Protesters nearly erupted at white nationalist Richard Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida, which is still ongoing. Audience members jeered and chanted slogans at Spencer before and during his speech. Spencer responded by calling the vocal crowd “pre-schoolers” and shrieking and grunting morons” as he was met with chants of “Go home, Spencer,” and “Nazis are not welcome here.”
Spencer replied to the rowdy brunch, telling them “I’m not going home, I’ll stay here all day if I have to.”
A person close to Spencer identified to vocal audience as supposedly being members of the “Communist Antifa” group.
“You are yelling at a dissident intellectual,” Spencer claimed. “You are cowardly trying to shut down a movement that is growing and that is going to stand up for white people and is going to stand up for the oppressed.”
Spencer told the crowd, “White liberals don’t actually care about you. To them, you are a prop. You are a mascot.”
A total of 500 police officers have been deployed to the University of Florida to maintain order. It is estimated that total roughly $600,000 in security costs and added expenses.
Here’s some “Go home, Spencer” chants from the crowd…
The crowd appears to be blaming Richard Spencer with the death of Heather Heyer, an anti-racism counter-protester who was killed when a car mowed through a crowd at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“What happened with the death of Heather Heyer remains unclear,” Spencer said. “…Are they going to throw me into moral prison? Not only do I not call for violence. I have explicitly called for peace and for dialogue.”
Spencer called the alleged perpetrator James Field “a scapegoat” and said that he deserves a fair trial.
There appeared to only be two rows of Spencer supporters at Thursday’s speech at the University of Florida.
Defenders and detractors of Spencer were also present on campus outside the auditorium where the speech took place.
A man was arrested shortly before Spencer’s speech, for allegedly bringing a gun on campus.