Whether he has a permit or not,
white nationalist Richard Spencer plans to visit University of Florida.
GAINESVILLE — White nationalist Richard Spencer intends to come to Gainesville, whether he has a permit or not.
“I can confirm we are coming to the University of Florida, regardless,” said Cameron Padgett, who organizes speaking events for Spencer. “Hopefully it’s in a controlled environment, like the Phillips Center.”
Earlier this month, the school denied a permit filed by Padgett for Spencer and others aligned with Spencer’s National Policy Institute to speak Sept. 12 at the Phillips Center.
City officials and local police said they have been preparing as if the group plans to speak, though there hasn’t been confirmation.
Padgett said he has hired an attorney to review the University of Florida’s cancellation to see if it violates their right to speak. If efforts to use the Phillips Center fail, he intends to show up to speak somewhere else on campus.
Gary Edinger, an attorney for Padgett, in a letter dated Wednesday urged UF to avoid a lawsuit by allowing the event to go forward, adding that Spencer’s National Policy Institute is willing to consider a different date, time or venue and also to cover some security costs.
He indicated he would likely file a federal suit within days if UF did not agree to host the event.
“We were informed late this afternoon that representatives of the organization have retained legal counsel and plan to pursue efforts to hold this event as originally requested,” UF President Kent Fuchs said in a statement sent out to the university community late Wednesday.
Under UF policy, “Demonstrations may be held anywhere on the campus, so long as they do not disrupt the normal operation of the University or infringe on the rights of other members of the University community, except that no demonstrations are permitted inside University buildings.”
No distinction is made between demonstrations organized by students or by outsiders. UF spokesman Janine Sikes said it is an “open campus” that allows access to anyone who hasn’t yet created a disturbance. “Obviously we have concerns. We have seen violence break out in other places,” she said.
Padgett sued Auburn University in April after it canceled an event, and he won. But on Aug. 12, Spencer was involved in a “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., home to the University of Virginia. White supremacists clashed with anti-fascist “antifa” extremists, and police said a white supremacist drove into a crowd of peaceful protesters, killing Heather Heyer. Since then, other universities — Penn State, Florida and Michigan State — have canceled similar events, citing public safety concerns.
City and UF officials have pointed to the Charlottesville violence and threats made in online forums as reasons to deny a platform for Spencer. White supremacists and other far-right groups have targeted college campuses where they see fertile ground to recruit and spread their messages.
But Padgett, 23, a finance major at Georgia State University, says he can’t control what others say and do and that neither his, nor Spencer’s, speeches incite violence. He also said he doesn’t understand how people can tie their speeches to the Charlottesville attacks.
“Unless the speaker incites violence, schools can’t pick and choose who they want to speak there, period,” he said.
Padgett told the Associated Press that he calls himself an “identitarian” — not a white nationalist — and insists “advocating for the interests of white people” doesn’t make him a racist.