Photo credit: The Sun Sentinel
By Victoria Mezera
The governor of Florida declared a state of emergency for the city of Gainesville on Wednesday, October 18th as a result of an event occurring at the University of Florida. Richard Spencer, a white nationalist leader, spoke at the university on October 19th. This sparked concern for the community considering how past gatherings, such as Charlottesville, played out. At the Charlottesville rally, people supporting the white supremacist ideology were gathered the night before chanting things such as, “blood and soil.” The next day a car came through a crowd of people protesting the rally, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring many more. The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, took precautions prior to the event to avoid similar occurrences.
The controversy over whether or not Richard Spencer should have been allowed to talk at the university caused some people to become heated. When he initially tried to rent space on the campus in September, he was denied on the grounds of what happened during previous events he had organized. However, the university is not allowed to violate free speech and is therefore legally required to allow him to speak. This upset many people who believe he shouldn’t be able to, as other events where he has spoken have turned violent because of what some consider to be hate speech. Prior to the event, AHS sophomore Natalia Miller says she believes the university shouldn’t allow him to speak because “the fact that a university that has tons of students of color is allowing a man to speak on how ‘being white is right’ is disgusting.” She also said that people who have that much hate in their hearts should not be allowed to use their platform the way he is.
The rally had about 400 people attend, but the vast majority of them were there in protest. During the rally, protesters heckled Spencer, chanting things such as “Go home, Nazi,” but Spencer refuted by saying he would stand there all day if he had too. Eventually, after being spoken over, Richard attempted to switch from giving a speech to allowing the audience to ask him questions. However, this did not go much better. People were insulting his beliefs and even making jokes about his appearance. In response to this, Spencer claimed, “You have all been given the amazing opportunity to take part in the most important free speech event of your lifetimes.” Whether or not this is true is up for debate, but regardless, the rally was forced to end early as Spencer felt he was unable to speak.
The protesters inside the venue were peaceful, despite being loud and talking over the speaker. However, the outside protesters lost control at least once. A man wearing a swastika (the symbol of the Nazi party) was punched in the face and surrounded by the crowd. There were a total of two arrests and five injuries that occurred at the rally. Afterward, three men from Texas were arrested for attempted homicide, after they fired a gun into a crowd of people at a bus stop. Fortunately, they missed, and nobody was hit. The men claimed that they shot the gun because “whites have the right to exist.” According to the arrest report, the gun was fired as a result of a dispute pertaining to the white nationalist speech. Some things shouted before shots were fired were, “I’m going to f****ing kill you”, and “Shoot them.”
Photo credit: The Tallahassee Democrat
At the event, the people of Gainesville believed they came together in a positive way. They expressed their minds and were successfully able to block something that they thought to be threatening their community. People shouted things such as, “Not in our town! Not in our state! We don’t want your Nazi hate!” Apopka High School student Mimi Kidd believed that the people of Gainesville came together appropriately, saying, “I think they responded the best way they can as civilians. The most a lot of us people can do as civilians is let our voices be heard.”
Overall, the city of Gainesville responded very well to Richard Spencer being at UF. They remained peaceful– for the most part– in the way that they expressed themselves, and they spoke their mind on an important affair in their community. They made sure their voices were heard above the voices of others, and if anything, the way they responded should set a precedent. If anything happens in your community, you have the right to go express yourself and let it be known how you feel, because your voice matters.