White nationalist Richard Spencer triggers state of emergency declaration in Florida – By Melissa Quinn (washingtonexaminer.com) / Oct 16 2017
Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Monday three full days before the University of Florida was set to allow white nationalist leader Richard Spencer to speak on campus.
Spencer is scheduled to speak on the Gainesville, Fla., campus on Thursday, and Scott warned that prior events on college campuses featuring Spencer have resulted in “episodes of violence, civil unrest, and multiple arrests.” In an executive order issued Monday, the governor warned a “threat of a potential emergency is imminent” in Alachua County, where Gainesville is located.
Scott’s office said that is enough to trigger an emergency declaration that allows state and local law enforcement to coordinate resources from law enforcement agencies across the state. The order also allows for the suspension of statues and rules that would “in any way prevent, hinder or delay any mitigation, response, or recovery action necessary to cope with this emergency,” and puts the Florida National Guard on standby.
“We live in a country where everyone has the right to voice their opinion, however, we have zero tolerance for violence, and public safety is always our number one priority,” Scott said in a statement.
Spencer, who runs the National Policy Institute, was initially supposed to speak at the University of Florida in September. But the university denied a request from the National Policy Institute to rent space on campus, citing safety concerns after the violence in Charlottesville, Va., in August.
After Spencer threatened to sue the school, the university agreed to let him speak on campus.
University of Florida President Kent Fuchs, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., who represents Gainesville, have been asking students to stay away from Spencer’s event, and are encouraging them to challenge his message.
“Make it clear that messages of hate on our campus are contrary to our values,” Fuchs said in a message to students posted on Facebook.
Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida will be his first on a college campus since he attended a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. There, white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters, and one woman was killed after a suspected Nazi sympathizer plowed his car into a crowd of protesters
PB/TK – Let Spencer speak. No one said he had to speak inside an auditorium or outside in a quad. I’m sure there’s a broom closet somewhere on campus that can be used.
