Yes the fascist troglodytes, like all reactionaries, are expert at playing victim, since victimhood is fundamental to their creed, but I think for the most part their impotent whining only resonates with those who are already aligned with them. And in a way, allowing them to demonstrate and spew their hatred can be a good thing, since being exposed to their bile often disgusts the non-aligned and heretofore unaware, so there’s an argument for giving them the permits. But conditions can be placed on that permission, and the contemporary record of violence is there for mayors and police chiefs to cite. Mayors can override city agencies and cancel lawfully issued permits right up to the last minute, if they can cite a threat to public safety. They just have to be willing to use their authority, and face the political fallout, but when the public safety argument is strong, they tend to be strengthened politically.
It is. My alma mater is wrestling with it right now, as Spencer is trying to hold an event at UF. Their by laws prohibit them from considering the political message in determining if someone can speak, but its quite obvious they don’t want the SOB within 10 miles of Gainesville, unless its to use him to feed the alligators in Lake Alice.(Which I am on the fence about doing…I wouldn’t want to give the gators indigestion).
Personally, I think its worth taking the legal hit, and denying him a permit. Its an easy PR win, and I suspect the cost-benefit analysis seen in that light would make it worthwhile
The violence is a precedent now. Not sure legally the mechanics of how that can be separated from rights of speech and assembly but it seems obvious that there can be conditions on how those demonstrators are armed and where they can assemble. After all, “free speech zones” are implemented against protesters all the time.
Its a right of peaceful assembly. The actions that took place this past Saturday obviously undermine any request going forward, but I could see the nazi’s making a strong argument in their favor. But Gainesville/UF could impose limitations on carrying weapons, (make shift or otherwise) to ensure public safety to address that, (though that too could end up being litigated…its Florida after all).
My point is, that schools probably shouldn’t consider this strictly from a legal perspective. There are serious PR gains and actual human decency gains to be made by refusing and letting them take you to court.
I am also going to guess that universities have much deeper pockets and more lawyers willing to represent them pro bono (after all…UF has a freaking law school) than these people will have. Bleed them dry financially.
100% agree.
There was a debate about what to do when the klan marched in Austin back in the early nineties I think. Counter-protest, or ignore? My memory of what happened was a mass moon-in in the direction of the white-supremacists, who made a bare and pathetic showing. I heard the wall of police meant neither side could see the other anyway (I had to work).
Today though, it isn’t the fringe of the fringe movement anymore; they’ve found each other and organized and recruited and infected social media and a major party, and their people are in the WH. And, they’re really, really well-armed and openly engaging in violence, and not even bothering with hoods to mask their identity.
It really is time, not for counter-protesters to be arguing tactics, but for institutions to be pushing back with everything legal and moral and patriotic they’ve got. And as often is the case, universities are in the forefront.
It would thrill me to no end for A&M, with its sordid history (but also with so many good people) to fight this menace.
From legal standpoint, I don’t see how an assembly of heavily armed people is peaceful.
You will get no argument from me. Also, I wonder what the percentage of black students is on the main campus of the U of Texas in Austin, if it is similar to College Station. Both A&M and U of T have established several campuses around the state, and, by so doing, count the minority students as part of their system. For example, if A&M College Station has a 3.6% enrollment of black students, those numbers change dramatically when you count in the black students enrolled in, say Texas A&M Kingsville or Prairie View (a predominantly black college).
He’s running for governor - that’s what that tells me.
Well, there has been a recent Supreme Court decision addressing that very issue.