Asking If ‘Big Gov’t Sucks’ Got This Girl in Trouble with Cops, Kicked Off Campus

Lauren Cooley, a 22-year-old journalist and
conservative activist, canvassed Broward College last week asking
students there whether they agreed that “big government sucks.” The
question soon answered itself: Campus police officers interrupted
Cooley, told her that she had to restrict her activities to the
designated “free speech zone,” and threatened to arrest her unless
she left the campus.

Broward is a Miami-area community college and public institution
that hosted a debate between Florida gubernatorial candidates Rick
Scott and Charlie Crist last week.

According to The College
Fix:

She spent nearly 90 minutes there asking students “Hey, do you
think big government sucks?” as she worked to find students
interested in signing a petition to launch a Turning Point student
club on campus, she said in an interview with The College
Fix.

As Cooley was leaving the Davie, Florida campus she saw a
male student and asked him if he thought big government sucked, and
at that point she was told by a campus security guard that she
needed to go to the “free-speech area,” she said in an interview
Friday with The College Fix.

Cooley recorded the incident. The cops insisted that she was not
allowed to speak to students about a political topic outside the
free speech zone, even though many students—having just attended a
political debate—were actively discussing politics out in the open
(how shocking!). Cooley was wise enough to ask whether she was
being detained and declined to hand over her ID. Eventually, an
officer told her to leave the campus at once or be arrested for
trespassing.

“Alright,” Cooley said as she walked away. “Remember, big
government sucks.”

“Yeah, I know,” the officer can be heard saying in the
background.

After being told in absolute terms by a police officer that she
was not permitted to speak to students and would be arrested if she
remained any longer, Cooley left the campus.

According to The College Fix, Cooley is a resident of
Broward County. “It’s literally the college my taxdollars go to
partially fund,” she said.

Free speech zones are pernicious and manifestly unconstitutional
staples of many campuses. That a public institution of higher
learning would want to prevent a young person from discussing
politics with students is inexcusable.

That the cops would aggressively enforce this restrictive policy
is even worse.