Florida Gov. Declares State Of Emergency Before Richard Spencer Speech At UF
The governor of Florida has declared a state of emergency to prepare for a planned speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer on Thursday at the University of Florida.
The declaration, made by Gov. Rick Scott, will allow law enforcement in Alachua County, where the university is located, to coordinate better with state officials and buy equipment more quickly. University officials have said they intend to spend $500,000 on security for the talk. Sheriff Sadie Darnell told The Washington Post that she would be buying radios to improve communication between all the affected security agencies.
“We have looked at what happened in Charlottesville and Berkeley,” Darnell said. “We’re not being alarmist. But we want to be prepared.”
A march led by Spencer in August at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville led to fights with counter-protesters; they escalated the following day, leading to a woman’s death at the hands of an “alt-right” car driver.
Spencer told the Post that he had been cooperative with the university and that if there is violence, it won’t be started by his side.
“It’s these antifa [anti-fascist] groups,” Spencer said. “They’re thugs. Nasty, nasty people.”
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30