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
@everyone, re the NRA video and everything else that’s shite at the moment
Things are not great down here either; goddamn homophobes are everywhere as we undergo this stupid public vote on marriage equality, and our treatment of asylum seekers reaches new heights of cruelty every day (those are just my top two examples).
Like TheKND said, it honestly feels like a sick parody. You all take care, ok?
I have this Green Day song on a permanent cycle right now:
https://youtu.be/9cVJr3eQfXc
ETA: not sure it’s embedding – oops
Wish people would stop calling them neo Nazi.
THERE’S NOTHING NEW ABOUT THEM! IT’S THE SAME.
OLD.
SHIT.
Sorry.
May the idiots be dealt with to the fullest extent of justice.
@Shadowplay,
That sort of reminds me of the recent “Man with swastika shirt” / “Man with swastika tattoos”
Nazi. There’s a word for it!
@James Hutchings,
Richard Preston was denied bail, and had his next court appearance on October 9th, but I don’t know what happened.
Shocker, Neo-Nazi’s lie, particularly about violence. Two of the shooters spoke to CNN between Spencer’s speech and the shooting, they blamed violence on the left and the media. Then you know, tried to murder someone.
http://ktla.com/2017/10/20/white-nationalists-shot-at-protestors-after-richard-spencers-speech-at-university-of-florida-police/
@Shadowplay
THIS.
Honestly, it’s like we regressed to the 1950s when Trump was campaigning, and ever since he was elected his supporters said:
“Nah, you know what? This still isn’t racist enough for me. Let’s dial back the clock to the 1930s, and add a dash of economic anguish on top of that.”
@PeeVee:
Thanks.
@Diego, @Mish
It is infuriating. Both the actual behaviour/beliefs of the scumbags AND the tendancy of the media to sanitize them behind different labels. It’s not right. Don’t accept the scum’s damned narrative!
@Sandra
Thank you for the smile your last sentence gave (and really sorry about the crap you experienced in the rest of the post). It reminded me of a friend – when her boobs came in (and it seemed pretty sudden) I had a 40 year old woman leaping around the room like she were channelling Tigger, shouting “Boobies!!” 🙂
@Sandra
Congrats
@Everyone
Thanks
@Shadowplay in particular
Yeah, that’s basically me right now, except I’m not saying it because my parents would think I’m weirder.
On politics:
I hate that I have to watch the government systematically work towards the destruction of me and people I care for while a jeering mob chants for my head. At least that’s what it feels like. I’m paying attention, I’m just basically out of intelligent things to say about it. It needs to stop. It has to stop.
@IgnoreSandra – I’m very very happy for you for your steps forward (being correctly gendered, BOOBIES) and I really hope that very soon you don’t even have think twice about using the women’s bathroom. It’s yours, too!
I would assume the “charismatic” in “Charismatic leader of a White breeding cult” is referring to Charismatic Christianity.
Re: “breeding cult” and women in basement, looks like fears has at least tried to host someone in his basement.
http://www.gainesville.com/news/20171020/three-charged-in-shooting-after-spencer-talk?start=2
Also looks like that particular jail had plenty of POC – as American jails reportedly do – as well as generally toxic and maladjusted social environment. Must be scary for someone who’s used to being the toughest guy in a room of normal, civilized, racist white people.
Ohmigosh I just can’t take the world today.
So they’ve started shooting into crowds, but it’s those libs that are the violent ones. And of course they brag about having a breeding cult. “Lookit me, I’m a big dong with a harem and I don’t afraid of anythin’.”
Ugh.
I’m really happy for you, Sandra! That’s great!
I’m a Floridian. I’m just glad the cops in Gainesville managed to arrest these Nazis before they killed anybody, rather than after, as is usually the case. I don’t know why the University of Florida let them in this time, when they’d already rejected an earlier request by Spencer’s gang this summer, on the grounds that they knew there was going to be violence and the First Amendment doesn’t oblige them to put their students or property in danger…
…But it’s Florida. Nobody here bothers to make a good decision twice in a row.
(Also, Mr. Futrelle, look out: typo in your first sentence!)
@Sandra: Congrats!
Lately I’ve beeb talking to my grandfather who was 8 when the Nazis occupied Greece, his homeland.
It really is the same old thing. And based on his experiences I do absolutely advocate violence against Nazis.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-deputies-florida-man-had-arsenal-aerial-footage-of-schools-note-promising-bloody-revenge-20171020-story.html
Keep telling us It’s the brown people who are the terrorists, you fucking asshole politicians.
Looks like the NRA just want to declare open season on antifa, and goodness knows who else. :/
Tfw people who think breeding cults need to be a thing also think they represent the pinnacle of humanity.
Anyway, here’s a video of porcupine eating a pumpkin:
Now, normally I would say “Don’t talk with your mouth full” but in Teddy’s case I’ll make an exception.
I didn’t have any idea what noise a porcupine made, but I still am surprised it’s that one.
@Sandra
Congrats. I didn’t know you were trans, but if it makes a difference when I answered you in other threads, I coded you as female in my mind, not just because of your name, but because of the tone of your thoughts.
@Everyone Else
Gang – what on earth are we going to do about all of this? And all of the other terrible things happening? And the good people seem so isolated from each other it is difficult to know how to make our strength and voice heard in a way that makes a real difference. I am so tired of just complaining, but I honestly don’t know quite what to do.
Charismatic Christians are, in my experience, not racists. It’s a pretty inclusive movement. I think this guy is making a bad, not-funny attempt at self-parody. I’m very glad no one got shot, and that these assholes are in jail. Hope they stay there forever.