The Abuse and Misuse of Freedom

JOSEPH NEY-JUN
Staff Writer

The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights grants freedom of speech, but nowhere does it include freedom of harassment. Over the past few years, an animal rights activist group named “Progress for Science” has done more than harass the UCLA science department.

The group’s name is actually quite deceiving, as they are actually out to hinder scientific progress, experimentation on primates being the primary focus of their protests. The group has employed violent protests in the past, such as firebombing the houses of professors, according to Speaking of Research.

Recently, 45 members of the UCLA community rose up and protested the protesters. In 2008, UCLA dealt with groups similar to Progress for Science like the UCLA Primate Freedom Project, and the Animal Liberation Front. The UCLA Newsroom reported that the Liberation Front publicly advocated violence to stop the animal experimentation.

The Newsroom also reports that the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered them to stop. While they were forced to halt their activities, this one court order did not stop groups like Progress for Science from continuing the same tactics.

Constitutional or not, it is not right to violently harass or show total disrespect to anyone. Freedom of speech is a license to speak freely about one’s own ideas intelligently, not to verbally abuse individuals as a means of protest. Many more of these types of groups are squandering their First Amendment rights by targeting individuals rather than intelligently challenging them.