A group of neo-Nazi activists protested on Wednesday in Cocoa, Fla., in Brevard County about 45 miles southwest of Orlando, during a speech given by state Rep. Randy Fine (R-District 33).
Fine, who is Jewish, has introduced HB269 legislation in Florida that criminalizes targeting Jews and other minorities.
One of the half-dozen men reportedly waved an antisemitic flier in Fine’s face and demanded to know what claim printed on it was false.
“He then proceeds to unleash a stream of invective about Jews and wanted to know why I wouldn’t debate him,” Fine said.
The men’s shirts bore the letters “GDL”—the initials of the antisemitic hate group the Goyim Defense League—atop a black “Totenkopf,” the skull symbol utilized by the SS division of the German Nazi Party.
Deputies from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene, and the men dispersed. Fine said he has not decided about whether to file charges; he was untouched in the encounter but a “little shaken up,” he acknowledged.
The Goyim Defense League has raised its national profile in recent years by dropping anti-Jewish fliers in suburban neighborhoods and protesting in public, including above major highways in Los Angeles and Orlando, Fla., and even at the entrance of Disney World.
