Students protest Heather Mac Donald at Claremont McKenna
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A pro-police author who was scheduled to speak at a southern California college on Thursday was forced to livestream the speech instead due to 250 protesters who blocked the entrance to where the conference was to be held.
Heather Mac Donald, the author of “The War on Cops,” was prevented from speaking at Claremont McKenna College after angry protesters interrupted the speech, The College Fix reported. The protesters were reportedly yelling, “F—k the police” and “black lives matter.”
“The protesters surrounded all the doors to the Atheneum where I was supposed to speak, so none of the students who had signed up to attend my lecture could get in,” Mac Donald told The Fix. “I was hustled from my guest suite by several police officers from Claremont PD into the lecture hall. It was decided that I would give the speech for live streaming to a largely empty hall. The organizers moved the podium so that it would not be visible through the windows to the students surrounding the building once night fell. We jumpstarted the timing of my talk as the crowd seemed to be getting more unruly.”
The protests reportedly grew due to Facebook postings.
The school said it was disappointed that “people could not attend the lecture.”
“Based on the judgment of the Claremont Police Department, we jointly concluded that any forced interventions or arrests would have created unsafe conditions for students, faculty, staff, and guests,” Claremont McKenna College President Hiram E. Chodosh said in a statement. “I take full responsibility for the decision to err on the side of these overriding safety considerations.”
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