Protestors Tried to Shut Down a Speaker at UNC. The Administration Handled it Perfectly.

Photo credit: Carolina Journal via Twitter

Yesterday evening, UNC's Program for Public Discourse hosted The Free Press founder Bari Weiss and New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni for a discussion about objectivity in journalism.

Partway through, masked protestors attempted to censor the event by yelling and waving signs.

The display offered a clear example of behavior that is fundamentally at odds with the purpose of a university. Met with mainstream viewpoints with which they disagree, the protestors sought to eliminate all speech on the subject.

Video and first-person accounts shared with CPR show UNC administrators handled the censors perfectly. Seconds into the protest, an administrator took to the podium and told the disruptors they were in violation of state law and must leave immediately or face arrest.

A video posted to Twitter shows part of that declarative: "The Campus Free Speech Act passed by the General Assembly in July 2017 requires the university to protect the rights of speakers to be heard and attendees to hear and see the event. You are not allowed to disrupt this event. You will need to leave. You will need to leave now."

The attempted censorship was almost certainly organized and executed by UNC Students for Justice in Palestine. The group posted to social media its intent to disrupt the event a week ago, writing, "Bari Weiss and her lies are NOT welcomed on campus!"

UNC SJP also required protestors to wear masks, presumably in an effort to conceal their identities.

From 1953 to 2020, state law prohibited protestors from wearing masks or hoods on public property. Forcing KKK members to stop concealing their identities on public property was a main driver.

But an exemption was added in 2020 allowing protestors to wear masks "for the purpose of ensuring the physical health or safety of the wearer or others."

It seems obvious that UNC SJP is taking advantage of this exemption to conceal the identities of protestors who disrupt campus events to censor certain viewpoints.

In our view, legislators should remove that exemption, returning to the pre-COVID status quo that existed in North Carolina since 1953.

UBC SJP via Instagram