the 1960s, “the administration at the college is not particularly keen on that, as much as they preach it,” citing the student arrests and administrators’ decision to hand over names of people in a Trump administration probe on antisemitism. Inside, another student said university officials overstepped and exerted too much control over the event.

“We’re not having dissenting opinions coming in because they stopped the protesters from being allowed to buy tickets so we could have a back and forth discussion,” said the student, who did not identify himself. “And I think that hurts our movement.”

The student called on Chancellor Richard Lyons to defend the university’s policy. But after Schneider asked if the chancellor was in attendance, no one came forward.