White supremacist heckled at university talk

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - White supremacist Richard Spencer was repeatedly disrupted Thursday by a forceful chorus telling him to go home.

"Nazis are not welcome here," protesters said.

"I'm not going home, I will stand here all day if I have to," Spencer said before lashing out at the crowd as a bunch of "shrieking and grunting morons", according to media reports.

His speech comes roughly two months after the "Unite the Right" gathering of white supremacists and white nationalists left a counter-protester dead in Charlottesville, Virginia. Spencer was one of the key figures in the rally, which also featured former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke.

The demonstration and ensuing violence with counter-demonstrators prompted questions about why it was allowed in the first place, and the ascendancy of white nationalism in America.

Spencer is the president of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist front thinly veiled as a think tank, as well as being a prominent figure in the "alt-right" movement.

There was a massive police presence outside of the the University of Florida in Gainesville's Phillips Center, where Spencer spoke, in a bid to thwart a recurrence of the violence that unfolded in Charlottesville.

Over 1,000 officers were deployed to ensure order was maintained as over 2,500 protesters turned out, according to the university.

University President W. Kent Fuchs condemned Spencer in a letter to the campus community on Tuesday, but said he could not block the white nationalist from renting the Philips Center.

"Although I urge you to avoid the Spencer event, I ask that you not let Mr. Spencer 's message of hate and racism go unchallenged," he wrote. "Speak up for your values and the values of our university."