Opinion: Fear not. Venice is back to being racist again
It was becoming a tad worrisome. You know, the way everything had been so quiet on the racial discrimination and anti-Semitic front in Venice lately. Good thing Alexander Lightner came along to uphold the city's repugnant reputation.
According to a criminal complaint, FBI agents allege the 26-year-old Venice resident recently posted comments online that were "intended to convey the message that he was planning to conduct a racially or ethnically motivated mass casualty event."
Here were some of the statements Lightner posted:
"Highscore shall be defeated."
"In 2024 there shall be saints."
"It’s over, you have not seen the wrath of the Aryan that has no purpose left."
It's important to learn what those words mean. FBI agents believe "highscore" is a reference to a "death toll amassed by an attacker who commits acts of mass violence." Meanwhile, a "saint" is an individual who commits an act of violence "in furtherance of white supremacist or accelerationist goals."
FBI agents also found multiple firearms in Lightner's house, the caliber of ammunition matching what he wrote in his Internet posts, and a silencer in his hamper.
They also pulled out Venice's dirty laundry.
Yes, just when you thought Venice had changed its detestable ways and escaped the ugly shadow of its racist past, along comes our hero Alexander Lightner to save the day. What is it with this place? It never changes.
Years ago, Venice used to be known as a "Sundown Town," according to a database kept by Tougaloo College in Mississippi. That meant Black people were not allowed inside city limits at night. There were only 22 such towns in Florida.
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More recently, a pair of lawsuits involving city employees exposed how ugly Venice – which is 89.7% white and .8% Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau – really is.
City parks worker James Williamson filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in 2015 and settled for $195,000 five years later.
Williamson alleged a coworker hung a noose in the workplace, and an internal investigation – get this – concluded: "We don't believe the worker intended any malice."
Williamson also alleged that his superiors used a racial slur in referring to him when it came to trash duties.
Kenite Webb, a Black man who worked for the Venice Police Department, alleged in a lawsuit that he was the subject of racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation by the department and that former Chief Tom Mattmuller did nothing about it. A jury sided with him in 2022.
Among Webb's allegations was a coworker put a banana in the trunk of his police car so he would find it. Webb also claimed that someone threw a banana at his car when he was off-duty and his daughter was with him. He took down the license plate, reported it to the VPD and nothing happened.
He also alleged someone called him at work and said used a racial slur in making a threat.
On the anti-Semitic side of things, there have been some doozies as well. In 2022, former mayor Ron Feinsod, who is Jewish, received emails that contained slurs, including one that told him to go "kill himself." Apparently, they don't like mayors in Venice.
That same year, hundreds of Venice Island residents received anti-Semitic brochures in plastic bags thrown in their driveways, and in 2023, someone painted a swastika on the side of a Venice Walgreens.
Back to the recent allegations against Alexander Lightner, the gentleman who may have been planning a "mass casualty event" in the name of white supremacy.
Some folks may be wondering: "How can such a thing happen here in Venice?"
Do you really have to ask?
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice just can't shake its racist reputation
