MARQUETTE, MI-- Social media posts from the secretary of the Marquette County Republican Party about protests that turned violent in Berkeley, California are causing an uproar.
On Thursday Dan Adamini tweeted, “Time for another Kent State, perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.”
The Ohio National Guard shot and killed four students at Kent State in 1970 during a Vietnam War protest.
Jason Chapman is chair of the Marquette County Democratic Party. He says Adamini’s comments are inexcusable.
“I think it’s highly irresponsible for an officer of the Marquette County Republican Party to suggest that authorities kill anyone to suppress free speech and quell protests,” he says. “I find it disgusting.”
Adamini says he admits his posts were poorly worded, but he never meant to say protestors should be killed.
“My intent was to draw a correlation between the riots of the 60s and the violence of the protestors today. And if the violence doesn’t stop, we might see the same tragic end we saw at Kent State, and that would be awful.”
Chapman says Adamini should apologize for his comments.
Adamini has removed the post from his Facebook page.
