I don't really care whether there was a sniper, or bricks or whatever on the day it happened. Once the Guard was called up and had been pelted repeatedly, I wouldn't have blamed them if they had a hair trigger for just looking at them cross eyed.
This sort of behavior on campus or on the street in our cities should not be allowed period. The blame lies in not shutting this crap down the first minute it started.
Besides that, the Guard should not be called out to handle violent situations, unless the authorities want someone killed. They are soldiers, and their business is killing, and we want them to be good at it, so that our guys come home alive and some other SOB dies for their country.
I feel the same way about Vietnam and The war in the Iraq. Don't send our men over there and tie their hands. Let loose the hounds of war, and let them win or keep them home and forget about war.
Sheer stupidity both on the part of the students and the people in charge caused those deaths. Not the Guards fault. They shouldn't have been there in the first place, if they weren't supposed to kill anyone.
Now that's JMHO. You are equally entitled to yours.
End of story. End of discussion.
“Sheer stupidity both on the part of the students and the people in charge caused those deaths. Not the Guards fault. They [the Guard] shouldn’t have been there in the first place, if they weren’t supposed to kill anyone.”
Well, we are getting away from Stang’s article. But to reply:
National Guardsmen are sent out to all sorts of emergency situations. They are trained to maintain discipline and are only supposed to kill as a last resort in self defense.
They were sent to the town of Kent and Kent State University to keep order. It was absolutely not necessary to kill on the day of May 4, 1970. The students had already dispersed and those who were shot were typically hundreds of feet away. The Guard should have at least been convicted of manslaughter.
At least a civil suit was successful, when $675,000 was awarded to the surviving victims and the victims families in January 1979.
Now it’s end of discussion.