Berkeley Republicans crash meeting of anti-conservative group
“By Any Means Necessary,” a progressive activist group, refused to allow College Republicans members to attend a public meeting Wednesday at the University of California, Berkeley.
Video footage provided to Campus Reform by Patriot Warrior Media shows activists obstructing the entrance to an event hosted on the public university’s campus by BAMN, a “coalition to defend affirmative action, integration and immigrant rights and fight for equality by any means necessary.”
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The event was advertised on campus with flyers inviting students to attend a “meeting on shutting down and defeating the fascists and building the movement to get Trump out,” and was specifically intended as a planning session for antifa-led protests scheduled for this weekend.
The flyer also outlines several policy positions that BAMN is seeking to promote, focusing heavily on its support for unrestricted immigration.
“Make California a sanctuary state!...Full citizenship rights now for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers!” it proclaims, followed by demands to “abolish the Electoral College” and provide “universal healthcare for all in California and the nation!”
When the Republican students attempted to enter the room in which the meeting was being held, they were instantly turned away by the BAMN members, who disparaged them as “Nazis” and baselessly accused them of inciting violence.
The visitors, however, insisted that the access to a public event on a public university cannot be denied to a select group of students based on their political beliefs.
“This is a student meeting, we can attend a student meeting,” one student in the hallway told the activists. “This is against university policy.”
“Stop assaulting civil rights organizers; you do not have a right to attack women,” a female activist hyperbolically retorted while blocking the doorway alongside her colleagues.
[RELATED: Republican woman barred from Women’s Conference over her ‘values’]
Visibly present at the meeting was Yvette Felarca, a Berkeley middle school teacher and BAMN leader who is currently free on bail after being charged with inciting a riot and felony assault by means of force likely to inflict great bodily injury in late July.
The conservative students protested that Felarca should not be allowed on campus while she awaits trial, but a police officer who arrived several minutes into the standoff told them that this was not the case unless she has specific restrictions on her bond.
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“If she is on bail but she doesn’t have a stay-away from campus she can still be on campus,” the officer said. “Now it’s different if campus is closed, she is not a student and its after-hours, then she needs to leave. So, we are trying to figure things out here.”
According to another video of the event, a police officer later said that if the event is public, the Republican students “are allowed to be there.” Moments later, the BAMN organizers opted to relocate, and promptly left the classroom, presumably to find an off-campus location at which they could resume their plotting privately.
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