Kent State, Ohio, 52 Years Ago today

[Copernicus]

It sounds to me like the "demonstrators" were creating a dangerous situation that no one was really equipped or trained to handle.

The demonstrations were going on continually before Nixon expanded the war, but his announcement on April 30 had very predictable consequences. There had been hope for a peace settlement leading up to that event. Since the police and National Guard were not really trained or equipped for crowd control, they only exacerbated the danger. The frequent attacks on crowds of chanting demonstrators and their tactic of trying to push them away with unsheathed bayonets and tear gas got so bad that much of the faculty and student body called off classes on campus. Our classes that were not cancelled were held in the homes of professors. Ultimately, the campus had to be shut down for the remainder of the quarter.

Maybe I'm stupid but they call that a strike? I call it a riot. A strike is the organized withholding of labor from an employer as a negotiating tool. And how does someone "strike" a university? Are they striking against their parents who are paying tuition, or against the government for subsidizing it.

Students call a strike by walking out of classes and the faculty ended up largely supporting them after the Kent State shootings. This had nothing to do with parents paying tuition or subsidies from the government. It had to do with the government forcibly conscripting young men in order to meet manpower requirements and the public seeing all those body bags and the horrors of war from the front lines. Because Nixon's act actually made the situation worse in Vietnam, student deferments were ended in 1971, but students who graduated were often forcibly drafted before then after their undergraduate education ended.

To repeat myself, it sounds to me like the "demonstrators" were creating a dangerous situation that no one was really equipped or trained to handle. Were they going to destroy property and the right of uninvolved students to learn and take final exams?

It may seem sensible to blame the students for their behavior, but you have to understand that riots are never planned by demonstrators. They can be triggered by radicals intent on stirring up trouble or government agents provocateurs intent on infiltrating the movement and discrediting it. We had both in those days. Most people who join demonstrations do so to express their frustration, not to destroy property or harm security deployed to maintain order. That happens as emotions build and people on both sides get angry and frightened. There are always a few people who will start throwing things and acting in a provocative way, so crowd control requires a great deal of discipline and fortitude by government forces. Neither the police nor the Guard had much of that, but they did believe that a display of force would cause the demonstrators to sober up and settle down. It had the opposite effect. Firing tear gas at a crowd can disperse them, but more and more of the retreating crowd will start trying to retaliate by throwing rocks or picking up canisters and flinging them back at the people firing them.

 

[Revoltingest]

The demonstrations were going on continually before Nixon expanded the war, but his announcement on April 30 had very predictable consequences. There had been hope for a peace settlement leading up to that event. Since the police and National Guard were not really trained or equipped for crowd control, they only exacerbated the danger. The frequent attacks on crowds of chanting demonstrators and their tactic of trying to push them away with unsheathed bayonets and tear gas got so bad that much of the faculty and student body called off classes on campus. Our classes that were not cancelled were held in the homes of professors. Ultimately, the campus had to be shut down for the remainder of the quarter.



Students call a strike by walking out of classes and the faculty ended up largely supporting them after the Kent State shootings. This had nothing to do with parents paying tuition or subsidies from the government. It had to do with the government forcibly conscripting young men in order to meet manpower requirements and the public seeing all those body bags and the horrors of war from the front lines. Because Nixon's act actually made the situation worse in Vietnam, student deferments were ended in 1971, but students who graduated were often forcibly drafted before then after their undergraduate education ended.



It may seem sensible to blame the students for their behavior, but you have to understand that riots are never planned by demonstrators. They can be triggered by radicals intent on stirring up trouble or government agents provocateurs intent on infiltrating the movement and discrediting it. We had both in those days. Most people who join demonstrations do so to express their frustration, not to destroy property or harm security deployed to maintain order. That happens as emotions build and people on both sides get angry and frightened. There are always a few people who will start throwing things and acting in a provocative way, so crowd control requires a great deal of discipline and fortitude by government forces. Neither the police nor the Guard had much of that, but they did believe that a display of force would cause the demonstrators to sober up and settle down. It had the opposite effect. Firing tear gas at a crowd can disperse them, but more and more of the retreating crowd will start trying to retaliate by throwing rocks or picking up canisters and flinging them back at the people firing them.

Add to this that students aren't trained for, or legally
required to behave in a prescribed manner that avoids
danger. This differs from cops, who are supposed to
be trained do their job effectively while respecting
civil rights. Yet they don't. And using poorly trained
soldiers, whose job is to kill people, is the worst idea of
all. They only know point-&-shoot....which they did.
About 67 rounds into the crowd for 13 seconds (per
Wikipedia). They were fortunate that these soldiers
were terrible shots, having injured (9) & killed (4) so few.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

The Kent State incident just reminds me of how much I hate this state, as the Statehouse is named for Rhodes - the Governor who ordered the National Guard in - and there's a big statue of him Infront of it.

 

[Revoltingest]

The Kent State incident just reminds me of how much I hate this state, as the Statehouse is named for Rhodes - the Governor who ordered the National Guard in - and there's a big statue of him Infront of it.

Pull it down, or install a plaque giving him credit for that hideous massacre?