This is good news, actually.

College campus protesters have become more and more unhinged, so law enforcement can no longer be hobbled by the memory of Kent State, and should be allowed to use whatever non-lethal methods of crowd control they have in their arsenal.

After all, these are no longer peaceful flower children. The times, they are a’changing.

Only their feelings are gentle, but their actions are obnoxious, oppressive, and quite often, violent.

With conservative columnist, Ben Shapiro slated to appear at the Berkeley campus soon and some students requiring counseling to get over the emotional upset of having an opinion represented on campus that may differ from their own, the city felt adding a bit of something to crowd control efforts may be in order for Berkeley, California law enforcement.

“Currently the Berkeley Police Department is hampered during crowd events in addressing coordinated groups of violent offenders,” Chief of Police Andrew Greenwood wrote ahead of the event on Sept. 12, “because the only tools available are batons, less lethal projectiles, smoke, and tear gas canisters.”

Fortunately, the city council obliged and police will now be allowed to pepper spray “individuals within a crowd who are committing acts of violence upon police or others.” The chemical deterrent will be much needed.

Get that?

Step out of line, try to take your protest to another level, you get a face full of burning, choke-inducing hell.

Last time a right-wing provocateur came to speak, 150 masked undergrads smashed and torched their campus, costing the administration more than $100,000 in damages. And just recently, an Antifa gang opened the school year by curb stomping a Trump supporter in the street. More of the same is expected for Shapiro.

And who says Ben Shapiro is a “right wing provocateur”? He probably could more accurately be described as a purveyor of commonsense.

Then again, commonsense sounds an awful lot like hate speech to those who have never been required to conduct themselves rationally.

The university has taken extreme precautions for the Shapiro event. Security will screen attendees who must pass through security barriers and show tickets. Anyone outside that perimeter who wants to riot, whether they’re Antifa thugs or white supremacists, will have to deal with riot police.

Fair. Very fair.

The hope is that whatever happens with the Shapiro event, it is carried off without a hitch and all is well.

That’s the hope, at least.