By David Futrelle
Three white supremacists have been charged with attempted murder after one of them fired at a group of antifascist counterprotesters after a speech by neo-Nazi celebrity Richard Spencer at the University of Florida in Gaineville yesterday.
The Miami Herald reports:
Just before 5:30 p.m., just as protesters outside Spencer’s speech at UF’s Phillips Center were wrapping up, Gainesville police said the trio started heckling some anti-Spencer protesters with Hitler chants, Nazi salutes and threats. At one point, cops said, convicted felon Tenbrink pulled out a gun and the brothers encouraged him to use it.
He fired a single shot that missed the group, police said, then sped off in a silver Jeep. An off-duty Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputy spotted the car 20 miles out of town around 9 p.m. and arrested the group. The Fears brothers are held on million dollar bonds in the Alachua County jail. Tenbrink’s is $3 million.
Surprise, surprise: Two of the three were amongst the alleged “very fine people” marching with their fellow white supremacists in Charlottesville.
Tenbrink, 28, and William Fears, 30, were spotted at Charlottesville, the site of the largest white nationalist gathering in years that erupted in violence. Fears identifies himself on Twitter as “Charismatic leader of a White breeding cult” and tweeted “blood and soil,” the notorious Nazi slogan.
This is terrorism, plain and simple. It’s appalling the story isn’t getting more attention in the media.
Here are some tweets with more details on what happened.
3 white supremacists arrested in Florida for shooting at anti-racism protesters https://t.co/zn6bUBqFK3
— Vox (@voxdotcom) October 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/efoster_eric/status/921495556790325248
“Kill them”: Three men charged in shooting after Richard Spencer speech https://t.co/gqCXtWSmD3
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 20, 2017
And these three aren’t the only violent white supremacists who should be getting a lot more attention from the press — and the cops.
Who are the white supremacists assaulting people at rallies in Berkeley, Charlottesville and Huntington Beach? We found some of them: pic.twitter.com/fL5yzyI8Om
— ProPublica (@propublica) October 19, 2017
A Cali racist group—the Rise Above Movement_is full of violent felons. Law enforcement pays it little attention: https://t.co/8AFZS9HVsO
— ProPublica (@propublica) October 19, 2017
The ProPublica piece is a long one but I think a necessary read for anyone concerned with the rise of a violent fascist movement in US.
— 🏳️🌈Spacedad (@SuperSpacedad) October 20, 2017
My thoughts exactly.
Meanwhile, everyone in the White House continues to lie about Trump’s shockingly callous treatment of a grieving Gold Star mother and the congresswoman who has stood up for her.
Specifically, this entire John Kelly story is fiction. Not one bit of it actually happened. pic.twitter.com/eGSQU0S3wc
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/TVietor08/status/921452065338953729
Hey @realDonaldTrump I know how much you love calling out FAKE NEWS so here’s your daughter-in-law quoting a transcript that doesn't exist. https://t.co/TheR8FGrWY
— shauna (@goldengateblond) October 20, 2017
"He knew what he signed up for"
Kelly: I told him to say it
DJT: I didn't say it
LaraT: I saw the transcript
Sanders: There's no transcript— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) October 20, 2017
Don TrumpJr. has thrown himself into the fray though he apparently has trouble telling black women apart.
https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/921064156610088962
Rachel Maddow has a pretty convincing theory on why Trump doesn’t want to talk about Niger: that the 4 US soldiers died in part as a result of the Trump administration alienating the government of Chad, which pulled its troops out of Niger after Trump put the country (a longtime ally in the war on terror) on his alleged non-Muslim ban list for an extremely stupid reason.
Maddow connects the dots on how Trump adding Chad to his travel ban may have gotten soldiers killed in Niger https://t.co/PYk203GxVM
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) October 20, 2017
In a whole other arena of terrible, things are even worse in Puerto Rico than official reports acknowledge:
Real death toll in Puerto Rico is probably 450 — much higher than official count https://t.co/msCyhMDyyQ
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) October 18, 2017
But our country still has its heroes. Along with Rep. Wilson and all those working diligently to save lives in Puerto Rico, there is this dude:
A man in an apartment on Connecticut Ave. mooned President Trump’s motorcade to the Embassy of Kuwait tonight, per the pool report pic.twitter.com/ifGC8ycXat
— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) October 19, 2017
Here are some cute animals because we all need more of them this week. And every week these days, frankly.
everything is terrible so here’s a baby lion cub learning to roar pic.twitter.com/JZpZGj69FJ
— shauna (@goldengateblond) October 18, 2017
https://twitter.com/awwcuteness/status/921260735119970307
https://twitter.com/ItsMeowIRL/status/921245209526132742
I have been told that using the word “murder” is hyperbolic in these circumstances, but I can’t for the life of me believe it’s misplaced.
I’d call it murder.
Sincerely, VP who has 4 cats and still misses the 5 cats who have been gone for years.
@Scildfreja
Much hearts, very condolences <3
What’s the alternative? What word would they rather you use? Seems a pretty apt choice of diction to me. Also, fuck you, grief policing asshat! The day after a pet is killed is a perfectly acceptable time to be hyperbolic. You’re not, Scild, but, even if you were…
Scildfreja I’m so, so sorry. I wish I could say or do something more than send virtual hugs. I hope the shitty human being who is doing this gets found out and made to stop.
Well it was willful intent to kill so yeah. It’s murder. People can love their animals as much as they love other people, so the grief is the same.
@Scildfreja
I am so sorry to hear about the brutal loss of your dear friend.
@Scildfreja 🙁
Whoever told you that is incorrect. That is exactly what happened.
Sometimes silence really is golden.
I’m sorry Scild. Poor kitty.
Can we put pet murderers with Nazis in the okay to punch pile?
@Scildfreja
🙁 Sorry for the loss of your friend.
@Scildfreja
I’m so, so sorry to hear about that?
I think it’s murder.
To the surprise of nobody paying attention to these things:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/27/rep-jackie-speier-says-she-was-sexually-harassed-on-capitol-hill/
@Scildfreya – I’m so sorry.
Our cat Jackie was killed the same way years ago. He managed (just barely) to come home to die, and of course it was late at night and the nearest vet is 45 miles away.
Thanks, everyone <3 He used to paw at windows and peek at me from the shadows a lot, so now I'm seeing/hearing him everywhere. So I guess I get to have a ghost kitty spookin' me around for this Hallowe'en. Not how I would want it to happen.
I have my suspicions on who might have done it, an "upstanding member of the community" whom I privately know is much less nice than his public face. To put it delicately. Not much to do about it but keep my other kitty indoors (poor thing is despondent) and warn others for their pets.
🙁
Can’t you report this asshole to the police?
Proving it was him is almost impossible, so I am not hopeful on anything being done legally. It’s a miserable circumstance for everyone, really. One more cruelty on the pIle.
I suspect that there is a pretty big overlap between animal torturers and nazis, though, and highly encourage the punching of both.
@ scildfreja
Very much so.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4040272/Donald-Trump-throwing-fundraiser-sons-donors-shooting-Donald-s-sons.html
@Scildfreja
My heart was already hurting for you for the loss of your kittie. Then you shared the circumstances.
I don’t believe in hell, but I’m fully prepared to make an exception for the perpetrator, so that s/he can rot there.
Hugs, as and when you require them.
@Pee Vee
I need to practice, the commentators in your link will do nicely.
Brony, good luck.
Here’s a link that @laurenluca shared, that pissed me off greatly:
https://www.vice.com/amp/en_ca/article/pa3gdn/judge-said-sex-assault-complainant-was-overweight-and-probably-flattered-by-attention
@Scildfreja All the hugs.
My cat is 16 years old, with no teeth, kidney trouble, a full cataract in one eye and the beginnings of one in the other and I still hope she’ll make it to Christmas, at least.
@Pee Vee
I’m sort of toying with the hypothesis that Tourette’s Syndrome confers benefits with respect to shaming. On the down side I’m sensitive to novel social environments. It’s the conservative, militaristic authoritarian upbringing, that has consequences. I don’t know how to feel about this. My life has been harsh for the last decade and I’m working on the aftereffects in therapy.
@Scildfreja,
So sorry about your baby (mine are all babies no matter what age they are).
That’s heartbreaking. Agree with others re: adding pet killers to the punching pile ???
@Pee Vee
Ick, body bigotry. I’ve yet to formulate effective responses to them. I have memories from Ponychan that suck from them. I had to manage kinds of conflicts in my stress and I still feel bad about saying as little as I did.
“Can we put pet murderers with Nazis in the okay to punch pile?”
Yes: