GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Counter demonstrators greatly outnumbered white nationalist Richard Spencer’s supporters on Thursday at the University of Florida, their chants drowning Spencer out during his speech.
Outside, hundreds more people protested with signs and anti-Nazi chants alongside hundreds of police officers there to prevent violence.
Anti-Spencer protesters shouted, “Not in our town! Not in our state! We don’t want your Nazi hate!” and “Let’s go Gators” during his speech, frustrating the head of the National Policy Institute.
Three or four skirmishes occurred during the long afternoon after single Spencer supporters confronted the counter demonstrators, trying to speak and rile the crowds up. One man, wearing a white shirt with swastikas drawn on, was punched and chased out of the area. At least three others were quickly surrounded by crowds that shouted them down, chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” and pushed them until they left the area or were chased behind police lines.
The Alachua County Sheriff said at least one person, Sean Brijmohan 28, was arrested. The office said in a tweet that he had brought a gun onto the campus after being hired by a media organization as security.
UF President W. Kent Fuchs said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press that Spencer is “hijacking” public universities — which are compelled by the First Amendment to provide a speaking forum — and forcing taxpayers to pay the resulting security costs.
Fuchs estimates the school will spend $600,000 on security for Spencer’s planned speech Thursday. Fuchs told CNN there will be more police on campus on Thursday than at any other time in the school’s history. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the government, in this case a public university, cannot charge speakers for security costs.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Spencer said he was flattered by the state of emergency declaration, which he said put him on par with “hurricanes and invading armies and zombie apocalypses.”
Former President George W. Bush condemned bigotry and white supremacy Thursday morning while endorsing policies that run counter to those supported by President Donald Trump.
Spencer’s National Policy Institute is paying $10,564 to rent space for the speaking event.
“I fully understand freedom of speech cannot be burdened legally with the full cost of this, but on the other hand we’re being burdened,” said Fuchs, sitting in his office on campus in Gainesville. “So taxpayers are subsidizing hate speech.”
Following the August violence in Charlottesville, Va., that left one counter demonstrator dead, Fuchs said high security costs are required to ensure a reasonable amount of safety.
The school has called in hundreds of law enforcement officers from federal, state, county and city sources. Streets will be blocked off and movement around the campus tightly controlled.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency Monday, saying a “threat of a potential emergency is imminent” in Alachua County, where the school is located. The order allowed local law enforcement to partner with other agencies.