Four students killed at Kent State (1970)

History.Com (This Day in History) ^ | 05/04/2017 | staff

[Kid Shelleen]

At Kent State University, 100 National Guardsmen fire their rifles into a group of students, killing four and wounding 11. This incident occurred in the aftermath of President Richard Nixon’s April 30 announcement that U.S. and South Vietnamese forces had been ordered to execute an “incursion” into Cambodia to destroy North Vietnamese bases there. In protest, a wave of demonstrations and disturbances erupted on college campuses across the country.

At Kent State University in Ohio, student protesters torched the ROTC building on campus and Ohio Governor James Rhodes responded by calling on the National Guard to restore order. Under harassment from the demonstrators, the Guardsmen fired into the crowd, killing four and wounding 11. The Guardsmen were later brought to trial for the shootings, but found not guilty.

[Kid Shelleen]

I was watching a documentary about the incident. Some of the old hippies being interviewed still can't understand why National Guard was brought in despite the vandalism and the assaults on fireman and policemen.

[JimRed]

...And in other scores, National Guard 4, Kent State 0...

[null and void]

And, as if by magic, campus riots stopped that very day.

I think this had a lot to do with the shooting victims being at the back of the mob, where the organizers were...

[PapaBear3625]

It was the hippies’ “Oh s**t” moment, when they found out “We’ve been throwing stuff at men who have guns with live ammo!”

[Snowybear]

I caused a furor on a friend’s FB page where I stated that I wished more had been shot. Not sorry I said it either. You’re a weekend warrior and you have hundreds of students rushing you, some throwing rocks and bottles.

Before the riots, I mean, protests there were threats made against the college and the town.

[Kid Shelleen]

Yet the declassified FBI files show the FBI already had developed credible evidence suggesting that there was indeed a sniper and that one or more shots may have been fired at the guardsmen first.

New light shed on Kent State killings

[Gay State Conservative]

You’re a weekend warrior and you have hundreds of students rushing you, some throwing rocks and bottles.

I don't know much about Kent State...didn't study it very closely.However,one would hope that the Guardsmen who fired did so on direct order (who was in command of that platoon and what was his rank?) or fired in compliance with carefully and clearly laid out "rules of engagement" issued at some point before the incident.

[relictele]

I note that active violent protests ceased immediately across the nation after that.

[dayglored]

> It was the hippies’ “Oh s**t” moment, when they found out “We’ve been throwing stuff at men who have guns with live ammo!”

Yes indeed. Of course, that prompted the more practical elements among them to arm themselves.

"Never bring a flower to a gunfight."

[day10]

CSNY - Ohio

[Arthur McGowan]

I’ve never seen any mention of parents’ pulling their kids out of college around that time. Notice how you never see an interview of students who are fleeing no-free-speech colleges?

[Responsibility2nd]

Kent State.

The deaths of those four students made America sick. That incident forever changed our approach to riots and violent uprisings in this country. We are more tolerant now. We accept and allow incidents like the Rodney King riots, the Ferguson riots, Baltimore riots, and now currently the Antifa protests.

And look what our tolerance has resulted in. Law and order in our cities is in chaos. And as the police try to react and respond to the cultures of today - more mistakes happen. Like what happened in Balch Springs, Texas last weekend where a cop fired at fleeing car, killing a 15 year old boy.

So we do not fire at violent punks and thugs in the street anymore. We allow the space to destroy. And we reap what we sow.

 

 

[Kid Shelleen]

Did you notice the Swastika in the “HEIL Ni$ON” sign at 0:02? The left has been using the same playbook since 1970.

[Hattie]

Many years went by after that without any more of the burning, looting and law-breaking mobs. Just my observation.

[JBW1949]

100% correct....

If the law enforcement would do what they should do today, we’d have “peaceful” protests instead of riots...

[daler]

What has always been forgotten in the "tin soldiers and Nixon coming" meme is that those who fired were college-aged kids who may have been familiar with some of the protesters they were shooting at.

In other words, they probably felt it necessary to shoot, and took no joy in it.

[day10]

Yep. It never ceases to amaze me that people STILL fall for it.

Then again, liberals feel and conservatives think.

[Dan in Wichita]

I’m sure the Left was secretly very pleased with the deaths at Kent State, for they used it to help build their anti-American movement, which to this day continues to smother and destroy American tradition, institutions, and power.

[redcatcherb412]

So we do not fire at violent punks and thugs in the street anymore. We allow the space to destroy. And we reap what we sow.

---

They will though blow your schnauzer away if it growls at them, or blow you away if they ‘fear’ for their lives. Like if you’re holding a cellphone and they think it’s a glock. A few of these bike lock throwing antifa thugs may just need to lose their lives to slow down their putsch takeover of peoples rights, but that won’t happen cause they’re ‘college chillrens’.

[redcatcherb412]

Does make you wonder if the berkeley copz would have acted if it had been one of their own getting their melon split by the bike lock ?