Two hours before far-right Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was to give a speech at the student union, protesters tossed metal barricades and rocks through the building’s windows and set a light generator on fire near the entrance, footage from news outlets showed. Yiannopoulos, 32, called into Fox News, saying, “I think tonight is… a horrible spectacle and very humiliating for American higher education.”

Yiannopoulos responded to the protests on his Facebook page, writing that he had been evacuated after “violent left-wing protesters tore down barricades, lit fire, threw rocks and Roman candles at the windows and breached the ground floor of the building.”

Protesters could be seen throwing fireworks at police and at the student union center on campus, according to CNN. Berkeley College Republicans said before the protests that a “groupthink phenomenon” has taken hold at the California university that silences conservative speech, and while it doesn’t agree with everything Yiannopoulos has said or done “we saw the chance to host Milo as an opportunity that was too good to pass up.”

A bystander who said he was attacked by protesters looks for cover after a protest at UC Berkeley, after a scheduled speech by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled, in Berkeley, California, on Feb. 1, 2017. The university stressed that his planned visit to the campus was in no way meant to serve as an endorsement of the hate speech he is so fond of spewing., citing their commitment to free speech. The planned appearance was canceled two hours before the event was set to begin, after a crowd of more than 1,500 gathered outside the venue, according to a statement released by the university. One thing we do know for sure: the Left is absolutely terrified of free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down.”

It’s no secret that Milo is a huge fan of President Donald Trump, 70, and has been accused of being a racist, misogynist, anti-Muslim, white supremacist. In an interview with Fox News after Wednesday’s cancellation, the 32-year-old Yiannopoulos — a self-described “libertarian, gay, Trump-supporting provocateur” — said college campuses are places where “you should be able to engage with different ideas.”

Those who attend his appearances, he said, include people who “don’t necessarily agree with me but just want to hear the other side.
Police cancel a scheduled appearance of right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos on UC Berkeley due to hundreds of violent protesters on campus.