Sheriff David Clarke disinvited from campus speaking gig because he opposes #BlackLivesMatter

It's hardly even news anymore when we encounter the pathetic "conservative disinvited from campus speaking gig" storyline. It's happening so often now we pretty much just shrug and say that's life - so terrified are the guardians of higher education that someone might hear something upsetting to their tender little ears. But it is unusual that the disinvited speaker would call out the cowards as beautiful as Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has done this week to the University of New Haven. Keep in mind that the original speaking invitation was not even about anything to do with politics. Clarke was going to speak at a symposium on crime-solving forensics science. But that was before someone in New Haven discovered the horrible truth that Clarke has made statements critical of Black Lives Matter. Just like that, the invitation was rescinded. C'est la vie, right? Pretty much how it always goes. But get a load of how the university tried to get away with explaining this on its Facebook page:

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That did not set well with Clarke, who didn't appreciate the suggestion that mere "circumstances" caused his dis-invitation, and his response on his Patheos blog is just perfect:

Did you catch that? “Circumstances did not permit” me to come. That’s the kind of shadowy language guilty people use… and believe me, I’ve seen many guilty people over the course of my 38 years of law enforcement. When the University disinvited me — telling my assistant the reason was because of my stance against #BlackLIESMatter, I was okay with it. I was working this event into an already full schedule. But the cowardly official response from the school is just too much. “Circumstances did not permit” me to attend? President Steven H. Kaplan, I understand why you don’t want people to know that a predominantly white college won’t let a black man speak on campus because of your incredible support for minorities. That doesn’t even pass the “straight face test.” If you think my beliefs should prohibit me from speaking about collecting, preserving, and analyzing evidence, that’s your decision as a private school. Own it as a “decision” the university made… not that I was a victim of circumstances. At least have the courage of your convictions.

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But that, of course, is the problem - as Sheriff Clarke knows all too well. This is not about any sort of real convictions. It's about cowardice, plain and simple. If a man who opposes Black Lives Matter is allowed to speak on campus, the result will be protests, demonstrations, demands for justice, media coverage, sit-ins, etc. The University of New Haven may give lip service to belief in free speech and the marketplace of ideas, but that's only up until they're risking a s***storm coming down on them because they let someone show up that sent their precious little darlings scurrying to their safe spaces. The university tries to pass it off as mere "circumstances" because if they said why they really did it, they'd be admitting that they're terrified of their own students and faculty going bananas. If you've got a kid nearing college age, I'd give some serious thought to whether you want to send him or her into this absurd environment. Everyone talks about the liberal bias in the classroom teaching, but you can survive that. It's this kind of stuff that suggests to me the entire world of higher learning has gone completely insane.

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