After a handful of masked rioters interrupted a massive peaceful protest at UC-Berkeley over Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ scheduled speech, the university listened to their student populace and cancelled the speech for safety reasons. Now a Michigan GOP lawmaker is calling for “another Kent State” to use bullets to stop protesters – or, as he called it, “thuggery.”

Marquette County Republican Party secretary and former Chair Dan Adamini made those remarks and isn’t backing down as of four hours ago when he proclaimed that those calling him out for seeking the murder of peaceful protesters is “lots of hate coming from the tolerant left.”

In his original remarks made both on Facebook and Twitter, Adamini referenced the infamous 1970 Kent State incident in which the Ohio National Guard shot at and killed students protesting war. Four died while nine were critically injured – one of which was paralyzed for life.

On Facebook Adamini wrote:

“The violent protests at our universities certainly indicates Portage acacian at the lower level. I’m thinking another Kent State might be the only solution protest stopped after only one death. They do it because they know there are no consequences yet.”

And on Twitter he said:

“Violent protesters who shut down free speech?Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.”

For those wondering, “portage acacian” apparently means ‘poor education’ according to Adamini.

Adamini has since deleted the postings and made his personal Facebook page private due to outrage over calling for the murder of innocent protesters. His Facebook (professional radio) & public Twitter pages are still active, however.

Responding to outcry over his call to murder Adamini offered a disingenuous defense arguing:

“What I was trying to get across, apparently very poorly, is that the violence at the college campus in Berkeley was reminiscent of the violence on college campuses in the ’60s. I fear that if we cannot get a handle on the violence, we might see the same type of tragic end.”

He added, “My fear is that if the violence doesn’t stop, that will be the solution. I was not calling for violence against the protesters. I was calling for a stop to the violence by the protesters.”

Essentially, Adamini is arguing that he called for a stop to violence by a handful of rioters (who actually attacked many peaceful protesters) by citing the murder of innocent protesters by police.

Marquette County Democratic Party chair Jason Chapman responded to the social media postings with disgust commenting, “It’s highly irresponsible for an officer of the Marquette County Republican Party to suggest that authorities kill anyone.” He added, “I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt,’ but then I looked on Twitter and it was pretty apparent to me he meant what he said in plain English. It’s not a matter to joke about. It would be a disastrous result.”

Despite that, Adamini stood by his defense on Facebook stating:

I posted earlier today that the violent riots at Berkely were reminiscent of the riots at kent state, and that the result was likely to be the same… after the deaths at Kent state the protests ended. People interpreted my statement as calling for the death of protesters… to be fair, I used the word solution rather than result, and I understand the reason people believed I was actually hoping & calling for the death of protesters, but that was not what the post said and that was not the intent. I do predict that this will not end well for us… I don’t beleive the protests will stop until something terrible happens… like it did at Kent State. there was a lot of sharing, posting , anger and even hatred pointed my way. Even after clarification, the hatred didn’t stop so I did remove the post, but I do believe unless the protesters stop the violence, violence by police or national guard will be the result.

Once again, taking him at his word, Adamini expects the end result of peaceful protests (whether interrupted by rioters or otherwise) to be murder at the hands of others. Using Kent State as his example offers an Orwellian (Trumpian?) view of that, in fact. Michigan’s ABC 10 reported on the incident noting: Adamini is the secretary for the Marquette County GOP and has a radio show, ‘In The Right Mind’ that airs Saturday morning on WDMJ and WIAN in Marquette. We reached out to both outlets, who released statements about Adamini’s comments. Brendan Biolo, the chair for the Marquette County GOP, said, “We would never advocate for violence. No one is for physical violence.” Sovereign Communications, which airs Admini’s radio show, said, “Dan’s show is an independent show. His views do not express the views of Sovereign Communications.” Adamini – who also works as an outspoken conservative right wing radio host – has a history of making provocative and inflammatory statements. Just under a month ago, in fact, he criticized civil rights icon John Lewis. “John Lewis: ‘I don’t see Trump as a legitimate president’: http://aol.it/2j8XpTP via @AOL. Too many blows to the Head during protests?” he said on Twitter. Moreover, his statements against UC-Berkeley protesters don’t make a lot of sense in the context of the actual events. Approximately 1,500 peaceful protesters showed up at the university to speak out against the scheduled Milo Yiannopoulos speech. At some point during that peaceful protest, Around 150 masked rioters moved in on the crowd, began vandalizing property and terrorizing students and protesters alike. Moreover, many who actually attended the protest believe the rioters were sent in to purposefully disrupt the peaceful protest and portray liberals as violent. Speaking to Don Lemon on CNN, UC-Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explained, “I was there for part of last night, and I know what I saw and those people were not Berkeley students. Those people were outside agitators. I have never seen them before.” “There’s rumors that they actually were right-wingers. They were a part of a kind of group that was organized and ready to create the kind of tumult and danger you saw that forced the police to cancel the event,” Reich added. “So Donald Trump, when he says Berkeley doesn’t respect free speech rights, that’s a complete distortion of the truth.” Lemon pressed him on the matter asking if it was actually organized by right-wing operatives or even Milo Yiannopoulos himself. “I wouldn’t bet against it,” Reich responded. “I saw these people. They all looked very…almost paramilitary. They were not from the campus. I don’t want to say factually, but I’ve heard there was some relationship here between these people and the right-wing movement that is affiliated with Breitbart News.” But that’s where we are now. The editor of a publication that caters to white nationalists and neo-Nazis is met with massive peaceful protest until masked, un-related rioters conveniently show up to portray the entire situation as a violent rally. Conservatives across the board – including Donald Trump – use those 150 unrelated rioters to portray the 1,500 peaceful protesters as dangerous, violent liberals attempting to shut down free speech. Trump threatens the very institution itself for the acts of those with no affiliation to the university. And then a GOP lawmaker calls for the murder of protesters and only backtracks when people notice and call him out for it. And though he rightfully backtracked on murdering protesters “Kent State” style, Adamini believes outrage over his call to murder innocent protesters engaging in First Amendment protected speech and assembly is “lots of hate coming from the tolerant left.” You can reach Adamini to express your polite opinion on his “Kent State” opinion via Twitter, Facebook, or through the Marquette County Republican Party Facebook page.

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Peacock Panache readers:

Tim Peacock is the Managing Editor and founder of Peacock Panache and has worked as a civil rights advocate for over twenty years. During that time he’s worn several hats including leading on campus LGBTQ advocacy in the University of Missouri campus system, interning with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and volunteering at advocacy organizations. You can learn more about him at his personal website.

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