College campuses nationwide a preparing for a potentially violent 2018 after last year was marked by confrontations over free speech.
Universities are beefing up security and re-examining their commitment to free speech after protests by antifa, or anti-fascist movement against an alt-right speaker turned deadly in Charlottesville.
That followed clashes between protesters and counter-protesters on the campus of Texas A&M.
“Too many administrators and colleges professors on campus, they're afraid to shut down these rioters or protesters because they don't want to be called intolerant by their fellow leftists,” said CampusReform.org's Cabot Phillips to FOX News.
“Essentially they're allowing free speech to be held hostage, where this coming year they're admitting they feel conflicted between free speech and the safety of their students,” he says. “Those two things are not mutually exclusive, you can have free speech and also defend the safety of your campus.”
Phillips says the violence has grown out of the anti-Trump rallies following the 2016 election.
“One of their tactics is labeling everyone they disagree with as a Nazi, and they say 'well, violence is acceptable against Nazis,' so if they get everyone to agree those people who support Trump are Nazis, then violence is now acceptable against a whole swath of people.”
Nobody was available at either Texas A&M or University of Houston for comment.