CU Expects Protests Outside Milo Yiannopoulos Event
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - People are divided on a controversial speaker coming to the University of Colorado campus Wednesday night.
Milo Yiannopoulos works for the conservative Breitbart News and made a name for himself partly through online attacks on women and minorities. The vocal Donald Trump supporter calls himself the "most fabulous supervillian on the internet" and was permanently banned from Twitter for some of his comments.
The far right speaker's college visits recently have been met with protests and sometimes violence. Protests erupted on Friday outside an event featuring Yiannopoulos at the University of Washington and ended in gunfire.
CU campus police say they are anticipating some protesting in Boulder Wednesday and say they will have officers in position to respond to any incident. Several different groups from Colorado have said they are planning to protest.
"The groups range all the way from people who probably voted for Hillary Clinton to people who are going out in the streets and rioting," said Students for a Democratic Society spokesman Jordan Buchman.
Nick Reinhardt, the president of the CU student group Turning Point USA, told CBS4 they organized the visit in partnership with the school's Republican student leaders. They say it's not necessarily that they agree with everything he says, the point they say was to bring an alternative voice to campus.
"I think that instead of trying to silence him entirely, I think they should try to funnel their passion in a way which will challenge his beliefs instead of just shutting them down. I think that would be more useful," Reinhardt said.
The sold out event starts at 7 p.m. in the Math 100 building. CU created a special section of their website in anticipation of Wednesday night's event (and two other events which offer alternative perspectives -- one including transgender actress Laverne Cox) called "CU Boulder events on Jan. 25: What you need to know".
Scott Pribble, a spokesman for CU police, said ticketholders should plan for airport-like security and screenings.
"We've actually been in contact with our counterparts up at the University of Washington to find out what went well, what didn't go well, and we've applied some of those lessons we've learned," he said.
"We want to make sure that everybody has the right to share their First Amendment thoughts but (does) it peacefully."
