Ben Shapiro

Controversial conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos is not only speaking at “Free Speech Week” — he’s also funding it.

Despite rumors circulating that a stabbing occurred during the protests outside conservative radio host Ben Shapiro’s speech at Zellerbach Hall on Thursday, the Berkeley Police Department said in a tweet Friday that such “online accounts” are false.

In anticipation of potentially violent protests, the campus paid an estimated amount of $600,000 in security expenses for conservative author Ben Shapiro’s visit Thursday, according to campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof.

Though the campus had prepared extensively for potential violence, Ben Shapiro’s speaking event at UC Berkeley on Thursday went on largely uninterrupted, drawing a peaceful protest that ended in a short march through Berkeley’s streets.

Berkeley Police Department and its law enforcement partners arrested nine people Thursday night in connection to protests related to Ben Shapiro’s speaking event on the UC Berkeley campus.

ASUC Senate convened Wednesday to discuss final security arrangements ahead of Ben Shapiro’s scheduled campus appearance Thursday and to put forth a statement in response to UC Berkeley’s subsidization of the event.

Now, many privileged communities strategically co-opt the concept of free speech to legitimize their open hatred of historically subordinated populations and to strategically disguise their prejudiced, dehumanizing ideologies as benign political opinion.

Public financial returns obtained by The Daily Californian show that every year, YAF spends millions of dollars funding campus events such as Shapiro’s.

Berkeley released two lists of items Wednesday that will be temporarily banned from public parks and a large portion of the city in anticipation of right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro’s speech at UC Berkeley on Thursday.