Via News Busters and Ace, the ad is Pam Geller’s “Support Israel, Defeat Jihad” poster and the reaction — from someone who appears occasionally on CNN and MSNBC — is completely predictable, replete with ironic cries of “free speech” as she tries to literally blot out someone else’s message. She seems honestly shocked when the cops show up and cart her away for graffiti. This is “free speech” in the same way it’s “free speech” for you to put a piece of duct tape over someone’s mouth. One’s a property crime, the other’s battery, but the point in both cases is to silence a speaker with whom you disagree. What’s the difference between spray-painting over it and tearing it down off the wall and burning it? Watching it reminded me of a story I heard in college about one of the local student newspapers having printed an edition that offended some group, whereupon the group went around to the paper’s drop-off points, collected the stacks of the new edition, and simply tossed them all in the trash. If you don’t approve of the message, then no one else has the right to consider it. “Free speech.”

I haven’t surveyed liberal reaction to this on Twitter, but I know which way I’m betting. Anecdotal reports don’t look good.