Violent Protests Prompt UC Berkeley To Cancel Talk By Controversial Breitbart News Editor
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A University of California, Berkeley official says a talk by a polarizing Breitbart News editor at the university was canceled Wednesday as protesters outside the building where the speech was to have taken place threw smoke bombs and set a fire.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulos says officials were advising the campus to shelter in place and to stay away from the student union building, where Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak.
A group of protesters dressed in black and some in hooded sweatshirts broke windows, threw smoke bombs and flares at a building and set a large bonfire outside the building.
UPDATE #Breitbart editor #MiloYiannopoulos says he was evacuated from violent @UCBerkeley protest safely https://t.co/8izStcQWv3 pic.twitter.com/9kbUxDsTp3
— KPIX 5 (@CBSSF) February 2, 2017
Some of the protesters pulled away metal barricades as police in riot gear guarded the building.
By 8 p.m., the crowd had thinned and at least 100 protesters that remained danced to a brass band playing music and marched off campus and into a main avenue.
Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators carrying signs that read "Hate Speech Is Not Free Speech" had been protesting for hours before the event.
- For more information on this story, visit CBS San Francisco.
UC Berkeley spokesman says there are no immediate reports of arrests or serious injuries.
Yiannopoulos, 32, a right wing provocateur, is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed internet troll whose comments have been criticized as racist, misogynist, anti-Muslim and white supremacist.
His visit to Berkeley is sponsored by the campus Republican club.
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