Young Americans for Freedom at UW-Madison hosted Ben Shapiro on Wednesday for the group’s largest conservative event this fall. The audience was packed with 450 students and community members eager to hear Shapiro dismantle the ideas of safe spaces, trigger warning, and micro aggressions on college campuses.
Shapiro is a controversial figure whose appearances on campuses usually attracts student protesters. Recently DePaul University threatened to arrest him if he set foot on campus. In the days leading up to the event at the University of Wisconsin, YAF’s Facebook page received threats of protests and “shutting the event down” from community organizations Groundwork and Black Liberation Action Coalition, along with a student protest group, “F*** White Supremacy: Interrupting Ben Shapiro.”
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UWPD was present to ensure the safety of the audience members and those protesting. Hours before the event, YAF received a text message from the “F*** White Supremacy” protest organizer who assured that their protest would be peaceful. That wasn’t entirely the case. Within five minutes of Shapiro speaking, protesters stood up chanting “safety” and “shame” at him and members of the audience.
Due to orders from the administration, UWPD refused to arrest the protesters who lined the front of the stage forming a “safe space body line.” Administrators had told the students they could protest as long as they didn’t step onto the stage. The administration also concluded that if they ordered the cops to arrest the students and community members during their protest, then UWPD would be forced to shut down the entire event.
However, aggressive gestures from the protesters to particular audience members spurred UWPD to request the protesters leave the venue. Continuing to chant, they marched out of the lecture hall, but refused to leave the building, stomping and chanting throughout the remainder of the event.
In his speech, Shapiro addressed Denzel McDonald, a black student who was arrested for 11 accounts of graffiti on campus buildings, including messages such as “f*** the police,” and “racism in the air, don’t breathe.” His arrest lead to backlash from professors and students who demanded that he be released from all charges. To argue the nonsense of safe spaces, Shapiro recalled the Badger football game against Nebraska in which an attendee was dressed as Obama with a noose around his neck. The university defended the man’s actions as free speech, but leftist students on campus protested the university’s decision. As a way to “heal” from the display at the football game, the university held safe spaces on campus for students to discuss their feelings on the matter and how they feel the university should have responded.
After the event, UW-Madison sent out a statement acknowledging Shapiro’s speech and addressing the protester’s actions. The statement supported YAF’s right to bring in a speaker whose views weren’t consistent with the majority of campus, stating “such events offer a place to discuss critical societal issues and complement classroom learning.” The statement encouraged discussion and respect towards other viewpoints, and ended with a reference to the protesters, “We are disappointed that some attendees at the event chose not to do so.”
