Milo Yiannopoulos Pushing Back After NYU Postpones Speech Over Safety Concerns
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Milo Yiannopoulos, an icon of the far-right, is pushing back after New York University postponed a scheduled appearance by the speaker.
"New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio today requested that NYU postpone and reschedule the classroom appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos for public safety reasons in light of the nearby Halloween parades and New York Police Department assessments of risk," NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a statement Tuesday. "Given the importance of close coordination between NYU's Public Safety personnel and the NYPD to ensuring safety, the University agreed to the postponement."
In an Instagram post, the former senior editor of Breitbart News called himself "without question the most censored man in America."
"The entire city of New York is terrified of one gay man stepping out of line and calling out the Left as the intolerant, censorious crybabies they are. And they just proved it—by censoring me again," he wrote. "I couldn't ask for more conclusive proof: The Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, today demanded my talk at NYU be canceled ("rescheduled" in their euphemistic language) and the President of NYU has complied. So. It's not happening. I'll post my talk online tomorrow instead. RIP, First Amendment. They're not even pretending any more."
In another post, he said he "won't be stopped by de Blasio" and will stream his speech online at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday from an undisclosed location in New York City.
The event was originally scheduled for the same day as the Halloween parade and the one year anniversary of the West Side bike path terror attack that killed eight people.
On Tuesday, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the department would send a "very large detail" to NYU in hopes of preventing another brawl like the one that broke out during a speech by Proud Boys founder Gavin McCinnins at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan.
"The NYPD can and would handle anything. But needlessly having this immediately adjacent to one of the biggest NYC events all year doesn't make a lot of sense," de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips tweeted. "NYU is smart to reschedule it for a different day."
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