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"We won this night. We will control the streets. We will liberate the land. We will fight fascists," tweeted Occupy Oakland. The tweet came after crowds of protesters-turned-criminals stormed barricades, lit fires, and ignited Roman candles to stop controversial gay conservative and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos from finishing his "Dangerous Faggot" tour at the University of California, Berkeley.

A picture accompanied the tweet showing "demonstrators" with signs that read "This is War" and "Become Ungovernable." Lost in the fog of the Roman candles was the fact that progressive "protestors," by denying the right of a political opponent to speak, were the fascists.

Make no mistake: The rights of free speech and peaceful assembly are among the most precious in our constitutional republic. The ability to tell the emperor he is naked is what separates this nation from so many across the globe. It is a right that must be protected from government encroachment, but it is also a right that must be respected by those seeking to exercise it.

Since the election of President Trump, progressives have confused their First Amendment right to protest with their perceived notion of free rein. After the inauguration, "protesters" took to the streets of D.C., to vandalize for sport. In New Orleans, "protesters" demonstrated their dislike for Trump by defacing historic buildings. When Trump traveled to Philadelphia shortly after the inauguration, "protesters" responded by taking spray paint to police cruisers.

What happened to Yiannopoulos on Wednesday night is only the latest example in this unsettling trend.

As protesters engage in lawless acts of thuggery, mainstream media coverage seems indifferent the trending lawlessness of the demonstrations.

In a feature titled "Ferocious Protests Greet Right-Wing Provocateur," Newsweek senior writer Alexander Nazaryan wrote, "On Wednesday night, several hundred people decided the University of California at Berkeley would reclaim its reputation as a crucible of radical activism."

What radical activism was on hand Wednesday night? According to Nazaryan, "A Walgreens was tagged with graffiti, including one that said 'Kill Trump.' Protesters posed happily in front of it for pictures. Berkeley officers, astride bicycles, watched."

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This is not "radical activism." It is a laundry list of felonies committed with the implicit blessing of local law enforcement.

Washington Post writers opened an article about the inaugural protests by explaining, "Protesters made themselves heard in the nation's capital Friday, leaving a trail of damage along some city blocks, disrupting security checkpoints at President Donald Trump's inauguration, and clashing with police as Trump supporters tried to celebrate."

While the sentence seems innocent enough, can we honestly say people who damage and disrupt with a specific intent are protesters? Would they not be criminals?

Imagine if protesters who participated in the March for Life behaved like anti-Trump protesters. Would the media remain indifferent or would the full weight of the press come down on pro-life activism? Because Nazaryan labeled Breitbart a "white-nationalist website" in his Yiannopoulos article, we have a good guess at the answer.

Almost a century ago, Justice Olive Wendell Holmes wrote, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." Holmes went on to rule that criticism of the draft was not free speech because it presented a "clear and present danger" to the country.

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While the clear and present danger standard penned by Holmes in Schenck v. United States has undergone a constitutional evolution, the common sense wisdom still looms large. Falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater may not be the same as opposing the draft, it is the same as deliberately starting fires in public.

If Berkeley is unable to teach their students about constitutional rights, it's time law enforcement does.

Joseph Murray (@realJoeMurray) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. Previously, he was a campaign official for Pat Buchanan. He is the author of "Odd Man Out" and is administrator of the LGBTrump Facebook page.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.

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Berkeley riot shows progressives want free rein, not free speech - Washington Examiner (blog)