Very cool, very normal:

metrotimes.com

An anti-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer group on Facebook devolved into a vile platform that promoted violence against Democrats and Muslims and churned out degrading comments about women.

But on Friday afternoon, the group’s creator deactivated the page in response to questions from Metro Times.

The public group, “People vs Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,” was rapidly growing, attracting nearly 9,000 conservatives of all kinds - elected officials, veterans, firefighters, law enforcement officers, educators, pastors, business owners, political candidates, militia members, blue-collar workers, and your garden variety trolls.

Metro Times identified dozens of recent posts promoting or threatening violence, primarily against Whitmer, U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Elissa Slotkin, American Muslims, and Dearborn. Hundreds of comments were posted each day, and many included vulgar insults against women, Muslims, Democrats, and LGTBQ+ communities.

Tlaib, who is a Muslim American from Detroit, was a common target of the vitriol.

“She needs a bullet between her eyes,” Spencer Hayward wrote.

Carl Wilhelm Sr. posted, “How many teeth you figure you could knock out with one swipe with a baseball bat.”

Mike Nixon suggested, “set that bitch on fire.”

In an exchange about a photo showing Tlaib posing with the Palestinian flag, group members called for the congresswoman’s death.

“Die bitch,” Gerald Carter wrote.

Jeannie Percy added, “I wish someone would find this b**** in a dark alley.”

Tommy D’avignon followed up: “Death to this bitch and her voters.”

These are just a few examples of the hostile comments that fill the grammar-challenged page every day.

“We overflood them with imminent death threats, until it stops, one way or another,” Michael Dearing explained to the group.

The creator of the page, Charlie Gillett, admits the “group has spun out of control” and told Metro Times he shut down the page to avoid repercussions at his job as a machine tool electrician in Sterling Heights if his identity is revealed in this story. (He’s listed publicly as the administrator and creator of the page on Facebook.)

But Gillett had done little, if anything, to stop the threats and posts promoting violence, and blamed the anger on Democrats.

“People promote violence I can’t do anything to stop them. I can block them, ban them, report them but don’t matter,” Gillett told Metro Times in a statement. “Do I agree with it. Some of it no some of it yes. Do I think it gets to far yes most definitely. But for it to stop id have to shut the group down. Then where would people be able to have their voices be heard. Everyone has opinions and not everyone agrees with everyone’s point of view.”

Joshua Doan, who was the group’s co-administrator, told Metro Times he was recruited by Gillett to help launch the page and regrets getting involved. He said he wasn’t monitoring the page closely because his primary role was to get the page started.

“I do not support or align with those people in the group,” Doan said. “The only reason I am an admin is to clean it up. I may not be doing the best job. But I am doing the best I can with the time I have. The group is not a very big focus point in my life.”

On Thursday evening, Doan alerted the group that he would remove racist and threatening posts, which incensed group members.

“Where can I join a militia?” Stacie Rose Laesch responded.

A member provided an email address.

By Friday morning, Doan said Gillett removed him as an administrator, giving him no control to delete threats as they continued to stream in.

“It’s so awful,” Doan told Metro Times. “These people are so scared and uneducated.” [article continues—does not get better]