Heather Mac Donald speech on 'War on Cops' shut down at Claremont, partly shouted down at UCLA [UPDATE: Claremont issues statement]
[UPDATE: Claremont McKenna's president has issued a statement about the incident.]
College Fix (Jennifer Kabbany) reports:
A throng of angry protesters converged at Claremont McKenna College on Thursday and effectively shut down a pro-police speech as they surrounded the building, forcing the speaker to give the talk via livestream to a near-empty room as they yelled "F*ck the police" and "Black Lives Matter" and banged on windows.
Heather Mac Donald, a Manhattan Institute scholar and author of the 2016 book "The War on Cops," even gave her talk earlier than originally planned at the preppy and private Southern California campus because of the rowdy crowd estimated at more than 250 protesters, she told The College Fix via email Thursday.
Thirty minutes into the speech, police officers told her to cut it short, and she was given a four-officer escort through a side door and safely through some surprised protesters who had flanked that exit, Mac Donald said. …
Appalling, if the account is correct (and I understand from Mac Donald, whom I know pretty well, that it is). Kabbany also reports:
A speech by Heather Mac Donald at UCLA on Wednesday frequently descended into chaos as Black Lives Matter protesters stormed the stage and chanted their signature phrase over and over, and also took over portions of the Q&A with angry accusations and raucous shouting, a video of the event shows.
Mac Donald, a Manhattan Institute scholar who spoke on campus at the behest of the Bruin Republicans to give a "Blue Lives Matter" talk about her 2016 book "The War on Cops," appeared to be able to largely get through the first half of her speech without much dissension.
But when she opened the floor to questions, the uproar began. The chants launched, with several people taking over the floor at the front of the room and continuing to yell over and over: "Black lives—they matter here! Black lives, they matter here!" …
Slightly less appalling, but appalling still; while audience members should be free to express their views using normal Q&A, this appears to have been very far from that.