Ep. 27 The ‘heckler’s veto’ strikes Heather Mac Donald

On April 6, Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather Mac Donald was
standing in Claremont McKenna College’s Athenaeum preparing to
give a lecture to an empty room.


An empty room was not what Mac Donald expected when she traveled
to California from her New York City home to deliver a lecture on
her new book, “The War On Cops.” But outside the auditorium,
close to 300 people had surrounded the Athenaeum, preventing
prospective audience members from entering. They were protesting
Mac Donald’s defense of law enforcement policing tactics and her
criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.


Ultimately, the college livestreamed Mac Donald’s talk to those
who could not attend in person. But the talk was cut short during
the question and answer period after police and administrators
determined that it was unsafe for her to remain in the building.
The crowd was allegedly out of control, and Mac Donald could hear
banging on the windows. Her exit through the kitchen of the
Athenaeum into an unmarked Claremont Police Department van was
coordinated by walkie-talkie.


Heather Mac Donald is our guest on today’s “extra” edition of “So
to Speak.” Mac Donald is the latest speaker on campus to fall
victim to the “heckler’s veto.” During our conversation, I ask
Mac Donald what she was thinking as she heard the crowd outside
banging on the Athenaeum’s windows. I also asked her what it says
about the environment for free inquiry on campus that a scholar
must escape under police protection through the kitchen of a
campus building for presenting nothing more than an argument?


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