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Blasier responds to recall effort

ESCANABA — Escanaba Council Member Ralph Blasier responded Thursday to a petition seeking his recall over comments he made at a recent city council meeting about shooting rioters at the city’s upcoming Independence Day fireworks display.

During the June 4 city council meeting, Blasier read from a “press release” he drafted to outline rules for social distancing at the event. The last paragraph of the four paragraph statement shifted from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the event to how the city would address violent protesters.

“‘Any person throwing objects at police, shooting at anyone, looting and setting fires will be shot in both legs and left lying there till dawn, and at dawn, each person will need to crawl to the hospital,'” Blasier read before pausing and adding, “I mean, this text for your public announcement, people might want to alter it some. This is just the first draft. If I were alone in charge of the city, this is what I would publish, but I can see where some people might, change it a little bit.”

Blasier apologized for the statement the next day.

“During the June fourth City Council meeting, I made it clear that the fourth paragraph in my statement about fireworks on July 3 was intended as humor. Obviously, many people did not think it was as funny as I did. I apologize to anyone and everyone who was offended,” wrote in a statement sent to the Daily Press. “On the other hand, it is the same advice that presidential-candidate Biden gave two days earlier. I think that’s where I got the idea.”

On June 1, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden suggested cops should be trained to shoot assailants in the legs while speaking to the African American Community Monday at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Del.

“Instead of standing there and teaching a cop when there’s an unarmed person coming at them with a knife or something, shoot them in the leg instead of the heart. There’s a lot of different things that can change,” Biden said at the event.

Outcry over Blasier’s statement resulted in an online petition for his removal from the council that has amassed more than 2,100 signatures and the submission of formal recall petition language to the Delta County Clerk.

The recall petition, submitted by Peter Gregoire of Escanaba, must go through a clarity hearing set for later this month. If the language is approved, 25 percent of Escanaba voters who cast votes in the last gubernatorial election would be required to sign the petition for it to appear on a ballot.

“The person who filed the petitions for recall is my wife’s cousin. He’s been over to our house before. I’m not going to want him in my house again, and I never really respected him because of his, in my opinion, limited intelligence,” said Blasier told the Daily Press Thursday.

Blasier said Thursday he had been getting threats, primarily in the form of voicemails. According to Blasier, the callers didn’t know what he had said in his comment, and that throwing dangerous objects at police, shooting people, looting, and arson could be stopped with potentially lethal force under Michigan law.

“I mean, I never said, ‘shoot protesters.’ I never said, ‘shoot demonstrators.’ I listed four felonies and I said ‘these four types of felonies could be stopped by shooting,'” said Blasier. “Now, the thing I said about crawling to the hospital? That was stupid. That was meant to be funny. I was playing off Biden’s joke — I mean, to me his comment was so ridiculous it was funny, and I thought, ‘we’ll he made a funny, I’ll make a funny,’ but it turned out it didn’t really work out very well.”

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