Hecklers and Hypocrites

"Those of us who oppose safe spaces on campuses do not like the idea of permanently setting aside physical areas where certain viewpoints are banned. We reject the efforts of those trying to assert a right to feel comfortable as a means of negating even mildly offensive speech. 

Mike Adams  "Recently, a professor of history at City University of New York (CUNY) objected to my support for specific provisions of North Carolina’s HB527, which allow student hecklers who disrupt campus speeches to be subjected to campus disciplinary procedures. After he shared one of my remarks on Twitter, many of his followers made accusations of “hypocrisy.” Their reasoning was that one’s opposition to safe spaces requires support for an unfettered right to heckle speakers. In other words, the person who seeks to restrict heckling is somehow creating a safe space for campus speakers. Therefore, he must also support safe spaces generally lest he be guilty of hypocrisy. This argument, which is easy to rebut, is the subject of today’s column. 

"Understanding the need to prevent a heckler’s veto of speech requires some degree of historical literacy. Those who wish to learn about the history of those who have claimed a right to shout speakers down in the name of free speech need only read the Supreme Court’s opinion in Gregory v. Chicago (1969). In this landmark case, Dick Gregory was attempting a peaceful protest against continued school segregation in defiance of another landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). White racists who did not like his speech threw things at him and shouted him down by screaming racial epithets, including the n-word. When Chicago police asked Gregory to stop speaking he rightly refused. Along with several other peaceful protestors, he was then arrested.

"When the Supreme Court justices overruled Gregory’s conviction, they were affirming the common sense view that there is no First Amendment right to negate the First Amendment rights of other citizens who are assembled peaceably and speaking lawfully. Put simply, the police arrested the wrong people in Chicago that night. It does not take a PhD in history to arrive at such an obvious conclusion. " . . .