MANITOWOC -- Some Manitowoc residents said they are sick of the reputation their city has earned lately, thanks to a controversial documentary on Netflix.
According to NBC26, a number of people are adding their names to an online petition, calling for "Making a Murderer" to be removed from the popular streaming media service.
This comes just one day after a bomb threat and two suspicious phone calls to Manitowoc police cleared city blocks around the Sheriff's Department downtown as teams used bomb-sniffing dogs to search the area.
Many in Manitowoc said are sick of their city's tarnished reputation.
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"It'd be nice if that kind of attention just... disappeared," says John Jagemann, owner of the Courthouse Pub, right next door to Wednesday night's bomb threat target.
Jagemann says he had to evacuate his sizable crowd of customers out of safety.
"It's just one of those disturbing things for any city," adds Jagemann.
Jagemann supports the petition and says it's not about the documentary, adding certain questions it raises have their place.
Rather, he says he's concerned about the constant potential for new viewers on Netflix who binge watch and make snap judgments.
"My concern and my fear is that it's just going to go on and on," says Jagemann, expecting another busy night, "And there's nothing we can do about it."
And others agree.
The author of the petition says "we're not saying he's guilty, not saying he's innocent...We just want our city back."
As of 8 a.m. Friday, the petition had 639 signatures.
The author also references the bomb threats, and several death threats directed at everyone from the Sheriff, to the D.A.'s office.
"We even had a threat directed towards our historical society," says Manitowoc Police Capt. Larry Zimney. "There's people from obviously out of the area that are directing threats toward anything that pretty much has the word 'Manitowoc' attached to it."
Regardless of people's opinions on the Avery case, Jagemann says one thing is certain: the Netflix documentary is stirring up more tourism.
