UC-Berkeley readies police as Ann Coulter plans to speak in public plaza on campus

The University of California at Berkeley is bracing for massive protests and potential violence in an open, public space known as Sproul Plaza after hearing that conservative commentator Ann Coulter plans to give a speech there Thursday.

The state flagship university has become ground zero for an intense confrontation between the far left and the far right since Donald Trump’s election in November, with some protesters trying to stop controversial speakers from appearing on campus and others objecting that such actions violate their right to free speech. Some of the clashes have devolved into riots, leaving the school and city to struggle with how best to balance the free exchange of ideas with community safety.

In February — and twice more since then — masked protesters turned demonstrations over the boundary between free speech and hate speech into violent confrontations, setting fires, causing injuries and leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars of property damage in their wake.