Although masks were technically banned, I brought one to the protest against Ben Shapiro on the University of Utah campus Wednesday evening.
Shapiro, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire and former Breitbart News editor-at-large, is a well-known liberal baiter. Past protests against him, most noticeably at the University of California, Berkeley, have erupted into violence.
The mask was necessary. Although a media member, and therefore technically a nonpartisan observer, I worried a great deal about being singled out by the police.
I have any number of brothers, nephews, cousins and close friends scattered among the various law enforcement agencies tasked with keeping the peace at the demonstration.