Ann Coulter Berkeley: rejects Cal offer to switch date of speech
Ann Coulter Berkeley: rejects Cal offer to switch date of speech - A day after canceling a scheduled speech by Ann Coulter for security reasons, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said Thursday that the right-wing pundit’s insistence on coming anyway persuaded him to rethink her banishment.
“An appropriate, protectable venue” will be made available on campus May 2 — not next Thursday, as originally planned — he said, adding that he would disclose the location only after Coulter accepts the new date.
That’s not likely.
Hours later, Coulter shot down the invitation in a series of tweets and said she will speak at Berkeley on Thursday as planned not only because she “can’t do May 2,” but “THERE ARE NO CLASSES AT BERKELEY THE WEEK OF MAY 2!!!”
That week is “Dead Week,” a time when classes are suspended so students can study for exams.
“It’s at an awful time,” said Naweed Tahmas, 20, of the Berkeley College Republicans student group that invited Coulter. Also, the last day of instruction is three days later.
“Do not fall for b.s. Berkeley press release claiming they ‘rescinded’ cancelation,” Coulter tweeted. “GOOD NEWS FOR CA TAXPAYER! You won't be required to pay $$$$ to compensate me & my crew for rebooked airfare & hotels. I'm speaking on 4/27.”
Dirks rejected accusations from Coulter, the student Republicans and the national Young America’s Foundation that the university was infringing on their right to free speech by originally canceling the talk this week.
“The university has an unwavering commitment to the First Amendment of the Constitution,” Dirks said, adding that student safety is of equal importance.
He said campus police had uncovered “threats that could pose a grave danger to the speaker, attendees and those who may wish to lawfully protest the event.”
Dirks said Coulter’s response to the cancellation — that she planned to speak on or off campus next Thursday regardless of security concerns — led him to ask his staff to find a “protectable venue.”
The location “is not one we have used for these sorts of events in the past; it can both accommodate a substantial audience and meet the security criteria established by our police department,” Dirks said at a hastily called news conference Thursday.
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| Ann Coulter Berkeley: rejects Cal offer to switch date of speech |
UC Police Capt. Alex Yao said, “Our approach (to Coulter’s security) will be different than for the Milo (Yiannopoulos) event” Feb. 1, when masked and violent agitators infiltrated a student protest of Yiannopoulos — another right-wing pundit — breaking windows, setting equipment on fire and shutting down his talk before it began.
Declining to offer specifics on security, Yao suggested that more police would be on hand. He said the Yiannopoulos protest and others March 4 and Saturday in Berkeley are causing police to “look at how we staff.”
Meanwhile, it’s unclear from Coulter’s tweets whether she intends to try to speak on campus or in the city of Berkeley on Thursday, and neither the Republican students nor the national Young America’s Foundation, that is paying most of her $20,000 speaking fee, responded to requests for comment.
An informal Chronicle survey of half a dozen event sites in Berkeley yielded not one that would or could have her.
“Absolutely not,” said Mirian Wolodarski Lundberg, co-manager of the 200-seat Finnish Lodge on Chestnut Street, when asked if Coulter could speak there Thursday.
“The Finnish Hall was built in 1932 by immigrants,” Wolodarski Lundberg said. Coulter, who was invited by the student Republicans to speak on immigration, is famously anti-immigrant. She also has labeled herself a “mean-spirited, bigoted conservative.”
“Not only would we not agree with her politics, but we would also be concerned about the kind of crowds that she would attract,” she said.
Nor could Coulter speak at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse on Addison Street, which has 490 seats. The Cowboy Junkies, a Canadian country-blues band, is playing that night, and “I wouldn’t consider canceling it” for Coulter, said executive director Sharon Dolan.
Besides, Dolan said, the site’s nonprofit status could be in jeopardy if it started hosting partisan speakers.
Other places booked Thursday: the 550-seat UC Theater, where a Beatles cover show is playing, and the Berkeley Repertory Theater, where Hershey Feder is playing Irving Berlin.
As for the 120-seat Berkeley Yacht Club, the Sierra Club has it that night.
And even if it didn’t, there would be a riot problem to consider.
“I would, obviously, have a slight concern about that,” said the Yacht Club’s manager, Mark Fokolov.
Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
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