Alt-right movement in the United States
- Current Events
- Nov 4, 2018
- 2 min read
On October 19 of this year, a group of white-supremacists attacked protestors in a public speech of the alt-right leader, Richard Spencer, at the University of Florida in Gainesville. William Fears and his friends were fans of Spencer, who was being "booed" by left-wing protestors. Later, they decided to threatened them with handguns, but fortunately, there were not major accidents.
Supposedly at 17:15, Fear and his friends began harassing a group of left-wing protestors who were sitting at a bus stop while they were driving in their Jeep. They began shouting Neo-Nazi jokes and salutes at them. One of the protestors claimed to feel threatened and pulled out a baton he was carrying for protection. He then proceeded to hit one of the S.U.V.'s windows with the baton. TenBrink, a friend of Fears, jumped out of the Jeep and pointed at the protestors with his handgun. Everyone tried to hid while the white-supremacists told TedBrink to shoot at them, which he did. However, the bullet missed and the attackers escaped the scene. They were later captured.
William Fears is not the first, nor the last, alt-right supporter attacking left-wing protestors. We've seen all kinds of news about attacks like the Charlotesville riots, and there's no prevention of these attacks yet. The F.B.I., the Department of Homeland Security, or any local politicians have no material or threat books to identify alt-right aggressors that may be seen as threats to society.
As Mexicans, we may not see this as a threat nor a problem to our country, since it is happening in the United States. But let's not forget that security issues are everyone's problem. Here in Mexico there might as well be alt-right protestors, or people who simply do not support others opinion and think the solution is to act with violence to "make them understand". Of course each one of us should contribute to a more peaceful community by being respectful and tolerant, but security problems are also meant to be solved by our governments. The most disappointing part is that in most countries this will continue to escalate as the political administrations tend to be corrupt and do nothing significant to work out better results. So, when nobody takes responsibility of social protection, who's it to blame?
Sources
Reitman, Janet. "U.S. Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism. Now They Don't Know How to Stop It" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/magazine/FBI-charlottesville-white-nationalism-far-right.html
Kirk, Bryan. "Three Houston Men Arrested at Florida White Supremacist Rally" https://patch.com/texas/houston/three-houston-men-arrested-florida-white-supremacist-rally
Illustration taken from https://www.local10.com/news/florida/3-texas-men-arrested-after-shot-fired-at-richard-spencer-protesters
By MM
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