Reuter's
Version of the Berkeley Riot
DURING
the mid-1990s DAVID
IRVING was
invited several times to address functions at the University
of California, at Berkeley, birthplace of the Free Speech
movement of the 1960s. The local Jewish and communist
organisations staged violent protests to prevent audiences
from hearing him.
|
Fighting disrupts
controversial historian's lecture Saturday, October 15, 1994 07:28:01 GMT
BERKELEY, California, (Reuter) - A
riot broke out after 100 demonstrators clashed with people
attending a lecture by controversial British historian
David Irving, who has cast doubt on the Holocaust,
police said Friday.
Five people were slightly injured in scuffles Thursday night
after the demonstrators marched on a building where Irving
was giving the lecture in the college town of Berkeley,
Berkeley police inspector Jim Gaebe said.
"It was a confrontation with some people who didn't have the
same ideological bent as Mr. Irving," Gaebe said. Berkeley
is home to a branch of the University of California, with a
campus known for its long history of left-wing politics.
Gaebe said some of the marchers entered the YWCA building
where Irving was speaking and fights erupted between
opposing groups. He did not know how many people were inside
the hall. Most of the people attending the lecture stayed in
the building, but some went outside and fighting spilled
into the streets, he said.
Some rocks and bottles were thrown, Gaebe said. Forty police
officers arrived and sealed off nearby streets to traffic,
he said. The streets were soon cleared and no arrests were
made, he said.
Gaebe said Irving was able to finish his lecture after the
incident.
Irving has stated that the Holocaust, the killing of
millions of Jews in Nazi death camps during World War II,
was exaggerated and happened without Adolf Hitler's
knowledge.  His
views have outraged mainstream historians and Jewish groups.
In the past, he has been deported from Canada, excluded from
Germany and refused an Australian visa.REUTER Reut15:12
10-14 Reuter N:Copyright 1994, Reuters News
Service |
write to David Irving