Former FBI Director James Comey was bombarded with angry chants from protesters at the historically black college Howard University as he attempted to give a convocation speech Friday afternoon.
Nearly as soon as Comey took the podium, demonstrators began shouting and yelling their dissatisfaction with his presence on campus.
The controversial figure has drawn ire from both sides of the political spectrum; in the 2016 election, he failed to indict Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her alleged misconduct and private server while Secretary of State. He then resurrected the investigation late in the campaign, something Clinton blames as a key reason why she lost.
Howard students voiced their displeasure with what they view as systemic racism against black citizens by the FBI. Students read the names of individuals they believed were improperly killed by the FBI as well as by local police throughout America.
Other Chants included "No justice, no peace," “F**K James Comey," and “We Shall Not Be Moved.”
Mob-style justice intent on thwarting adverse political ideologies from entering campus is nothing new, but 2017 has seen an alarming spike in students believing it is justifiable to block their political opponents from speaking via protest, threats, and other measures.
This trend amongst college students is almost entirely driven by left-leaning students and outside groups such as the far left, radical terror group known as Antifa. Recent polling suggests that college students are very comfortable with what is known as the "heckler's veto" or allowing the audience to shout so loudly, the speaker cannot get their message out.
This should alarm all American citizens. These are student "leaders" who feel comfortable enough wielding their power on campus to silence those they disagree with.
It is easy to castigate these loony, anti-free speech, safe-zone vigilantes as kooky college kids who could spend their time more wisely by having a beer or two rather than preventing robust academic speech on campus. But their implications go far beyond their four years of higher academics.
Someday they will hold public office of their own and be in charge of crafting the law. If students are taught limiting free speech on campus is acceptable, no doubt they will then try to enact this belief in the public sector on all United States citizens.
Ironically, Comey’s main tenet of his speech was that Howard University was “an Island” devoid of the acrimonious rancor of current political discourse.
“The rest of the real world is a place where it’s hard sometimes to find people who will listen with an attitude that they might actually be convinced of something,” Comey said and then ad-libbing, “Instead what happens in most of the real world, and… in this auditorium, is that people don’t listen at all.”
Comey politely remarked on the “enthusiasm” shown in in the auditorium but encouraged the dissidents to understand “what a conversation is.” He continued “the end of a conversation, we’re both smarter. I am here at Howard to try to get smarter, to try to be useful,” Comey said.
Despite some in the crowd yelling “Let him speak," the group responded with an admittedly catchy expression “Get out James Comey, you are not our homie!”
Below is a video of the affair compiled by BuzzFeed News.
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