Passions Ignite as Horowitz Speaks

A forum featuring conservative writer David Horowitz ended abruptly last night when debate between the author and audience members escalated and the microphones were suddenly shut off.

The question and answer session had just begun, when Horowitz and another man began yelling at each other. Ben Carrasco, the emcee of the event and editor of the California Patriot, a conservative publication, pulled the plug on both microphones after the crowd became raucous, yelling and cheering on both sides of the isle.

Photo/Sabrina Tan

The crowd booed as Carrasco and other members of the Patriot and Berkeley College Republicans tried to figure out what to do next.

"It was getting out of hand, and they told me to pull the plug," Carrasco said. "Obviously from a PR standpoint, that wasn't the right thing to do. I wasn't expecting Horowitz to leave like that."

People began filing out of the Valley Life Sciences Building and the forum ended early.

"It went fine until the end there," said Robb McFadden, chair of the Berkeley College Republicans. "It shows there is the desire from both sides to start to talk."

The forum began with Horowitz addressing the "firestorm of controversy" that has bombarded college campuses since The Daily Californian published his advertisement, "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea-and Racist Too," on Feb. 28, followed by a front page apology the next day.

Several other college papers, including the UC Davis Aggie and the University of Wisconsin Badger Herald also ran the advertisement, but many more rejected it. The Aggie also apologized for running it, while the Herald denounced the apologies as stifling free speech.

"Apparently on this campus, some ideas are too dangerous for the campus community to hear," Horowitz said, calling the political atmosphere one of "racial McCarthyism." "If you can't have a rational discussion on college campuses, where do you think you can?"

Horowitz, a UC Berkeley alumnus, called on students to demonstrate that free speech is still alive and well in Berkeley.

Since his years as a student, when he was an active member of the liberal community-editor of the liberal Rampart magazine and a member of the Black Panthers-Horowitz has become a vocal conservative and bestselling author.

"In my view, what the left is about is a species of civil war," Horowitz said.

He said there is an "intellectual terror" on campus that prevents conservative views from being heard.

Conservative organizations on campus began planning to bring Horowitz to Berkeley a year ago to "inspire conservative thought." The effort was revived last month when controversy over the advertisement erupted.

The event, which drew more than 300 people, was touted as a celebration of free speech.

As the crowds filed into the auditorium at 8 p.m., they had to pass through metal detectors and police inspections. The organizers consulted UC police before the event and devised a comprehensive security plan to prevent any violence.

Kelly Thomas, a member of the Patriot's editorial board, said event organizers had initially hoped to sponsor a debate between Horowitz and a liberal member of the campus community. She said the Cal Democrats, the American Civil Liberties Union, and several professors denied their request.

"A university is for the free exchange of ideas," Thomas said. "I don't agree with everything Horowitz has to say, but I agree he should be able to say it."

Dipti Barot, who was among the few who were able to ask Horowitz a question before he left, said she regretted that she had not agreed to debate him, saying he is making free speech "his bandwagon." She said she was frustrated he did not address the advertisement more thoroughly.

"What is his purpose for bringing this all up?" she asked. "It's not as if there is a reparations wave sweeping the country. He's just using this as a vehicle for hate."

Barot said she was frustrated that the organizers had not structured the question and answer session better. There should have been limits placed on the time each member of the audience had to ask a question, she said.

John Cummins, the assistant chancellor, attended the event and said it exemplified the problematic state of free speech on campus.

"The event, in a sense, symbolized the argument that (Horowitz) was putting forward about the 'PC' nature of Berkeley and the difficulty of free speech on this campus," he said. "I completely disagree with his argument, and the event itself illustrated that our students do not need someone like David Horowitz to tell them to speak freely-they do it all the time."

Protesters gathered outside the building, both in favor of the forum and against it.

Members of organizations, including the Spartacus League, spoke out against the forum. Thirty protesters, holding signs, calling for "Black liberation through socialist revolution," chanted that Horowitz is "a racist ideologue."

"We are not here to stop him from speaking," said Amy Rath, a member of the league. "We are here to expose his politics."

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