Dealing With Disruption
"This is still a free country.
Some of you may not like it that way, but it still is!"
Governor Nelson Rockefeller responding to thunderous booing at the Republican National Convention in 1964.
During the next few years President Lyndon Johnson and officials of his administration could not speak at any college (except military academies) without being shouted down. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was interrupted by shouts of "Dump the Hump!" at almost every public speech in the 1968 presidential campaign. And recently neo-conservative speaker David Horowitz was interrupted and insulted while trying to speak on "Islamo-fascism" (1) at the University of Wisconsin -Milwaukee (UWM). According to Horowitz, the reception at UWM was the worst he had ever experienced.
About a week before the speech Horowitz had bought an advertisement in the UWM Post (a student newspaper) in which he lambasted the local chapter of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a jihadist group started in Egypt which also spawned Hamas. The MSA responded with a hand-out featuring a cartoon of Horowitz with a typically-Jewish hooked nose (not his real appearance) and wearing a Nazi-style armband labeled "H" in place of the swastika. It accused Horowitz of being a "rightwing hate monger" and "Judeofascist" . The screed urged readers to attend the Horowitz speech, facetiously promising that "Flaming crosses and Stars of David will be supplied to those who arrive early. Join the crusade!"
Since the audience had to pass through airport-style security checkpoints, flaming crosses were nowhere in sight. However, when the speaker entered the room, he was greeted with a chorus of boos among the applause and cheers. Several officers of UWM campus police were on hand, but apparently their orders were just to prevent violence and damage to university property.
After Horowitz was introduced by a leader of the UWM Conservative Union, which had invited him, he was left alone to deal with the raucous crowd. Despite his offer to answer questions after the talk, he was interrupted with catcalls and insults repeatedly. A microphone was provided for those who wished to ask questions, but most of those who used it merely berated and insulted the speaker. Eventually, several noisy young people were thrown out, but there always seemed to be plenty of protesters left.
In retrospect, this was a predictable travesty, especially in view of numerous hostile shouts during the Walid Shoebat speech on December 4, 2007, also sponsored by the Conservative Union. Then UWM Professor Shale Horowitz was put in charge of the question period, but he could not control the situation. (2)
Whenever a controversial speaker's appearance is made "free and open to the public", you can count on hostile people attending. The publication of the ad attacking MSA just a few days before the event was probably intended to spur publicity and attendance, and provoke a newsworthy confrontation. The MSA leadership could have ignored the whole thing, in which case the audience for Horowitz would have been about 25% smaller, and the event would have drawn far less attention. Although MSA is hostile to David Horowitz, the group is more than willing to play its assigned role in making the author/speaker more newsworthy and important than he would be otherwise. These confrontations help Horowitz generate more speaking gigs and command higher fees. The MSA was baited, and they gladly bit the bait!
The Conservative Union learned nothing from the Shoebat event. When a hostile audience is expected, the sponsoring group should not leave the speaker alone to contend with a raucous crowd. Rather, the group should designate a capable Program Manager to deal with disrupters while the speaker concentrates on delivering the speech. Ideally, the Program Manager should be someone with a commanding presence, with the power to eject anyone making trouble . Sheriff David Clarke would have been a perfect choice for this role, especially if he had a few deputies with him. Leaving the 69-year old Horowitz to deal with the problem on his own was the worst possible strategy.
It was obvious all along that providing a microphone for questions would simply give the disrupters a louder voice for their insults. When Nonie Darwish (3) spoke at Cardinal Stritch University in October, 2006, all questions had to submitted in writing to the Program Manager (me), who then read them to the invited speaker. There was only one interruption, and the man who caused it was promptly ejected.
I support the vigorous and lively exchange of ideas, especially on the college campus. I have personally attended many speeches by men that I did not agree with, including George Lincoln Rockwell, George Wallace, and Robert Welch. It is regrettable that some people think that their freedom of speech includes the freedom to stop others from hearing a message that they do not like.
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(1) "Islamo-fascism" is a kind of fascism in the same sense that a computer-mouse is a kind of mouse. Real fascism calls for utlimate allegiance to the State, not to one's religion. I prefer " jihadism."
(2)See the Glazerbeam of December 5, 2007.
(3) The daughter of an Egyptian terrorist, she converted to Christianity and now defends Israel in speeches and a book. Even though Stritch was a must more friendly venue for her message than UWM, the precautions taken against "hijacking the event" by protesters were justified
Some of you may not like it that way, but it still is!"
Governor Nelson Rockefeller responding to thunderous booing at the Republican National Convention in 1964.
During the next few years President Lyndon Johnson and officials of his administration could not speak at any college (except military academies) without being shouted down. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was interrupted by shouts of "Dump the Hump!" at almost every public speech in the 1968 presidential campaign. And recently neo-conservative speaker David Horowitz was interrupted and insulted while trying to speak on "Islamo-fascism" (1) at the University of Wisconsin -Milwaukee (UWM). According to Horowitz, the reception at UWM was the worst he had ever experienced.
About a week before the speech Horowitz had bought an advertisement in the UWM Post (a student newspaper) in which he lambasted the local chapter of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a jihadist group started in Egypt which also spawned Hamas. The MSA responded with a hand-out featuring a cartoon of Horowitz with a typically-Jewish hooked nose (not his real appearance) and wearing a Nazi-style armband labeled "H" in place of the swastika. It accused Horowitz of being a "rightwing hate monger" and "Judeofascist" . The screed urged readers to attend the Horowitz speech, facetiously promising that "Flaming crosses and Stars of David will be supplied to those who arrive early. Join the crusade!"
Since the audience had to pass through airport-style security checkpoints, flaming crosses were nowhere in sight. However, when the speaker entered the room, he was greeted with a chorus of boos among the applause and cheers. Several officers of UWM campus police were on hand, but apparently their orders were just to prevent violence and damage to university property.
After Horowitz was introduced by a leader of the UWM Conservative Union, which had invited him, he was left alone to deal with the raucous crowd. Despite his offer to answer questions after the talk, he was interrupted with catcalls and insults repeatedly. A microphone was provided for those who wished to ask questions, but most of those who used it merely berated and insulted the speaker. Eventually, several noisy young people were thrown out, but there always seemed to be plenty of protesters left.
In retrospect, this was a predictable travesty, especially in view of numerous hostile shouts during the Walid Shoebat speech on December 4, 2007, also sponsored by the Conservative Union. Then UWM Professor Shale Horowitz was put in charge of the question period, but he could not control the situation. (2)
Whenever a controversial speaker's appearance is made "free and open to the public", you can count on hostile people attending. The publication of the ad attacking MSA just a few days before the event was probably intended to spur publicity and attendance, and provoke a newsworthy confrontation. The MSA leadership could have ignored the whole thing, in which case the audience for Horowitz would have been about 25% smaller, and the event would have drawn far less attention. Although MSA is hostile to David Horowitz, the group is more than willing to play its assigned role in making the author/speaker more newsworthy and important than he would be otherwise. These confrontations help Horowitz generate more speaking gigs and command higher fees. The MSA was baited, and they gladly bit the bait!
The Conservative Union learned nothing from the Shoebat event. When a hostile audience is expected, the sponsoring group should not leave the speaker alone to contend with a raucous crowd. Rather, the group should designate a capable Program Manager to deal with disrupters while the speaker concentrates on delivering the speech. Ideally, the Program Manager should be someone with a commanding presence, with the power to eject anyone making trouble . Sheriff David Clarke would have been a perfect choice for this role, especially if he had a few deputies with him. Leaving the 69-year old Horowitz to deal with the problem on his own was the worst possible strategy.
It was obvious all along that providing a microphone for questions would simply give the disrupters a louder voice for their insults. When Nonie Darwish (3) spoke at Cardinal Stritch University in October, 2006, all questions had to submitted in writing to the Program Manager (me), who then read them to the invited speaker. There was only one interruption, and the man who caused it was promptly ejected.
I support the vigorous and lively exchange of ideas, especially on the college campus. I have personally attended many speeches by men that I did not agree with, including George Lincoln Rockwell, George Wallace, and Robert Welch. It is regrettable that some people think that their freedom of speech includes the freedom to stop others from hearing a message that they do not like.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) "Islamo-fascism" is a kind of fascism in the same sense that a computer-mouse is a kind of mouse. Real fascism calls for utlimate allegiance to the State, not to one's religion. I prefer " jihadism."
(2)See the Glazerbeam of December 5, 2007.
(3) The daughter of an Egyptian terrorist, she converted to Christianity and now defends Israel in speeches and a book. Even though Stritch was a must more friendly venue for her message than UWM, the precautions taken against "hijacking the event" by protesters were justified
Labels: disruption, Horowitz, Muslim, UWM
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 10:30 AM
1 Comments:
Mr. Glazer-
I realize my comment may be a bit moot and besides the fact, but I feel compelled to leave it. The Conservative Union is not granted with a great deal of power once the speech has started. All crowd control measures are surrendered to the UWM-PD (they're a lazy bunch) and Union staff security. We are instructed that during all events, we are not to engage the audience, we are to ask for people to be removed. Our hands are tied.
This leaves the blame for these disruptions solely on the UWM-PD and Union staff security. We've realized that following these two events, these integral and sole forces of crowd control have miserably failed at their jobs. We've since asked them to revisit their policies with regards to crowd control and attendee removal.
Following the Shoebat event, we did explore using a written question and answer session, however, Horowitz did object.
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