Hundreds of police will be deployed at the University of Florida on Thursday as thousands are poised to protest a speech by an avowed white nationalist.
The governor has declared a state of emergency in preparation for possible violence.
Richard Spencer’s speech at the university in Gainesville comes about two months after rallies by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., led to violent clashes with counter-protesters and killed at least one person. The flare-up challenged U.S. President Donald Trump and stoked a smouldering national debate on race.
Spencer, who heads the National Policy Institute, is scheduled to speak from 2:30 p.m. ET at a performing arts centre. The university said no one at the university invited him to speak and it was obligated under law to allow the event.
A flier is seen on a pole Thursday on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
The National Policy Institute is vetting which reporters it will allow inside to cover the speech, university officials said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups in the United States, said Spencer is “a radical white separatist whose goal is the establishment of a white ethno-state in North America.”
Hundreds of thousands on security
The Orlando Sentinel quoted Spencer as saying the emergency declaration issued this week was “flattering” but “most likely overkill.”
About 3,000 people have signed up on a Facebook page to say they will be attending a protest rally called “No Nazis at UF,” which will be held outside the venue where Spencer is speaking.
State highway patrol officers stand guard at the campus of the University of Florida on Thursday. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
The university said it will spend more than $500,000 US on security. It did not provide details on tactics, but among the groups dispatched will be the University of Florida Police Department, Gainesville Police Department, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Florida Highway Patrol.
Classes at the university will be conducted as planned except for those held in close proximity to the speech venue, the school said.
University president Kent Fuchs urged students not to attend the event and denounced Spencer’s white nationalism.
A video concerning Richard Spencer and the National Policy Institute’s message of racism and hate. pic.twitter.com/JsHXt6ySKW
“By shunning him and his followers we will block his attempt for further visibility,” Fuchs said in a statement earlier this month.
The death in Charlottesville, home to the flagship campus of the University of Virginia, occurred as counter-protesters were dispersing. A 20-year-old man who is said by law enforcement to have harboured Nazi sympathies smashed his car into the crowd, killing a 32-year-old woman.