Hundreds of protesters encircled Wheeler Hall on the UC Berkeley campus Wednesday night to rally against the appearance of conservative personality Ann Coulter.
Barricades were erected in front of Wheeler Hall, and police in riot gear guarded the main entrances to the building all evening. Beyond the barricades, hundreds of protestors gathered throughout the night, their ranks swelling by Coulter's scheduled 9 p.m. start time. The words "Berkeley stands united against hate" were projected up onto Wheeler, as well as, "Why do the Berkeley College Republicans keep inviting Nazis on campus?"
The right-wing pundit was hosted by the Berkeley College Republicansfor a talk called "Adios, America!" The event description said Coulter would be "speaking about the current United States immigration system and the dangers of mass immigration."
Doors technically opened for ticket-holders at 8 p.m., but attendees struggled to get inside with so many demonstrators outside the hall. Some of those protestors chanted, "Don't let them in." One attendee could be seen jumping the barricade, while another group was escorted by police into Wheeler Hall. Several were seen leaving after attempts to get in were thwarted by large crowds.
Coulter herself was escorted in through the main doors by police. She began speaking shortly before 9:30 p.m., and was almost immediately interrupted by a protester. The protester was handcuffed and removed, according to a KPIX reporter inside Wheeler Hall Auditorium. Coulter gave a brief speech before opening the floor to a Q&A. The entire talk lasted about an hour.
After the event was over, attendees were escorted out of a side door by police. Hundreds of demonstrators were still assembled outside as they exited.
Several individuals were detained throughout the evening, but it's unclear how many arrests were made by Berkeley Police or UCPD.
This was Coulter's second attempt in three years to speak at Cal.
In 2017, Coulter was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley, but the conservative group partially funding the talk pulled its support due to concerns there would be inadequate security to handle protestors. Coulter called the school "a radical thuggish institution" and accused the administration of suppressing "the cherished American right to free speech."
At the time, campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said the school had already paid for event security and was prepared to staff Coulter's talk, despite her insinuations that the school had canceled on her.
Coulter regularly speaks out against non-white immigration to the United States, and in 2018 called immigrant children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border "child actors weeping and crying."
"One may assume the new majority will not be such compassionate overlords as the white majority has been," she wrote in 2007. "If this sort of drastic change were legally imposed on any group other than white Americans, it would be called genocide. Yet whites are called racists merely for mentioning the fact that current immigration law is intentionally designed to reduce their percentage in the population."
Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Editor. Contact: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd
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