couldn't let the day go without posting this.


4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops
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8 Hurt as Shooting Follows Reported Sniping at Rally
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By John Kifner

Special to The New York Times

Kent, Ohio, May 4 -- Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded.

The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus gathering spot, by lobbing tear gas at a crowd of about 1,000 young people.

In Washington, President Nixon deplored the deaths of the four students in the following statement:

"This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy. It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident will strengthen the determination of all the nation's campuses, administrators, faculty and students alike to stand firmly for the right which exists in this country of peaceful dissent and just as strong against the resort to violence as a means of such expression."

In Columbus, Sylvester Del Corso, Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard, said in a statement that the guardsmen had been forced to shoot after a sniper opened fire against the troops from a nearby rooftop and the crowd began to move to encircle the guardsmen.

Frederick P. Wenger, the Assistant Adjutant General, said the troops had opened fire after they were shot at by a sniper.

"They were understanding orders to take cover and return any fire," he said.

This reporter, who was with the group of students, did not see any indication of sniper fire, nor was the sound of any gunfire audible before the Guard volley. Students, conceding that rocks had been thrown, heatedly denied that there was any sniper.

Gov. James A. Rhodes called on J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to aid in looking into the campus violence. A Justice Department spokesman said no decision had been made to investigate. At 2:10 this afternoon, after the shootings, the university president, Robert I. White, ordered the university closed for an indefinite time, and officials were making plans to evacuate the dormitories and bus out-of-state students to nearby cities.

Robinson Memorial Hospital identified the dead students as Allison Krause, 19 years old, of Pittsburgh; Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20, of Youngstown, Ohio, both coeds; Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20, of 22 Diamond Drive, Plainsview, L.I., and William K. Schroeder, 19, of Lorain, Ohio.

At 10:30 P.M. the hospital said that six students had been treated for gunshot wounds. Three were reported in critical condition and three in fair condition. Two others with superficial wounds were treated and released.

Students here, angered by the expansion of the war into Cambodia, have held demonstrations for the last three nights. On Saturday night, the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps building was burned to the ground and the Guard was called in and martial law was declared.

Today's rally, called after a night in which the police and guardsmen drove students into their dormitories and made 69 arrests, began as students rang the iron Victory bell on the commons, normally used to herald football victories.

A National Guard jeep drove onto the Commons and an officer ordered the crowd to disperse. Then several canisters of tear gas were fired, and the students straggled up a hill that borders the area and retreated into buildings.

A platoon of guardsmen, armed- as they have been since they arrived here with loaded M-1 rifles and gas equipment - moved across the green and over the crest of the hill, chasing the main body of protesters.

The youths split into two groups, one heading farther downhill toward a dormitory complex, the other eddying around a parking lot and girls' dormitory just below Taylor Hall, the architecture building.

The guardsmen moved into a grassy area just below the parking lot and fired several canisters of tear gas from their short, stubby launchers.

Three or four youths ran to the smoking canisters and hurled them back. Most fell far short, but one landed near the troops and a cheer went up from the crowd, which was chanting "Pigs off campus" and cursing the war.

A few youths in the front of the crowd ran into the parking lot and hurled stones or small chunks of pavement in the direction of the guardsmen. Then the troops began moving back up the hill in the direction of the college.

Students Cheer

The students in the parking lot area, numbering about 500, began to move toward the rear of the troops, cheering. Again, a few in front picked up stones from the edge of the parking lot and threw them at the guardsmen. Another group of several hundred students had gathered around the sides of Taylor Hall watching.

As the guardsmen, moving up the hill in single file, reached the crest, they suddenly turned, forming a skirmish line and opening fire.

The crackle of the rifle volley cut the suddenly still air. It appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer.

Some of the students dived to the ground, crawling on the grass in terror. Others stood shocked or half crouched, apparently believing the troops were firing into the air. Some of the rifle barrels were pointed upward.

Near the top of the hill at the corner of Taylor Hall, a student crumpled over, spun sideways and fell to the ground, shot in the head.

When the firing stopped, a slim girl, wearing a cowboy shirt and faded jeans, was lying face down on the road at the edge of the parking lot, blood pouring out onto the macadam, about 10 feet from this reporter.

Too Shocked to React

The youth stood stunned, many of them clustered in small groups staring at the bodies. A young man cradled one of the bleeding forms in his arms. Several girls began to cry. But many of the students who rushed from the scene seemed almost too shocked to react. Several gathered around an abstract steel sculpture in front of the building and looked at the .30-caliber bullet hole drilled through one of the plates.

The hospital said that six young people were being treated for gunshot wounds, some in the intensive care unit. Three of the students who were killed were dead on arrival at the hospital.

One guardsman was treated and released at the hospital and another was admitted with head prostration.

In early afternoon, students attempted to gather at various areas of the Commons but were ordered away by guardsmen and the Ohio Highway Patrol, which moved in as reinforcements.

There were no further clashes, as faculty members, graduate assistants and student leaders urged the crowd to go back to dormitories.

But a bizarre atmosphere hung over the campus as a Guard helicopter hovered overhead, grim-faced officers maneuvered their men to safeguard the normally pastoral campus and students, dazed, fearful and angry, struggled to comprehend what had happened and to find something to do about it.

Students carrying suitcases and duffel bags began leaving the campus this afternoon. Early tonight the entire campus was sealed off and a court injunction was issued ordering all students to leave.

A 5 P.M. curfew was declared in Kent, and road blocks were set up around the town to prevent anyone from entering. A state of emergency was also declared in the nearby towns of Stow and Ravenna.

Has anyone else been to the site? It was seriously chilling, because we were looking around and couldn't find it. Then I realized that we were standing right on it.

Did you change avatars to coincide with the Kent State anniversary?

"If the right people had been in charge of Nixon's funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin.

These are harsh words for a man only recently canonized by President Clinton and my old friend George McGovern--but I have written worse things about Nixon, many times, and the record will show that I kicked him repeatedly long before he went down. I beat him like a mad dog with mange every time I got a chance, and I am proud of it. He was scum."
-- HST

nope. just time to move on.
the kent state anniversary really upsets me, though.

My father wrote his senior term paper on it, so when we visited last Memorial Day he was throwing in all the set-up and background I wasn't necessarily familiar with.

Have you ever been?

i totally by chance listened to the recording in People's History of the United States on this today and it gave me chills. this stuff just gets horrific after awhile.

thanks for this, radcliffe. i find nixon to be one of the most despicable characters in american history and i don't EVEN want to hear about what he did in china.

never been to kent state.

I guess none of y'all (especially ayah) caught what I posted in the NP thread?

I chock this up to a weird incedent in our nation's history and not much more.

I suspect a lot of the "truth" of the entire era from, o say late '67 through the fall of King Richard has been co-opted by historical mainstream whitewash. I don't disagree that this particular incident was "weird", but only in the sense that those in power were so arrogant and power-crazed that there was little sense from the top that anything indecent or immoral had been committed.

In November 1969, I saw the White House under siege, cordoned off with buses end to end in a four block ring, manned machine gun emplacements on many roof-tops up to ten blocks away, and a whole lot more.

And I see a lot of similarities between the egregious thug Nixon, along with his seedy band of 2-bit criminals, and the current regime, with the exception that the new horse thieves seem to have a slicker line of shit to feed the bleating public.

Political rant over.

i saw it. duly noted.
and it was csny.

hardly just a weird incident. it was just another indication of how out of control things were getting in this country.
everything seemed much darker after this.

I think that is a nice glossy way of overlooking the historical significance of this event. There were so many things similar to this in this time in American history. Although it is a rather graphic and horrifying situation that took place, there were many other things that happened that were directly linked to the impetus behind the Kent State shootings. Not only do I agree that Nixon was despicable, Johnson was worse and I can't really say much good about Kennedy either, except that he boned Marilyn Monroe(which is merely a matter of subjectivity as to the honor involved).

What about the two men that decided to not just burn their draft cards but set themselves on fire and burned themselves to death in protest of the war?

What about the violence that took place during the Civil Rights Movement, starting much earlier than the moments of great oration by some men, such as Emmitt Till and other horrible racial crimes?

I think the most hair raising aspect of this whole time was that all of these things hardly changed the minds or influenced the decisions of those in power. This kind of thing is not just a weird incident. It just happened to be significant enough to be remembered decades later.

There's nothing weird about the Kent State shootings. Most people in western nations live in fantasy worlds. If you oppose the State to such an extent that you are a genuine threat to their power, the State will set out to destroy you. End of story.

I was 10 years old when the Miners strike happen in the UK, when Margaret Thatcher set out to destroy the Union power that had brought down a previous Consertative Government. She did this by not attacking the Unions but by remoreslessly destroying the entire British working class culture. If that meant starving schoolchildren, disguising the army as police to beat the fuck out of people and arresting any political leaders who opposed this - no problem.

The Government would crush you in a second if you ever overstepped the mark. Fact.

Makes me think of Tiananmen Square. I'm not about to suggest that the US government is in any way as oppressive as China's but I've often asked myself if over 1 million people camped out in Washington DC, demanding an overthrow of the government, would the powers that be act much differently than what occured in China 16 years ago?

Steve

This again proves that I live in a different world than the rest of you. I mean, because Kent State changed so much right? and galvanized feelings on both sides right? and people were so up in arms against that pig Nixon that the country came apart at the seems right?

Oh yeah, none of that happened. Neil Young wrote a really good song that made four dope fiends and a corporation a ton of money, Chrissie Hynde saw it and never lets any of us forget it, and the rest of us went on with our fucking lives.

Was it bullshit? Yeah. Was it a harbinger of things to come or any event of real historical significance? Not really. Sorry to break your hearts, kids. Some hippies got shot.

LooGAR is half-right, but Kent State was a turning point in the minds of many young activists. It not only dropped a 16 ton weight on idealism, it made them edgier and more aware that you have to do more than just be a goofy flower kid to effect change in this country. You also have to be willing to get into the middle of the political dogshit and turn on the hose, over and over and over again.

Not that I'm willing to do that or anything.

LooGAR


vs.


Obner Collective

I forget. Who is that chick?

the main thing that kent state changed was an attitude of a lot of protesters. it was like okay, they're willing to kill us over this. phil's right, it dropped a ten ton weight on idealism. kent state is more a symbol of how crazy things were getting and spiraling out of control .

just a few hippies being killed?
they were young people shot and killed protesting against what they truly believed to be an unjustified war.
shot and killed for protesting. in america.
if you don't find that apalling you really do live in a differnet america than i do.

Judge Amy from Judging Amy, where she judges stuff.

I will buy this, though. I gotcha, and y'all lived through it, so I am sure it affected you more. But, I mean, again, really what the hell changed? Protesters are now shot with rubber bullets.

Konst is closer to the truth about this. Look at strike busting in the early part of the century and even shit like The Whiskey Rebellion, or hell, The Revolution. (No constitutional protection, but you get my drift) folks been gettin shot for what they believe in in this country since time immemorial.

I also don't see you or anyone else crying about Ruby Ridge or Waco. Are there not parallels? In Kent State, some jumpy kids pulled their triggers and things got out of control. In Ruby Ridge the FBI sawed the barrel off a shotgun 1/4 in below the legal limit, had an informant sell to ol' Randy what's his nuts, and then raided his 'compound' and killed him and some kids.

Which is a better example of a government run amok?

I think comparing Kent State to Tiananmen Square or some other form of government oppression is a stretch. I also think Loogar is right for the most part, despite the long-lasting waves caused by the incident. The two prevailing sides of this issue lend way too much malice and forethought to either the protesters or the Guardsmen, when it's likely the blame is muddled somewhere in the middle.

To wit:
-- Nixon may have done some things to make people's skin crawl, but he didn't dispatch the National Guard. For days the protests prior to the shooting had got quite ugly. Protesters had started bonfires in the streets, smashed windows and thrown bottles at police cars trying to bring order. Kent's Mayor petitioned Ohio's Governor to dispatch the Guard to help maintain order, which he did.

-- Nixon actually invited some of the Kent Students to the White House after the shootings. Plenty of protesters were unhappy with his statement, "This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy," but I doubt there was much Nixon would have been able to say to make these people happy.

-- These weren't exactly peaceful protests. The Guard responded on campus for the first time on May 2, when the ROTC building was set on fire and protesters cheered the blaze. When fireman and police showed up to control the fire, they were greeted with bottles and rocks. Fire hoses were being slashed with knives, which resulted in even more firemen being called in. However, there were a number of student volunteers from Kent who went to store owners and helped them rebuild their businesses.

--People seem to forget the Guardsmen were kids, too. I can't find the damn ages, but I believe the four that were shot were likely older than most of the Guardsmen. If memory serves, which it may not, I think the protesters were in their early to mid-20s, while a significant number of the soldiers were 18-20. A few years makes a bit of difference in maturity, especially at that age.

More importantly, put yourself in the boots of the guys with the guns.
It will never be ironed out for certain, but there were reports of bottle throwing and rock throwing, which was already a common habit in Kent in May 1970. I'm sure they were shaking in their boots confronting a mass of people not eager to see them, and it wouldn't take much to startle an accidental or even retaliatory shot at a perceived threat. And once one shot goes off, no one knows where it came from and 66 follow.

--May 14, 1970. At Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi 14 students are shot in killed in a protest against racial intimidation, Vietnam and Kent State. The shooting happened in front of a five story dormitory that was riddled with 450+ rounds from police. Every window on the facing side was shattered and 160 bullet holes were counted in the wall, many of which are still visible today.
I believe there was another incident at Southern University in Baton Rouge, but I'm not sure. No one ever brings up Jackson State though, for the same reason no one talked about kids getting shot in school until it happened in Jacksonville, Pearl, Paducah or Columbine.

Before anyone leaps, I'm not calling anyone here a racist or anything like that. I just think that it was an unfortunate situation that gets bent out of healthy proportion far too often. Hell, go check out the website of Alan Canfora, a Kent State survivor. To say he's loaded with bile and out for blood 35 years later is a bit of an understatement.

Goddamn you Corey and your well thought out and enunciated posts! I much prefer knee jerk spout offs that only make sense to me.

(I mean, thanks for sorta clarifyin what I was trying to get at)

i was just thinking that.

i'm not making kent state out to be anything more than a small event that was part of a huge time in this country. i feel for the students and the guardsmen but i will never feel for nixon and his rat bastard cronies.

ruby ridge and waco were totally insane and inexcusable events.

my point was not to cover every atrocity committed by this government in one post. it was to put some faces to one tragic day in our country's history and remind people that it was more than a csny song.

edit: thanks, corey.