As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago we brought you the first installment of what I fear will be an ongoing series, Bearcardo Watch (not becasue we are after the guy but because he keeps giving us easy material).As you may recall, Bearcardo is a self proclaimed radical who got himself elected External Affairs Vice President of the ASUC. Like most radicals, he believes in free speech, even if that speech interfeers with the rights of others. He has posted in support of those who occupied Wheeler Hall last spring and has complained that the university actually has a plan to deal with civil disobedience, as if there is no difference between that and lawful demonstration. He's the ultimate free speech advocate.
Or at least I thought until I recieved an invitation to this Facebook event. It is from George Beier, a candidate for Berkeley City Council. It isn't an event so much as an event within an event - he plans to meet with and register students to vote at the annual Calapalooza festival.
Scrolling down the page, Bearcardo apparently has other ideas:
Hi,Uh-oh, looks like someone feel off the free speech wagon.
I'm Ricardo Gomez, the External Affairs Vice President of the
ASUC. I appreciate that you want to engage with students at Cal. I was one of
the people in charge of voter reg in 2008 when we registered over 10,000
students on campus and the EAVP voter registration team will be registering
students as it always does a...t welcome week events. Calapalooza is a space for
students to connect to other student groups. As one of the primary points of
contact on campus in regards to both voter registration and public officials, I
don't know if it is appropriate for candidates to register students to vote at
an event that is uniquely student-to-student, and I strongly urge you to
consider different ways of engaging with students.
Seriously, how can Ricardo Gomez object to a candidate walking around and talking to students during a public event? Especially after apparently having no problem with students taking over buildings and doing things that are actually destructive? Is Calapalooza an adult free zone? What could prompt such a sudden turn against the first amendment?
It couldn't possibly have anything to do with Bearcardo's outspoken support of Mr. Beier's opponent, could it?
2 comments:
This is a fantastic piece of investigative journalism, Andy-- very well researched! I applaud you for this post and look forward to reading future installments of Bearcardo Watch.
However, I would be cautious in labeling Bearcardo's support of lawlessness as support for "free speech." Freedom of expression is never inclusive of illegal activity:
http://thefire.org/torch/#12149
True enough Casey. I didn't mean that the actions he defends should be considered free speech, only that he defends them as such and then tries to silence actual free speech.
BTW, I haven't forgotten about your request to join the blog. Inviting the whole staff and getting that organized is on my back to school to do list :)
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