Kent State, Ohio, 52 Years Ago today

[jbg]

Fifty-two years ago today was The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University. I remember it so well it's almost too recent to be history. From about 1964 on, starting with the "Free Speech" movement in California and escalating to a crescendo six years later, the campuses and inner cities were ablaze. There was likely a combination of causes:

1. The Kennedy assassination(s);
2. The King Assassination;
3. The Vietnam war, both as an atrocity in itself and bringing an end to expectations of people to peacefully graduate school, and marry into an Ozzie and Harriet mode;
4. Dissatisfaction and boredom with the somnolent affluence of the 1950's and early 1960's;
5. The liberation of music with the British invasion;
6. The liberation of women, starting with Betty Friedan's writings; and
7. The Civil Rights movement.

The assassinations and rioting signified a growing unwillingness to patiently abide the democratic system. People on both sides of the spectrum were "taking to the streets." The KKK and some white southerners were rioting or committing random acts of violence against minorities. Think:

1. The Tallahatchee Bridge atrocity;
2. The killings of Schwermer, Cheney & Goodman in Mississippi;
3. Police dogs being sicced on schoolchildren; and
4. Martin Luther King's assassination

The summers of the 1960's after the 1965 Watts Riots were all "long hot summers." Starting with Berkeley and proceeding to Columbia (1968), Cornell (1969) and Kent (1970) as well as numerous others, college campuses were materially disrupted. The construction workers rioted against anti-war protesters in 1969 or 1970 in NYC. Then there were the Manson killings.

Eventually something had to give, and four teens and/or college student were killed by the Ohio Guard on May 4, 1970, two days after my Bar Mitzvah. One letter-writer wrote to the NY Times that he "loved his daughter" but if she was killed in college riots he would "feed dinner" to the Guardsman.

That guy went a little too public. However, after a brief spasm of violence, the campuses and cities quieted down. After a while, ordinary people "had enough."

 

[Heyo]

Fifty-two years ago today was The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University. I remember it so well it's almost too recent to be history. From about 1964 on, starting with the "Free Speech" movement in California and escalating to a crescendo six years later, the campuses and inner cities were ablaze. There was likely a combination of causes:

1. The Kennedy assassination(s);
2. The King Assassination;
3. The Vietnam war, both as an atrocity in itself and bringing an end to expectations of people to peacefully graduate school, and marry into an Ozzie and Harriet mode;
4. Dissatisfaction and boredom with the somnolent affluence of the 1950's and early 1960's;
5. The liberation of music with the British invasion;
6. The liberation of women, starting with Betty Friedan's writings; and
7. The Civil Rights movement.

The assassinations and rioting signified a growing unwillingness to patiently abide the democratic system. People on both sides of the spectrum were "taking to the streets." The KKK and some white southerners were rioting or committing random acts of violence against minorities. Think:

1. The Tallahatchee Bridge atrocity;
2. The killings of Schwermer, Cheney & Goodman in Mississippi;
3. Police dogs being sicced on schoolchildren; and
4. Martin Luther King's assassination

The summers of the 1960's after the 1965 Watts Riots were all "long hot summers." Starting with Berkeley and proceeding to Columbia (1968), Cornell (1969) and Kent (1970) as well as numerous others, college campuses were materially disrupted. The construction workers rioted against anti-war protesters in 1969 or 1970 in NYC. Then there were the Manson killings.

Eventually something had to give, and four teens and/or college student were killed by the Ohio Guard on May 4, 1970, two days after my Bar Mitzvah. One letter-writer wrote to the NY Times that he "loved his daughter" but if she was killed in college riots he would "feed dinner" to the Guardsman.

That guy went a little too public. However, after a brief spasm of violence, the campuses and cities quieted down. After a while, ordinary people "had enough."

Put a chemical reaction under pressure and it will erupt violently.
Put people under pressure and violence will erupt.
The development was foreseeable and I foresee more violent eruptions in the US in the near future, possibly this summer.

 

[jbg]

Put a chemical reaction under pressure and it will erupt violently.
Put people under pressure and violence will erupt.
The development was foreseeable and I foresee more violent eruptions in the US in the near future, possibly this summer.

I'm sure you have something in mind. Not sure what.

 

[Heyo]

I'm sure you have something in mind. Not sure what.

Nothing special. It's just that there are many possible things to choose from. After the last riots, some jurisdictions changed their police structure and laws, other simply ignored it. The next George Floyd is bound to happen. Some states are severely infringing on personal liberties, LGBTQ rights, abortion and censorship. And the same people pushing those laws are usually also racists and open racism seems to be in the Overton window again. About the same mix that lead to Kent State.
The Trumpists may get angry when their idol is going to jail.
And it is going to be warm, really warm, drought, food and water shortage and black outs level warm. Too much sun and heat melts your brain. Riots usually happen when it's warm, end of August.
The whole political climate is very antagonistic and there are other possible triggers like ecological catastrophes. Let another train with chemicals poison a neighborhood.
It's not rocket surgery to predict riots and it is not doom saying, just statistics.

 

[Copernicus]

Fifty-two years ago today was The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University. I remember it so well it's almost too recent to be history. From about 1964 on, starting with the "Free Speech" movement in California and escalating to a crescendo six years later, the campuses and inner cities were ablaze. There was likely a combination of causes:

1. The Kennedy assassination(s);
2. The King Assassination;
3. The Vietnam war, both as an atrocity in itself and bringing an end to expectations of people to peacefully graduate school, and marry into an Ozzie and Harriet mode;
4. Dissatisfaction and boredom with the somnolent affluence of the 1950's and early 1960's;
5. The liberation of music with the British invasion;
6. The liberation of women, starting with Betty Friedan's writings; and
7. The Civil Rights movement.

The assassinations and rioting signified a growing unwillingness to patiently abide the democratic system. People on both sides of the spectrum were "taking to the streets." The KKK and some white southerners were rioting or committing random acts of violence against minorities. Think:

1. The Tallahatchee Bridge atrocity;
2. The killings of Schwermer, Cheney & Goodman in Mississippi;
3. Police dogs being sicced on schoolchildren; and
4. Martin Luther King's assassination

The summers of the 1960's after the 1965 Watts Riots were all "long hot summers." Starting with Berkeley and proceeding to Columbia (1968), Cornell (1969) and Kent (1970) as well as numerous others, college campuses were materially disrupted. The construction workers rioted against anti-war protesters in 1969 or 1970 in NYC. Then there were the Manson killings.

Eventually something had to give, and four teens and/or college student were killed by the Ohio Guard on May 4, 1970, two days after my Bar Mitzvah. One letter-writer wrote to the NY Times that he "loved his daughter" but if she was killed in college riots he would "feed dinner" to the Guardsman.

That guy went a little too public. However, after a brief spasm of violence, the campuses and cities quieted down. After a while, ordinary people "had enough."

Were you actually going to Kent at the time? I was at Ohio State University, where IRRC demonstrations began before those at Kent. My roommate at the time had a brother going to Kent who looked just like the famous one in the photo with the buckskin jacket. Their father told my roommate that they should have shot more students, even though his son might have been one of the victims. I remember that the university built something over the site, because they didn't want anyone commemorating it.

What really happened was that demonstrators got quite emotional, and the police were not really trained to handle crowd control at the time. The gates to one of the roads were closed by a crowd of students, but it was later revealed in a trial of the supposed student instigator that two state undercover agents were identified as having participated in the act (trying to ingratiate themselves with demonstrators by showing how radical they were, I suppose). Anyway, that triggered a call for the police to come on campus, and they tried to push the crowd off campus. At one point, a few people in the jeering crowd started throwing dirt clods (and maybe stones) at the police. I saw one cop draw his weapon and swing it around menacingly at the crowd. The cop next to him in the line literally wrapped his arms around that officer to prevent him from hurting anyone. The police retreated and then stayed around the perimeter of campus. Students were calling for a campus-wide strike.

Not long after that, I woke up in the early morning to the sound of trucks racing by our apartment building. I looked outside and saw truckloads of National Guardsmen racing toward campus. Governor Rhodes had called them in and declared martial law (which he had no legal authority to do, as we learned later). Civil rights were suspended, and we weren't allowed to gather in groups of more than three. Nevertheless, demonstrations continued. Relations between students and guardsmen were not too bad, since everyone knew that most of them were in the Guard to stay out of Vietnam. However, the guardsmen at Kent apparently felt provoked, and they turned and fired their weapons (which had live ammunition!) at some of the demonstrators.

After the shootings, general strikes were called, and the demonstrations got more angry. The Guard officers actually thought it was a good idea to unsheathe their bayonets and advance on the crowd to push them back. That got even more out of control, and rioting ensued. The Guard fired teargas and pepper gas indiscriminately, even at us onlookers. A friend standing next to me was hit by a canister and got a particle from it in his eye, so we had to rush him to the clinic, which was packed with students. They even fired tear gas into a couple of dormitories. Eventually, after vowing to keep the campuses open, the administration had to shut them down. Our campus was reopened for the summer quarter.

 

[Callisto]

I heard about Kent State from a priest at my high school, he'd just been assigned as a counselor. He was younger than the other priests, big into rock music, and could hold his own on the pop culture of the time. He always walked around with a big smile and kept a pen shaped like a carrot in his breast pocket and loved to tell dad jokes (he wasn't happy until everyone was groaning). But in his office, which was really small, there was a giant poster that took up one wall, a gray background with a faint brick wall pattern and in giant bloody letters, "REMEMBER KENT STATE". Telling us about it was the only time he wasn't smiling.

 

[Colt]

Fifty-two years ago today was The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University. I remember it so well it's almost too recent to be history. From about 1964 on, starting with the "Free Speech" movement in California and escalating to a crescendo six years later, the campuses and inner cities were ablaze. There was likely a combination of causes:

1. The Kennedy assassination(s);
2. The King Assassination;
3. The Vietnam war, both as an atrocity in itself and bringing an end to expectations of people to peacefully graduate school, and marry into an Ozzie and Harriet mode;
4. Dissatisfaction and boredom with the somnolent affluence of the 1950's and early 1960's;
5. The liberation of music with the British invasion;
6. The liberation of women, starting with Betty Friedan's writings; and
7. The Civil Rights movement.

The assassinations and rioting signified a growing unwillingness to patiently abide the democratic system. People on both sides of the spectrum were "taking to the streets." The KKK and some white southerners were rioting or committing random acts of violence against minorities. Think:

1. The Tallahatchee Bridge atrocity;
2. The killings of Schwermer, Cheney & Goodman in Mississippi;
3. Police dogs being sicced on schoolchildren; and
4. Martin Luther King's assassination

The summers of the 1960's after the 1965 Watts Riots were all "long hot summers." Starting with Berkeley and proceeding to Columbia (1968), Cornell (1969) and Kent (1970) as well as numerous others, college campuses were materially disrupted. The construction workers rioted against anti-war protesters in 1969 or 1970 in NYC. Then there were the Manson killings.

Eventually something had to give, and four teens and/or college student were killed by the Ohio Guard on May 4, 1970, two days after my Bar Mitzvah. One letter-writer wrote to the NY Times that he "loved his daughter" but if she was killed in college riots he would "feed dinner" to the Guardsman.

That guy went a little too public. However, after a brief spasm of violence, the campuses and cities quieted down. After a while, ordinary people "had enough."

The spoiled counterculture provoked a response then milked it for years!

 

[ChristineM]

The spoiled counterculture provoked a response then milked it for years!

Yeah freedom is a pain in the *** isn't it?

 

[Revoltingest]

The spoiled counterculture provoked a response then milked it for years!

Civilians have the right to provoke, eg, demonstrate,
insult, yell, be present at demonstrations.
The response of shooting to kill protesters & bystanders
is inappropriate. That's more the style of 3rd world
communist regimes & Denver police.

However, if you believe that provocation justifies
shooting into the crowd, this would mean that
government should've mowed down all the Jan 6
MAGAs. Agreed?

Who's really spoiled? Government hasn't ever been
held accountable for the massacre. Federal government
agents have absolute immunity. No guardsman was
ever convicted of any crime for killing & injuring the
unarmed protesters.
**** the government & its immunity for its wrongdoings.

 

[ChristineM]

Civilians have the right to provoke, eg, demonstrate,
insult, yell. The response of shooting to kill isn't
appropriate.
However, if you believe that provocation justifies
shooting into the crowd, this would mean that
government should've mowed down all the Jan 6
MAGAs. Agreed?

Who's really spoiled? Government hasn't ever been
held accountable for the massacre. Federal government
agents have absolute immunity. No guardsman was
ever convicted of any crime for killing & injuring the
protesters.
**** the government & its immunity for its wrongdoings.

:: Informative::

 

[Revoltingest]

:: Informative::

We should also note that "privilege" would apply
to the war mongers who resented protests of the
Viet Nam war. Most of the war mongers were
never even subject to the draft. It's quite a "privilege"
to want someone else to go fight another wasteful
needless war. So they likely wouldn't understand
our objection.

 

[Colt]

Civilians have the right to provoke, eg, demonstrate,
insult, yell, be present at demonstrations.
The response of shooting to kill protesters & bystanders
is inappropriate. That's more the style of 3rd world
communist regimes & Denver police.

However, if you believe that provocation justifies
shooting into the crowd, this would mean that
government should've mowed down all the Jan 6
MAGAs. Agreed?

Who's really spoiled? Government hasn't ever been
held accountable for the massacre. Federal government
agents have absolute immunity. No guardsman was
ever convicted of any crime for killing & injuring the
unarmed protesters.
**** the government & its immunity for its wrongdoings.

I believe that provocateurs also bear responsibility. Agitators within the crowds of events like Kent State really desire a violent reaction by the government.

An unarmed women at the Jan 6 rally was shot in the neck and killed.

 

[Colt]

We should also note that "privilege" would apply
to the war mongers who resented protests of the
Viet Nam war. Most of the war mongers were
never even subject to the draft. It's quite a "privilege"
to want someone else to go fight another wasteful
needless war. So they likely wouldn't understand
our objection.

Some Americas rooted for and relished the defeat of America in Vietnam. But they don't like to talk much about what happened on the winning side as a consequence.

 

[Revoltingest]

I believe that provocateurs also bear responsibility. Agitators within the crowds of events like Kent State really desire a violent reaction by the government.

Do you think the protesters desired to be shot & killed / injured?
Do you think government acted properly by shooting & killing / injuring?

An unarmed women at the Jan 6 rally was shot in the neck and killed.

As she was trying to break into a room.
And it wasn't known at the time that she was unarmed.
Still, by your reasoning, government should've fired
over 60 rounds (as it did at Kent State) into the crowd.

 

[Revoltingest]

Some Americas rooted for and relished the defeat of America in Vietnam. But they don't like to talk much about what happened on the winning side as a consequence.

It's good that our our defeat happened sooner than later.
Same for Afghanistan....one thing I give Biden vast credit for,
ie, ending the failed war rather than continuing the waste.

 

[Colt]

Do you think the protesters desired to be shot & killed / injured?
Do you think government acted properly by shooting & killing / injuring?

As she was trying to break into a room.
And it wasn't known at the time that she was unarmed.
Still, by your reasoning, government should've fired
over 60 rounds (as it did at Kent State) into the crowd.

No, I don't think any shots should have been fired! I believe some in the anti-war movement DID want a violent response! As I said before, they milked it for years!

Capitol Hill police are on video leading people around like it was a tour or something! very strange BUT I do hold the victim partially responsible for the actions that put her in a position to get shot in the confusion of the moment. The Left has been milking Jan 6 for a while now like it was really some big coup d’état!

 

[Revoltingest]

No, I don't think any shots should have been fired! I believe some in the anti-war movement DID want a violent response! As I said before, they milked it for years!

So the massacre is just about being "milked" by fans of violence?
Oh, dear.

Capitol Hill police are on video leading people around like it was a tour or something! very strange BUT I do hold the victim partially responsible for the actions that put her in a position to get shot in the confusion of the moment. The Left has been milking Jan 6 for a while now like it was really some big coup d’état!

Breaking into the Capitol, wanting to hang Mike Pence,
& such insurrectionist activities were far far worse than
what the Kent State demonstrators did.
So looking at the relative wrongfulness, perhaps government
should've killed several orders of magnitude more MAGAs
than Kent State students.
Interesting....MAGAs are still "milking" that single insurrectionist
who was shot (for good reason).

 

[Colt]

So the massacre is just about being "milked" by fans of violence?
Oh, dear.

Breaking into the Capitol, wanting to hang Mike Pence,
& such insurrectionist activities were far far worse than
what the Kent State demonstrators did.
So looking at the relative wrongfulness, perhaps government
should've killed several orders of magnitude more MAGAs
than Kent State students.
Interesting....MAGAs are still "milking" that single insurrectionist
who was shot (for good reason).

Not a deep thinker are you? So I will simplify it for you. Elements (that means people) within the ongoing demonstrations at Kent State (that means protest, destruction, violence that went on over several days before the National Guard was called in) wanted a violent response by the government for their own political gain (that means they could use the response to promote their agenda).


I inserted the red arrow (the one that's colored red) so you can see my point:

Wiki

Friday, May 1​

At Kent State University, a demonstration with about 500 students[12] was held on May 1 on the Commons (a grassy knoll in the center of campus traditionally used as a gathering place for rallies or protests). As the crowd dispersed to attend classes by 1 p.m., another rally was planned for May 4 to continue the protest of the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. There was widespread anger, and many protesters called to "bring the war home". A group of history students buried a copy of the United States Constitution to symbolize that Nixon had killed it.[12] A sign was put on a tree asking: "Why is the ROTC building still standing?"[13]

Trouble exploded in town around midnight when people left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at police cars and breaking windows in downtown storefronts. In the process, they broke a bank window, setting off an alarm. The news spread quickly, and several bars closed early to avoid trouble. Before long, more people had joined the vandalism.[citation needed]

By the time police arrived, a crowd of 120 had already gathered. Some people from the crowd lit a small bonfire in the street. The crowd appeared to be a mix of bikers, students, and transient people. A few crowd members threw beer bottles at the police and then started yelling obscenities at them.[citation needed] The entire Kent police force was called to duty, as well as officers from the county and surrounding communities. Kent Mayor LeRoy Satrom declared a state of emergency, called the office of Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes to seek assistance, and ordered all of the bars to be closed. The decision to close the bars early only increased tensions in the area. Police eventually succeeded in using tear gas to disperse the crowd from downtown, forcing them to move several blocks back to the campus.[9]

Saturday, May 2​

City officials and downtown businesses received threats, and rumors proliferated that radical revolutionaries were in Kent to destroy the city and university. Several merchants reported they were told that their businesses would be burned down if they did not display anti-war slogans. Kent's police chief told the mayor that according to a reliable informant, the ROTC building, the local army recruiting station, and the post office had been targeted for destruction that night.[14] There were unconfirmed rumors of students with caches of arms, plots to spike the local water supply with LSD, and of students building tunnels to blow up the town's main store.[15] Satrom met with Kent city officials and a representative of the Ohio Army National Guard. Because of the rumors and threats, Satrom feared that local officials would not be able to handle future disturbances.[9] Following the meeting, Satrom decided to call Rhodes and request that the National Guard be sent to Kent, a request granted immediately.

The decision to call in the National Guard was made at 5:00 p.m., but the guard did not arrive in town that evening until around 10 p.m. By this time, a large demonstration was underway on the campus, and the campus Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) building was burning.[16] The arsonists were never apprehended, and no one was injured in the fire. According to the report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest:

Information developed by an FBI investigation of the ROTC building fire indicates that, of those who participated actively, ---------> a significant portion weren't Kent State students. There is also evidence to suggest that the burning was planned beforehand: railroad flares, a machete, and ice picks are not customarily carried to peaceful rallies.[17]

 

[Revoltingest]

Not a deep thinker are you?

Of course not.
That would violate RF rule #10.7.

So I will simplify it for you. Elements (that means people) within the ongoing demonstrations at Kent State (that means protest, destruction, violence that went on over several days before the National Guard was called in) wanted a violent response by the government for their own political gain (that means they could use the response to promote their agenda).


I inserted the red arrow (the one that's colored red) so you can see my point:

Wiki

Friday, May 1​

At Kent State University, a demonstration with about 500 students[12] was held on May 1 on the Commons (a grassy knoll in the center of campus traditionally used as a gathering place for rallies or protests). As the crowd dispersed to attend classes by 1 p.m., another rally was planned for May 4 to continue the protest of the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. There was widespread anger, and many protesters called to "bring the war home". A group of history students buried a copy of the United States Constitution to symbolize that Nixon had killed it.[12] A sign was put on a tree asking: "Why is the ROTC building still standing?"[13]

Trouble exploded in town around midnight when people left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at police cars and breaking windows in downtown storefronts. In the process, they broke a bank window, setting off an alarm. The news spread quickly, and several bars closed early to avoid trouble. Before long, more people had joined the vandalism.[citation needed]

By the time police arrived, a crowd of 120 had already gathered. Some people from the crowd lit a small bonfire in the street. The crowd appeared to be a mix of bikers, students, and transient people. A few crowd members threw beer bottles at the police and then started yelling obscenities at them.[citation needed] The entire Kent police force was called to duty, as well as officers from the county and surrounding communities. Kent Mayor LeRoy Satrom declared a state of emergency, called the office of Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes to seek assistance, and ordered all of the bars to be closed. The decision to close the bars early only increased tensions in the area. Police eventually succeeded in using tear gas to disperse the crowd from downtown, forcing them to move several blocks back to the campus.[9]

Saturday, May 2​

City officials and downtown businesses received threats, and rumors proliferated that radical revolutionaries were in Kent to destroy the city and university. Several merchants reported they were told that their businesses would be burned down if they did not display anti-war slogans. Kent's police chief told the mayor that according to a reliable informant, the ROTC building, the local army recruiting station, and the post office had been targeted for destruction that night.[14] There were unconfirmed rumors of students with caches of arms, plots to spike the local water supply with LSD, and of students building tunnels to blow up the town's main store.[15] Satrom met with Kent city officials and a representative of the Ohio Army National Guard. Because of the rumors and threats, Satrom feared that local officials would not be able to handle future disturbances.[9] Following the meeting, Satrom decided to call Rhodes and request that the National Guard be sent to Kent, a request granted immediately.

The decision to call in the National Guard was made at 5:00 p.m., but the guard did not arrive in town that evening until around 10 p.m. By this time, a large demonstration was underway on the campus, and the campus Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) building was burning.[16] The arsonists were never apprehended, and no one was injured in the fire. According to the report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest:

Quite the wall of text.
But it changes nothing about the heinous crime
the government committed against protesters.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Nothing special. It's just that there are many possible things to choose from. After the last riots, some jurisdictions changed their police structure and laws, other simply ignored it. The next George Floyd is bound to happen. Some states are severely infringing on personal liberties, LGBTQ rights, abortion and censorship. And the same people pushing those laws are usually also racists and open racism seems to be in the Overton window again. About the same mix that lead to Kent State.
The Trumpists may get angry when their idol is going to jail.
And it is going to be warm, really warm, drought, food and water shortage and black outs level warm. Too much sun and heat melts your brain. Riots usually happen when it's warm, end of August.
The whole political climate is very antagonistic and there are other possible triggers like ecological catastrophes. Let another train with chemicals poison a neighborhood.
It's not rocket surgery to predict riots and it is not doom saying, just statistics.

Don't forget the rise in communism from the left wing.