Alt-Right leader sparks campus scuffle
UNITED STATES: Protesters shouted ‘‘Go home Nazis’’ as a white nationalist gave a speech yesterday at the University of Florida, where hundreds of police set up barricades and separated supporters and demonstrators to guard against violence.
Richard Spencer’s event at the university in Gainesville, which prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency to prepare for possible conflict, came about two months after rallies by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Virginia led to a deadly clash with counter-protesters.
The violence on August 12 added fuel to a national debate on race, and President Donald Trump came under fire for blaming both sides for the melee.
White supremacists have been working to bring Spencer to various universities, saying he has a constitutional right to free speech. It has forced college leaders to allow what they see as hate speech on campus and provide security to prevent violent clashes.
Yesterday, several hundred protesters shouting ‘‘We don’t want your Nazi hate’’ marched outside a campus performing arts centre 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 criticised 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.
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 characterised by a rejection of mainstream politics that includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.