Michigan Republican Dan Adamini resigned from his position after he tweeted about UC Berkeley protesters, suggesting that they should be shot.
The tweet referred to the Kent State Shootings in 1970 and received criticism from the Michigan Republicans, Democrats and Kent State officials.
“Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery,” Adamini wrote in his tweet.
But after posting the tweet, Adamini resigned from his position as secretary of the Marquette County Republican Party and apologized in an interview with The Detroit Free Press. Adamini said in the interview that he poorly expressed his intentions and that he wanted to stop the violence of the protesters, not encourage violence upon them.
Campus spokesperson Roqua Montez said in an email that the campus was aware of Adamini’s tweet, adding that he heard that Adamini had closed his Twitter and Facebook accounts following the controversy.
“We condemn violence in all its forms, whether on campus or in our communities,” Montez said in his email. “Nothing good ever comes of it. Rather, we desire a society built upon peace.”
ASUC Senator Rigel Robinson said he was alarmed by the way people are talking about the Milo Yiannopoulos protest. He added that for all the conversation about freedom of speech, he believes people should also respect the freedom of assembly.
Robinson said Adamini shouldn’t have grouped all the protesters together as a collective, explaining that there has been a lot of misconceptions about who started the violence.
“For people that weren’t here, there are a lot of misconceptions about what’s going on,” Robinson said. “Regardless of factual inaccuracies and misconceptions, anyone suggesting that students should be hurt should be alarming.”
Berkeley College Republicans Treasurer David Craig said he thought that Adamini’s tweet does not represent the platform of the GOP and a majority of Republicans.
Craig said the violent protesters should face reasonable consequences, not the consequences implied by Adamini’s tweet. He added that Adamini made the right choice in resigning because Adamini cannot serve as a public employee and advocate such violence.
“As violent as these protesters were, since they were not attempting to deal lethal damage, lethal damage should not be headed their way,” Craig said. “Any public employee who advocates extrajudicial killings ought to resign because that’s just unacceptable.”
