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Governor Rick Scott (R) has declared a state of emergency in the county where the University of Florida lay, due to a planned speech by Richard Spencer. According to NPR:
When Hurricane Irma was bearing down on Florida last month, Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency. On Monday, he did the same thing in Alachua County, ahead of a speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
"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. "This executive order is an additional step to ensure that the University of Florida and the entire community is prepared so everyone can stay safe."
"I find that the threat of a potential emergency is imminent," Scott declared in his executive order, noting that Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell had requested the state's assistance. The order will make it easier for various agencies to coordinate a security plan for Thursday's speech at the university.
[...] No campus group invited Spencer to speak, and the university is not hosting or sponsoring the event. Spencer's group, the National Policy Institute, is paying the university $10,564 for facility rental and security.
And it looks like it could get expensive:
The speech and accompanying protests are also a major expense: The university as well as state and local agencies expect to spend more than $500,000 to provide additional security.
And the University of Florida can't demand that Spencer pay the full cost of protecting him, because of a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement.
In that decision, the university explains, "the Court clarified that the government cannot assess a security fee on the speaker based upon the costs of controlling the reaction of potential hostile onlookers or protestors," under legal doctrine known as the "heckler's veto."
Well, that is the cost of free speech in a free country.
(Score: 2, Troll) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday October 18 2017, @09:39PM (1 child)
She was just talking in Charlottesville, too. Who's fault was that one?
(Score: 2) by SacredSalt on Thursday October 19 2017, @07:40PM
She was just talking in Charlottesville, too. Who's fault was that one? You can put 95% of the blame for Charlottesville squarely on the hands of: The governor of Virginia, the Virginia State Police, the mayor & vice mayor of Charlottesville(himself a black panther), and the Charlottesville Police Department.
It would not have been that big of a deal if they had simply cooperated, instituted the security plan everyone had agreed to ahead of time, and actually did their jobs. As it was, the only people with any real protective force that were keeping the peace were "the militia" which had 32 people, 33 if you count one person who was untrained, and unarmed that arrived with them. The police were straight out ordered to stand down, and then ordered to march people into what was basically a setup so that people would be forced to go through 2 different crowds filled with another kind of absolutely horrible, violent, racists on both sides of those forced to leave the rally itself.
The only people with any moral high ground to stand on there were the militias. Even outnumbered 4000+ to 32 they still kept the peace as best they could for several hours. They were attacked the same as everyone else. Ironically, they are now being sued for what was basically government refusing to do their job. If the police had simply been allowed (or simply did their job anyway), followed the original security plan, and didn't get horribly out of line the UNR rally would have been as peaceful as your average Saturday night concert venue. Maybe 1-3 minor fist fights, the event would have ended, and everyone who would go home in one piece.