Shouting Down a Speaker: Left Wing Fascism at the University of New Mexico

You can read an account of the event here.

The interesting thing here is that audience members, clearly sympathetic to the speaker, rushed the demonstrators and forced them out of the hall. Were they justified in doing that?

In this instance, yes.

Either you have the rule of law, or you have the state of nature. Had cops been present to quell the disruption and arrest the disruptors, then audience members would have been obligated to stand by and let the cops do their job. But no cops (apparently) were present.

In a state of nature, people have a right to use force if necessary to protect their rights. It is important that they not use more force than necessary, and in this case all that happened was that the disruptors were pushed or shoved out of the room, and there was a minor scrap over the page of slogans one demonstrator held.

Universities ought to maintain the rule of law. But often they do not, especially when the lawless are on the political left. That’s why we would like to see more cases where the audience uses the force necessary to eject people who have assaulted free speech.

Liberal Brown Deer School Board Candidate: Have Legal Counsel Find Way to “Restrain” Criticism

Local school board politics can get very interesting, and Brown Deer is no exception.

Conservative former school board member Mike Christopolus has been a bit of a thorn in the side of liberal board members, engaging in the nefarious activity of writing to the local paper BrownDeerNOW criticizing the policies and performance of the school district.

Some people are more thin skinned than others, but liberal school board member Leslie Galloway Sherard wanted to explore legal avenues to shut Christopolus up.

In an e-mail to board members in late 2010, she complained:

I am tired of seeing a letter in the NOW paper from Mike C. that continues to attack our District, its’ [sic] employees and our efforts to help students be successful. I would like to craft a response to the paper from the school board.

OK, she is blowing off steam, and wants to respond. No harm, no foul.

But then she escalates:

I would also like to ask our legal council [sic] about these continued attacks many of which contain information that is not true. These letters do nothing but defame the District’s character and reputation. They also negatively impact the work we are trying to accomplish.

Heaven help us if free speech “negatively impacts” somebody’s idea of what they are trying to accomplish.

We owe it to our children and our community to respond and identify a strategy to get these kinds of letters restrained.

Sherard, who signed the Walker recall petition, is up for reelection on Tuesday.

Neither Christopolus nor Sherard was immediately available for comment.