By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- A township trustee is under fire follow his comments regarding a recent local protest.
At Monday’s township board of trustees meeting, five residents spoke about the response trustee Bob Marshall had to the anti-racism rally on M-15 on June 6.
The rally, like many protests and riots across the nation, was in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer. The Black Lives Matter movement has been at the forefront of many protests and riots in larger cities, and the police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck has been charged with second-degree murder, while three other police officers have been charged with felonies as well in connection with the case, and all four have been fired.
Marshall made a Facebook post, stating he was disappointed in the 30 residents on M-15 supporting Black Lives Matter, which he called a hate group.

He stated that Black Lives Matter seeks to target police officers for harm or death, and that all lives matter.
“When I read Bob Marshall’s post about being disappointed in me for attending a peaceful gathering meant to oppose racial injustices and support any person of color in our community, I was appalled and insulted,” said Rebecca Bezemek, one of the residents who spoke at the meeting. “We should be disappointed in him because not only is much of what Bob said utterly false, but as a trustee in our township he would rather publicly slander his constituents instead of reaching out to ask us questions.”
Some of the residents who spoke called for Marshall to retract his statements and resign as a township trustee, though Marshall said he would do neither.
“I clearly stated, several places in the posting, that all lives matter,” said Marshall. “I, and every other police officer I’ve heard talking about it, thinks what happened to Mr. George Floyd was the absolutely most abhorrent thing you’d have ever seen. Absolutely, without a doubt, passing a $20 dollar bill is not a capital crime that you should have your life taken for.”
Marshall, a former police officer of 30 years, stated that many of the Black Lives Matter protests he has seen have been calling for death of police officers.
“I’ve gone to tons of them, tons of police funerals. They suck,” he said. “A lot of people are saying, ‘you’re more concerned about the blue than the color of somebody’s skin.’ All lives matter. You cannot tell me Black Lives Matter is not a hate group, when they march and as they march, they chant, ‘pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon’ and ‘what do we want, dead cops, when do we want them, now.’”