A county Republican leader in Michigan is under fire for seeming to suggest in his social media posts there should be a Kent State type of crackdown on violent protests like the one that erupted at a university in California last week.
But in an interview Sunday with the Detroit Free Press, Dan Adamini, the secretary of the Marquette County Republican Party, said he apologizes, supports peace and was merely trying to prevent further violence and hatred.
The Marquette resident said that he has received death threats and been harassed by people outraged over his remarks that refer to the 1970 shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University in Ohio by the Ohio National Guard. Nine other students were wounded in what many consider a turning point in public opinion about the Vietnam War.
Adamini, 56, tweeted Thursday after violent disturbances at the University of California-Berkley shut down plans for a senior editor at the far-right website Breitbart to speak on campus.
“Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery," Adamini tweeted.
In a separate Facebook post, Adamini wrote: "I'm thinking that another Kent State might be the only solution...They do it because they know there are no consequences yet."
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