Protesters at the University of Colorado Boulder failed to derail a talk by conservative provocateur and Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Scuffles broke out outside the Mathematics Building where Yiannopoulos spoke to a full auditorium that seats about 400 people, The Daily Camera reported. About 200 people took part in the protest, and dozens of police, some of them in riot gear, were on hand. A few arrests were reported.
Protesters at Milo Yiannopoulos event at cU Boulder pic.twitter.com/DPIIATTkNa
“The fact that he’s here at all and able to talk is against everything I’ve ever stood for in the United States,” said 74-year-old J.D. Anderson, who joined scores of students and others in protest.
Yiannopoulos has gained notoriety for his gleeful attacks on what he calls political correctness. Supporters find those attacks funny. Opponents call them pointed hate speech.
He’s recently declared that, “Dumpy lesbian feminists and shrieking harpies in the Black Lives Matter movement are not persuasive.” He’s been banned from Twitter for encouraging racist attacks against "Ghostbusters" actress Leslie Jones, who's black.
His Boulder appearance was titled “Why Ugly People Hate Me.”
Over the course of an hour he took verbal aim at Muslims and Native Americans, and held up a sign asking President Donald Trump to deport “fat people.” He argued that the most beautiful people have conservative views and that "liberalism is the refuge of the joyless and unattractive people."
GALLERY: Photos from #MiloatCU lecture, protests https://t.co/ugUFfZ2CMy by @jpapasso pic.twitter.com/y48hwjcGXS
Yiannopoulos was escorted by bodyguards. But not everyone who demonstrated at the event in the crowd was against Yiannopoulos. Juan Caro, a conservative activist, says other protesters damaged and took a number of his signs.
Two student groups invited Yiannopoulos: the College Republicans and new a student chapter of Turning Point USA, which is part of a well-funded national conservative network of over 1,000 chapters at U.S. high schools and colleges.
Previously: Meet The Students Who Invited Yiannopoulos To Campus
