Richard Spencer Braves ‘Go Home, Nazi’ Protesters In Florida
Image by Getty Images
Protesters shouted “Go home Nazis” as a white nationalist gave a speech on Thursday at the University of Florida, where hundreds of police set up barricades and separated supporters and demonstrators to guard against violence.
Several hundred protesters shouting “We don’t want your Nazi hate” marched outside a campus performing arts center where Spencer spoke.
Two people were arrested, including a man hired as security for media for illegally carrying a firearm on campus, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office said. Another man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with swastikas emerged from a crowd of protesters with a bloody lip.
“There were a few scuffles, but for the most part it was an extremely peaceful event,” said Chris Sims, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
Inside the venue, Spencer and protesters yelled at one another, and he criticized them for trying to suppress his speech.
“I’m not going home,” said Spencer, who heads the National Policy Institute, a nationalist think tank, and promoted the Charlottesville rally. “We are stronger than you and you all know it!”
He appeared to have few supporters in the crowd. About 15 white men, all dressed in white shirts and khaki pants, raised their hands when Spencer asked who identified with the alt-right, a loose grouping that includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
