We have rules!
Posted on 06/24/2009 7:35:55 AM PDT by Pyro7480
On Tuesday’s Newsroom program, CNN correspondent Carol Costello harkened back to the 1970 incident at Kent State University, where National Guardsmen shot rock-throwing protesters and bystanders, and made it a possible equivalent to the recent murder of Iranian student Neda. Costello pondered the effect of the Neda murder video on the Iranian protests, and flashed a famous photo from the 1970 shootings [audio clips from the report are available here].
Anchor Kyra Phillips introduced the overall theme of Costello’s report: “By now, you’ve probably heard about Neda, the young Iranian woman that was gunned down in Tehran. Well, in death, she’s become quite a symbol of countless Iranians demanding new elections. The question now: will the memory of Neda help make that happen?” After giving some details into the college student’s death, the correspondent described the international reaction to it: “It seems the whole world now knows Neda and aches for her- and why not? It watched her die.”
Costello subsequently played a clip of Iranian author Azar Nafisi’s reaction to the Neda death video. She then proposed her question about the impact of the video: “It’s difficult to say right now, though, if this image of Neda will change everything. We know that pictures sometimes do. Many believe this shot taken at Kent State of a student gunned down after a Vietnam War protest helped end the war, yet this video of a lone student standing up to Chinese tanks did not end communism in China.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
So what is she saying? That Neda was killed by a ‘nervous’ police officer and therefore that the whole thing was a regrettable ‘accident’? That’s the first time I’ve heard a Lefty give that take on Kent State even if it was by implication.
Goes to show you how far the Obama-Iran apologists will go to pull Barak’s fat out of the fire.
I don’t see the problem.
If the argument is that images can be effective forces for change, it’s a fair compairson.
Yes, if it wasn’t for the shootings at Kent State, we might find our freedoms threatened by an over-reaching Federal government.
BTTT
Any excuse to fabricate a moral equivalence between a truly criminal government and the US. The work of the media is never done, huh?
You are out of your freaking mind! National Guard units firing on unarmed students is NEVER justified! There was no freedom in danger other than those students' rights to protest.
Oh, please.
Shooting those protesters at Kent State didn’t preserve anybody’s freedoms. The only freedom at stake was the freedom of assembly and free speech. It was a mistake and a tragedy and made martyrs out of the demonstrators.
It’s probably legit to compare the two events. Demonstrations, passion and tragedy on both counts.
Am I the only one who believes that the Neda murder was just a little too convieniant? Maybe it’s just the skeptic in me, but if I was trying to execute a huge populist takeover, a well planned and publicised death of a sympathetic individual would be a tactical weapon which would most likely return huge propaganda results for my side.
Apparently, the left isn’t the only group that would like to rewrite history. Anyone who remembers Kent State would know that it was a devastating incident, when unarmed protesters were mowed down by totally inept National Guardsmen during an anti-war demonstration. While I disagreed with the protestors, I would fight for their right to protest. Otherwise, we are no better than the Iranian government.
Wrong. There was nothing being protected at Kent State that was worth kids dying for. I belive at least one of the dead wasn’t even part of the protest. He was walking to class. It was a tragedy.
First, there's this implied moral equivalency between the government in Iran and the United States (remember it was that wicked Republican Nixon administration in 1970). Second, the National Guard at Kent State were not under orders to fire on the protests - in Iran, while it hasn't been wholesale open season, it seems as though the Iranian government “troops” are permitted to use deadly force if they want to.
Third, the protesters at Kent State had been on the campus for several days, disrupting classes and causing general chaos. The National Guard was called in by the governor of Ohio to help keep order. Many of the “protesters” were not even students of Kent State, so you had major disruption of the college, plus trespassing on private property. The governor was within his rights to try to get a handle on the situation.
Fourth, violence was not just on the campus of the university. In fact, it had spread from the small college town of Kent to the campus. There were fires, looting, and shootings going on. The mayor of Kent asked the governor of Ohio for help because it was getting beyond the small town's capability to handle the situation.
Fire department personnel who were called to the scene to put out the fires had rocks, bricks, and glass thrown at them. This included the ROTC building, scheduled to be demolished for a new building, which was set on fire by arsonists. Crowds of protesters cheered it's burning while police and firemen attempted to put it out. They too, received rocks and bricks thrown at them for their efforts.
Events escalated when “students” staged a sit-in in the middle of town and demanded a meeting with the town's mayor and Kent State's college president. The National Guard was used to clear them out and a curfew was put in effect.
The point is, the university had every right to try to restore order on its campus. The mayor and the governor of the state had every right to restore order. The protesters put themselves and everyone else on campus at risk because of their actions.
So, I really don't see any equivalency with Kent State and the current Iranian situation. Unlike in Iran, our Federal government wasn't even involved in the Kent State incident.
I just see this as another hit on the USA by CNN and CBS. They are attempting to say that we've had the same thing happen here with innocent people killed during the Kent State protest against our “immoral Vietnam War” perpetrated by our bad “republican” government - just like the innocent Iranian people struggling for freedom.
Other than an innocent person being killed, I don't see any connection whatever.
The shootings at Kent State were a horrible tragedy, but it was negligence rather than premeditated murder in the case of Neda.
Bet that salutes or cherry bombs were set off in the crowd to cause the troops to fire on the leftist trash who were advancing against the troops. Note also that there is no mention of the ROTC building at Kent State being burned to the ground the night before and that Governor Rhodes (a competent but "moderate" Republican had become directly involved with Richard Nixon's blessing). Those shot including the allegedly "innocent" bystanders well knew that they should avoid the area where the guard were stationed but they were simply bound and determined to defy authority, intimidate the guard, seize effective control of public lands and, they had been assured by their leaders that "the system" did not have the guts to stand up to them. It did. Some are long dead with some crippled exceptions. They got no more than they deserved.
It is no surprise that CNN and CBS feel a need to regurgitate the lying leftist propaganda of yesteryear. Try and remember even ONE significant anti-war confrontation with armed guardsmen ever after.
The other missing part of this story is that the left was shocked!, shocked! at the general public enthusiasm for the shootings. In the next few days, they shaved the beards, cut the hair, stopped by the laundromat for the first time in years, took showers or baths ditto, and went door to door in middle class neighborhoods in an apologetic manner seeking clues as to where they had lost what they had thought of as public support.
I was watching a Yankee baseball game on that afternoon in the Knights of Columbus Hall. Just before the news bulletin as to Kent State, a group of liberal union members (back when you could be an economic liberal, a Democrat and a Catholic all at one time) from the local Armstrong Tire factory came in, got seats at the bar and ordered their first beers. The guy sitting next to me was a leader of the Rubber Workers and a fellow with whom I got along despite his being more liberal than most. In response to the bulletin, I said to the fellow: "The National Guard killed four students at Kent State." To my utter surprise, his immediate response was: Too bad it wasn't forty. The next union guy said: Four hundred! The next: Four thousand. And so forth around the bar. A liberal, a patriot, a Catholic, a union leader and a very sensible man on the Kent State matter.
See what mbb1984 posted above at #4 and #5. He/she says it all as well as it can be said.
Say what you may about Kent State BUT the rioting on college campuses came to a halt — just took a little bit of who’s next?
The next day, the ROTC building was burnt to the ground by arsonists. Fireman and police officers were hit with rocks and fire hoses were slashed. The following day, the violence by leftists ensued and ten national guardsmen were injured. The following day, 2,000 rioters gathered and infranty and cavalry of the US Army was brought in to disperse the crowd. The legality of the dispersal was upheld by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The dispersal process began, but several leftist rioters refused to disperse. The rioters responded by throwing rocks, forcing patrolman Harold Rice to retreat in a jeep.
Tear gas was used against the leftists, but due to the wind it was of little effect. The leftists responded by throwing the tear gas back to the police and guardsman. Guardsman were subsequently rocked by the rioters.
The Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard told reporters that a sniper had fired on the Guardsman. The Guardsman, in fear of their lives and which they subsequently testified, fired.
Yes, it was just a little matter of students’ right to protest. /s
The ruling class in Iran made the same comparison; perhaps before CBS did.
It's not all that inapt, really. Sometimes the government uses excessive force, and that includes the US government (and sometimes smaller players, like local cops, etc.)
It's unacceptable conduct by the government, but governments get away with it, and for the most part, so do the individual actors in the government who use excessive force.
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