Kent State Shootings
Kent state was a univeristy that went through an awful time. Twenty-five years ago this month, students came out on the Kent State campus and scores of others to protest the bombing of Cambodia-- a decision of President Nixon's that appeared to expand the Vietnam War. Some rocks were thrown, some windows were broken, and an attempt was made to burn the ROTC building. Governor James Rhodes sent in the National Guard.
The units that responded were ill-trained and came right from riot duty elsewhere; they hadn't had much sleep. The first day, there was some brutality; the Guard bayonetted two men, one a disabled veteran, who had cursed or yelled at them from cars. The following day, May ...
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Guardsmen--none of whom were later punished, civilly, administratively, or criminally--admitted firing at specific unarmed targets; one man shot a demonstrator who was giving him the finger. The closest student shot was fully sixty feet away; all but one were more than 100 feet away; all but two were more than 200 feet away. One of the dead was 255 feet away; the rest were 300 to 400 feet away. The most distant student shot was more than 700 feet from the Guardsmen.
Some rocks had been thrown, and some tear gas canisters fired by the Guard had been hurled back, but (though some of the Guardsmen certainly must know the truth) no-one has ever been able to establish why the Guard fired when they were seconds away from safety around the corner of the building. None had been injured worse than a minor bruise, no demonstrators were armed, there was simply nothing threatening them that justified an armed and murderous response. In addition to the demonstrators, none of whom was ...
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botched; there was no investigation. Even the New York City police, who are themselves prone to brutality and corruption, do a better job. Every time an officer discharges his weapon, it is taken from him, and there is an investigation. Here--to the fatal detriment of the federal criminal trial which followed--it was never conclusively established which Guardsmen had fired, or which of them had shot the wounded and the dead. Since all were wearing gas masks, it is impossible to identify them in pictures (many had also removed or covered their name tags, a classic ploy of law enforcement officers about to commit brutality in the '60's and '70's), and though many confessed to having fired ...
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Kent State Shootings. (2011, March 17). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Kent-State-Shootings/96268
"Kent State Shootings." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Kent-State-Shootings/96268>
"Kent State Shootings." Essayworld.com. March 17, 2011. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Kent-State-Shootings/96268.
"Kent State Shootings." Essayworld.com. March 17, 2011. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Kent-State-Shootings/96268.
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