Walking across Sproul Plaza on the
campus of the University of California, Berkeley, it is hard to discern
Jonathan Chow from any other student at the school.
In his UC Berkeley water polo shirt,
cargo shorts and sneakers, the 21-year-old history major seems like any
other undergrad rushing to class or sipping coffee in the plaza.
But Chow is not like most of his fellow students. He’s
part of a small minority of seemingly marginalized students at one of
the largest universities in the U.S. He’s a conservative.
“I came here to conduct my own social experiment,” Chow
told Fox News. “The idea was to see if there was any way of convincing
people or having a dialogue with really radical people. It has not been
as successful as I wanted it to be.”
While UC Berkeley does not keep statistics on its
students’ political leanings, the school has long been known as one of
the country’s centers for liberal and progressive thought, and now –
following a slew of high-profile, violent protests against conservative
speakers on campus – Chow and other like-minded students say that life
has become more difficult for anyone whose politics lean toward the
right.
“It’s certainly not easy,” Steven Hayward, a
conservative commentator and resident scholar at UC Berkeley’s Institute
of Governmental Studies, told Fox News. “There are not many
conservative students -- and those that are conservative are, many
times, afraid to speak for fear of being mocked or trolled by their
fellow students.”
Chow and other conservatives on campus say that while
harassment by fellow students isn’t new – they’ve been yelled at, sent
hate mail, had their signs stolen when tabling and even spat upon – the
animosity aimed in their direction has ratcheted up over the last year.
In February, 150 leftist black-clad protesters rampaged
through Berkeley’s campus, where they caused $100,000 worth of damage,
beat students and forced the University of California to cancel a
planned speech by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
Protestors against a scheduled speaking appearance by polarizing
Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos march on the University of
California at Berkeley campus Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Berkeley,
Calif. The event was canceled out of safety concerns after protesters
hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and started a bonfire. (AP Photo/Ben
Margot)
(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“There were over 100 Antifa members on campus causing
trouble,” Rudraveer Reddy, a conservative sophomore at UC Berkeley and a
member of the Berkeley College Republicans (BCRS) and the Berkeley
Patriot website, told Fox News. “My friend was there and he was beaten
by Antifa and the police did nothing.”
Since then, violence by Antifa, a far-left group whose
name means “anti-fascist,” has continued on Berkeley’s campus and
throughout the college town, with controversial conservative writer Ann
Coulter canceling a speech at the school in April after the Young
America’s Foundation pulled its support for the event amid threats of
violence.
In August, a group of around 100 hooded members of
Antifa stormed what had been a largely peaceful rally for free speech in
the town of Berkeley and attacked at least five people, including the
leader of a politically conservative group that had canceled an event a
day earlier in San Francisco to avoid potential violence.
Along with actual acts of violence, Berkeley’s
contingent of conservative students have also had to deal with less
direct threats.
Graffiti has appeared in restrooms and on school signs
that read “Kill the BCRS” and “Behead the BCRS,” while the Berkeley
Antifa Twitter account tweeted out the names of some BCR members and
alleged that the members were meeting at a local bar with Patriot Prayer
leader Joey Gibson and right-wing activist Kyle “Based Stickman”
Chapman. BCR members and students in the conservative Young America’s
Foundation have said Antifa members have stalked them while they hung
posters around campus.
“Conservatives in Berkeley are routinely targeted,
harassed, and stalked,” BCR External Vice President Naweed Tahmas said
in an email to the Daily Californian, the campus newspaper. “It has
become socially acceptable in Berkeley to physically beat someone for
being a conservative.”
Officials at UC Berkeley have vehemently denied that
they condone any threats or violence directed at conservatives and said
they have diligently worked to protect their students while also
protecting free speech.
“We’re not going to play games when it comes to the
safety of our guests and the members of the campus community,” Dan
Mogulof, a UC Berkeley spokesman, told Fox News.
Conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos holds protest signs
while speaking at the University of California in Berkeley, California,
U.S., September 24, 2017. REUTERS/Noah Berger - RC1F9EBC0040
The university last month shelled out $600,000 in
security for an on-campus appearance from conservative pundit and former
Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro. Further, it is estimated that UC Berkeley
spent close to $1 million on security ahead of the planned “Free Speech
Week” hosted by the conservative Berkeley Patriot group and
Yiannopoulos.
While administration members said they are doing all
they can to protect and defend free speech, the Berkeley College
Republicans targeted by Antifa don’t feel the same way.
“The university’s response has been pathetic, at best,”
Matt Ronnau, a BCR member, told Fox News.
“Free Speech Week” was canceled at the last minute amid
a dearth of speakers and problems with the organizers, but the event
galvanized both conservatives in Berkeley and those opposed to them.
It also highlighted a divide among the school’s
conservatives that some blame for the ramping up in the harassment aimed
at the group.
Chow, who has been a member of BCR for two years, said
the organization’s new leadership is taking the group in a different
direction – now it focuses on bringing in provocative speakers with
far-right views and creating pet projects like the Berkeley Patriot. He
said the group now seems more interested in sparking controversy than
making positive changes.