Colleges and universities are supposed to be places where people with different opinions and views can express them freely without fear of retribution.

One certainly wouldn’t think that was the case last week as Americans watched members of the radical fringe protest conservative Briebart editor Milo Yiannopoulus, who was about to speak at the University of California, Berkeley.

More than 1,500 people gathered on campus, many wearing masks to protest Yiannopoulus, who was forced to leave the campus before he could even speak.

In the process of what should have been a peaceful demonstration, these fringe protesters decided they would light fires with Molotov cocktails, damage the construction of a new dorm, tear down metal barriers, throw commercial-grade fireworks and rocks at police, break out storefront windows and smash the windows of the student union center on campus where Yiannopoulos was to speak.

It is certainly a person’s right under the Constitution to peacefully assemble and express opposition to a particular view or person, but that by no means gives these anarchists the right to attack police, start fires and break windows on campus.

These punks are criminals and need to be put in jail. It is estimated that their actions caused $100,000 in damage to the campus.

We have an idea: Instead of the taxpayers paying for this damage, why shouldn’t these punks who were apprehended pay for it?

We won’t hold our breath that this would ever happen, but it would certainly serve the cause of justice. 

UC Berkeley has been a hotbed of far-left radicals who act out, often in violent manners, ever since the Vietnam War.

This is just one more example of a university that gives the impression that it condones this type of behavior. 

It raises a question: Would the same violence have occurred on campus if a liberal speaker was going to appear? It’s highly unlikely.

Where are UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks or California Gov. Jerry Brown in speaking out about these anarchists’ behavior? Nowhere to be seen.

Brown has a duty and a responsibility as the highest officer in his state to stand up and be vocal about this radical fringe and let them know that this type of behavior will not be tolerated, and that those whose are responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

This is somewhat of a totalitarian mentality. 

These types of anarchists’ attacks on police and property have no place in our society simply because a conservative speaker wants to share his views with a group that invited him there.

Those responsible for all of this unnecessary chaos want their voices heard, but they would be wise to remember that the risk to freedom guaranteed under the Constitution could be threatened because of their shameful radical behavior.