Richard Spencer's first post-Charlottesville speech will cost $500K - 2017-10-06

White supremacist Richard Spencer will speak at the University of Florida later this month — his first campus speaking appearance since the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in early August.
The university, located in Gainesville, estimates it will end up paying $500,000 for security costs at the one-day event, slated for Oct. 19, according to a press release sent to VICE News. It's the latest example of a public university footing the bill for security for right-wing speakers. The University of California at Berkeley spent $800,000 on security for Milo Yiannopoulos' planned "Free Speech Week," which ended up lasting just 15 minutes. The University of Florida, however, will also charge Spencer more than $100,000 to rent the facility on campus.
Spencer — who spearheaded the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville as part of his mission to establish a white ethnostate — was originally scheduled to speak on Sept. 12, but school administrators cancelled the event. When his lawyer threatened to sue, the school reversed course. Administrators conceded they had no constitutional authority to ban Spencer from campus and that anxiety in the wake of Charlottesville had driven their decision.
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