The Michigan political official who stated on social media that the country needed “another Kent State” to deal with college protesters resigned Wednesday.
Dan Adamini, the secretary of the Marquette County Republican Party, told the Detroit News that he has received hundreds of death threats since his comments made national news. He also apologized and said his comments were “horribly worded.”
“Whenever you’re involved in an organization, you want to be an asset,” Adamini told the newspaper. “At the moment I’ve become a distraction, and that’s not helping anybody. I stepped aside so hopefully the people that are so angry will feel that they’ve accomplished what they set out to do, and maybe we can all get on with our lives.”
Reacting to college protesters in California, Adamini had posted last week on Facebook: “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.”
He also tweeted on the same day: “Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.”
The Ohio National Guard shot and killed four Kent State students in 1970 during a campus protest. Nine other students were wounded. The shootings became a seminal moment in American history.
Kent State officials were outraged by Adamini’s comments.
“This abhorrent post is in poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still pains the Kent State community today,” the school said at the time.
