The Washington State University College Republicans aren’t blind to the recent fiasco at University of California, Davis, where protests led to the cancelation of a talk by far-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, but they don’t expect similar unrest at the speaker’s Thursday booking at WSU.
Jacob Garren, a WSU freshman and member of the College Republicans, said his group is not aware of any plans for protests of the Breitbart News editor and far-right public speaker, as they had been when the group raised a Trump Wall on WSU campus in the fall.
“For the wall event ... there were these organized Facebook groups that were going to protest it and we haven’t seen any of that,” he said.
According to reports from several news organizations, UC-Davis College Republicans canceled its event 30 minutes before it was set to begin and after speaking with campus police about an eruption of protests on campus.
“Say it loud, say it clear, racists are not welcome here,” protesters chanted outside the lecture hall where Yiannopoulos and guest Martin Shkreli were to speak as part of the “Dangerous Faggot” tour. Shkreli was criticized in 2015 for exponentially raising the price of a lifesaving malaria medication.
While UC-Davis reported one protester was arrested inside the venue, no violence or property damage occurred. Garren said a protest-fueled event shut down is even less likely when barricades, police and a Staff-Pro security team are added to the mix.
“I’m not expecting something quite as big as there, but we’re expecting the usual protesters,” Garren said. “We can expect some trouble — these protests are pretty spontaneous.”
Garren said the College Republicans hope the event will remain peaceful, and the security team will make that more likely.
“We get to call who can and cannot come into the building and who can and cannot come into the audience,” he said. “If a protester were to come into the event and not be respectful — interrupting, shouting, yelling — we would have the option to physically remove them from the building. It’s nice to have that option since we bought the event security.”
Garren said event cancelations like that at UC-Davis don’t dampen Milo’s message. Garren said Yiannopoulos shares many messages, such as why Donald Trump was a good choice for president, how black lives don’t matter to the Black Lives Matter movement, how third-wave feminism — which embraces individuality and names gender violence, abortion rights and rape as key issues — has tainted and damaged minds in society.
“The movement only becomes more powerful when movements like UC-Davis happen,” he said.
Gavin Pielow, president of the Young Democrats of WSU, said an “alternative to Milo” event will take place 5-7 p.m. in Room 202 of the Smith Center for Undergraduate Education.
The event, called Civics 101, will teach attendees how to identify and contact state representatives, file ballot initiatives and complete other such tasks.
Shanon Quinn can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to squinn@dnews.com.
