To: Kent Fuchs, President of UF, Board of Trustees, Sadie Darnell, Sheriff, and Tony Jones, Chief of Police
Not another Charlottesville tragedy in Gainesville. Stop the Hate!
Victory! The creator of this petition declared the campaign a success. You can still sign the petition to show support.
A leader of a white nationalist organization, who participated in the violent Charlottesville, Virginia rallies Saturday, is arranging to speak at UF next month. Richard Spencer, the president of the National Policy Institute, an organization that lobbies for the “people of European descent in the United States,” is attempting to speak at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts at an unknown time Sept. 12, said UF spokesperson Janine Sikes.
Spencer was behind the white supremacy “Unite the Right” rally at the University of Virginia Saturday that ended with one person killed and 19 more injured after a participant ran his car into a group of counter-protesters. "We're going to be more active than ever before," Matthew Heimbach, a white nationalist leader, said Monday. We are hoping that we can stop them from being active in Gainesville and provide support for UF to reject his request. The alt-right rally at Texas A&M University scheduled to be hosted September 11 by white nationalist Richard Spencer has been canceled.
University of Florida spokeswoman Janine Sikes stressed that the event has not been finalized.
I am asking you to take this simple action now to prevent this event from happening in Gainesville.
The administration calculates that the security costs/risks will be significant. It may move UF to deny Spencer's request for this rental. Let them know you are concerned! Sikes said UF will likely consult law enforcement to ensure the event doesn’t turn violent.
Why is this important?
A group from Gainesville's Women's March organized painting a mural in Gainesville titled, "Seeds of Resistance". In the mural, they painted seed packets symbolizing justice and equality for all. The mural was immediately defaced with hate speech. When I publicly posted my disappointment about that on Facebook, I became the target of more than 1000 posts of derision and hate. This is not the way for us interact with each other. We need to stop the hate speech. There is no room for you in Gainesville Mr. Spencer.
Spencer fought with police at the Charlottesville rally, according to the Los Angeles Times. On his Twitter, Spencer blamed local police and protesters for the bloodshed and retweeted praise for himself and David Duke, a former KKK leader who also attended the rally. Spencer previously led a torch-lit rally in May protesting the sale of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville.
When Spencer went to speak at Auburn University in April, officials cited safety concerns and canceled the event, according to CNN. However, a judge sided with Spencer and said the university had to host him.