A protest at UC Berkeley over a scheduled speech by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos turned fiery and violent Wednesday night, prompting police to cancel the event and hustle the Breitbart News editor off campus.
Hundreds of protesters began throwing fireworks and pulling down metal barricades police set up to keep people from rushing into the building where Yiannopoulos had been scheduled to speak. Windows were smashed and fires were set outside the building as masked protesters stormed it, and at 6 p.m., one hour before his scheduled speech was to begin, police decided to evacuate Yiannopoulos for his own safety.
Berkeley police said three people were injured. There were no immediate reports of arrests.
Police said protesters threw bricks and fireworks at police officers. University police locked down all buildings and told people inside them to shelter in place, and later fired rubber pellets into the crowd of protesters who defied orders to leave the area. Police called in support from other law enforcement agencies and warned protesters that they might use tear gas.
“This is what tolerance looks like at UC Berkeley,” Mike Wright of Berkeley College Republicans, the group that invited Yiannopoulos to the campus, said as smoke bombs went off around him.
Someone had thrown red paint on him. “It’s sad,” he said.
  • A portable light unit burns after demonstrations forced the cancellation of a talk by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, February 1, 2017. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle
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A portable light unit burns after demonstrations forced the cancellation of a talk by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, February 1, 2017.
University officials had earlier rejected requests to cancel Yiannopoulos’ appearance. In a letter to the campus community last week, Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said, “The U.S. Constitution prohibits UC Berkeley, as a public institution, from banning expression based on its content or viewpoints, even when those viewpoints are hateful or discriminatory.”
Protesters argued that what Yiannopoulos specializes in is hate speech, and that it didn’t deserve to be protected.
“It’s not a question of free speech,” a protester said via megaphone, riling up the hundreds of protesters in attendance. “It’s about real human beings.”

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Berkeley College Republicans said all 600 tickets had been sold for Yiannopoulos’ scheduled appearance in Pauley Ballroom, in the student union building on Sproul Plaza. Yiannopoulos was expected to use the event to kick off a campaign against “sanctuary campuses” that have vowed to protect undocumented students as President Trump cracks down on illegal immigration.
Campus police had been hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos at UC Davis on Jan. 13, when protesters overwhelmed their barricades and shut down Yiannopoulos’ speech.
In an interview with Fox News after Wednesday’s cancellation, the 33-year-old Yiannopoulos — a self-described “libertarian, gay, Trump-supporting provocateur” — said college campuses are places where “you should be able to engage with different ideas.”
Those who attend his appearances, he said, include people who “don’t necessarily agree with me but just want to hear the other side. They were prevented from doing so this evening by violence from the left — the left that is terrified of anyone who they think might be persuasive or might be interesting or might take people with them.”
Three lines of zip-tied metal fencing separated the crowd of protesters from campus police officers who had secured the building where Yiannopoulos was supposed to speak. He had arrived earlier, escorted by security and had been waiting inside the student union building when the protests erupted. 
The protest turned violent around 6 p.m. when dozens of masked anarchists, dressed in black and wearing backpacks, emerged from the otherwise peaceful crowd. 
As “Milo had got to go” chants broke out, they struck: in small groups, at first — knocking down the fences, cutting through to zip ties. Then, they came in droves, as the dozens of university police officers quickly retreated to an inner ring of fencing. 
That, too, was breached, as protesters ran toward the student center, where Yiannopoulos was waiting for the event to begin. Police in riot gear retreated inside. 
Seizing the opportunity, the masked protesters breached the inner ring of fencing, picking up pieces of it and hurling them into the building’s windows. Glass shattered, but no one went inside.
As some protesters yelled obscenities at police, others toppled a generator and light pole police had set up, spray painting “Milo” with an X through it. Then they lit it on fire. From their backpacks, the protesters hurled dozens of fireworks.
One of the black-dressed anarchists said he had been hit by nonlethal ammunition.
“The cops shot me with pepper balls,” said the 26-year-old man, who called himself Zombie. “It hurt.”
Carrying a thick black shield and wearing a milk-soaked kerchief over his face to protect against potential tear gas, Zombie said, “We’re anarchists.” Fellow protesters unfurled a banner reading, “This is war.”
Police soon declared an unlawful assembly and ordered everyone to leave, but hundreds of protesters stayed, filling the entire upper and lower plaza. “Turn on the dance music,” one masked woman yelled.
UC Berkeley junior Fatima Ibrahim, 20, who clutched a “resist fear” sign with a red fist, said the timing of Yiannopoulos’ scheduled appearance stung.
“As a black Muslim woman, all three of those identities have been targeted throughout (Trump’s) campaign,” Ibrahim said. “To have someone like (Yiannopoulos) come into my campus and affirm those people’s beliefs, it’s very, very hurtful.”