![]() Today I’m concluding my four-episode series on campus ministries. “But we forget that there is a world outside of Gainesville that may not be as safe for us all.”Ĭontact Lily Kino at lkino. “The majority of UF is progressive and accepting of on campus,” Hamilton said. “I feel like it would be naive for people to think otherwise.”Įven though he thinks the world has grown to be more open-minded and the community he surrounds himself with accepts him, there are still spaces he doesn’t feel safe in, he said. “I think it’s most definitely a hate crime,” Hamilton said. Kyle Hamilton, a 20-year-old UF public health and women’s studies junior, is sure of the reason behind the attack on the Pride Community Center. “I think there can be a change of heart when there's a change of understanding,” Perry-Lunardo said. “I disagree with a lot that goes on in the world, but I don't go throwing rocks and hateful notes, and I think it's because that's not what's in my heart,” Perry-Lunardo said.Īs for what can be done to prevent further hate-motivated attacks, Perry-Lunardo will work to educate people around her. Pride Center President Tamara Perry-Lunardo is confident the attack on her center was motivated by hate, disagreement or maybe even fear, she said.īut even more so, it comes down to what’s going on with somebody individually, she said. That’s why, Maggio said, he believes the attack was targeted. “Within a two-month stretch of the Democratic Party having their window smashed in, and the Pride Center - which is devoted to gay rights - having a window smashed in, seems logically connected to me,” Maggio said.Įvery other office in the complex on Northwest Eighth Avenue was left untouched, except for that of the Alachua County Democratic Party. Maggio assumes the vandalism was motivated by hate and may even be linked to other incidents, he said. However, Alachua County Democratic Party chair J. The vandalism at Alachua County Democratic Party and at Planned Parenthood aren’t being investigated as hate crimes because the groups targeted don’t fit the criteria of a protected group. As of Sunday afternoon, FDLE hasn’t responded as to whether the antisemitic message at the Florida-Georgia game or the attack toward the National Pan-Hellenic Council Garden are being investigated by the agency as hate crimes. The antisemitic flyers are being investigated as a hate crime, GPD spokesperson Lisa Scott said. It’s taught, it’s sheared, and the root of it needs to be eradicated from our midst.” “The answer to antisemitism hate and bias is education,” he said. Goldman insists Gainesville’s Jewish community remains unified and works to teach others about the importance of educating themselves about different cultures. “We’ve received a phone call today and many others from parents and students who are fearful of attending Chabad UF’s Friday night services - something they do each week,” he said. 29 projection of an antisemitic message on the Jacksonville stadium after the Florida-Georgia game, Rabbi Berl Goldman, director of Lubavitch Chabad UF - a Jewish organization on campus - has received hundreds of texts, emails and phone calls in support of his community.īut a message he received Friday concerned him. “But because of these incidents…we can’t let our guard down.” “There’s this perception that Gainesville is this pretty inclusive, welcoming environment,” they said. These incidents are making impacted groups reconsider their idea of Gainesville values, UF Pride Student Union Treasurer Oscar Santiago Perez said. “The repeated malicious actions towards our Council, a predominantly Black community on campus, and the bare minimum response by the University are unacceptable,” the National Pan-Hellenic Council wrote in a statement posted on its social media Nov. Since the vandalism at the National Pan-Hellenic Council Garden, the council has called upon UF to do more to protect “one of few spaces on campus.” Most recently, the National Pan-Hellenic Council Garden, located on the North Lawn near Marston Science Library on UF’s campus, was vandalized for the third time since the garden opened two years ago, with letters removed from four of nine monuments honoring Black fraternities and sororities. GPD can not yet reveal the note’s content because of the active investigation. That same weekend, Planned Parenthood’s Gainesville office was vandalized, and a note was left behind. The Pride Center attack and the dropping of the antisemitic flyers were both shared to FBI agents and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, according to GPD.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |