The burning of Kent State University's ROTC building was part of the buildup to the May 4 shootings. Protesters cut fire hoses and then chanted anti-war slogans as the building burned to the ground.
If you're a news junkie like me, you've seen stories about the newly analyzed audiotapes recorded during the Kent State (Ohio) shootings of May 4, 1970. On that day, National Guardsmen shot and killed four students and injured many others during an anti-Vietnam War protest.
It's important to note that days of lawlessness (including violence against the National Guardsmen) led up to the tragic shootings. My partner Nancy, then a 9-year-old in Ravenna, Ohio, witnessed the damage left by the protesters and saw the National Guard tanks rolling down the streets in response to the chaos. Buildings were burned (including businesses in downtown Kent). See Wikipedia for time line. Now what do the business owners of Kent, Ohio, have to do with the Vietnam War? And over a period of days, student-protesters defied repeated non-violent attempts to disperse. They even threw tear gas canisters back at the Guardsmen.
Anti-war protesters of the Vietnam War era had every right to assemble peaceably and voice their complaints against the government. But the Kent State demonstrations were not peaceable. Reckless, violent acts began a tragic chain of events led to the catastrophe of that day.
Note, I am explaining the historical context of the shootings. I am in no way justifying them.
Aforementioned partner here. As a nine year old living in the town next door to Kent, and living one block from the National Guard armory...it was a very confusing series of events. We heard about the burning of the ROTC building and damage to local businesses, and rumors they were coming to our town, the County Seat, next. My town was placed under curfew.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I will always remember: I'll never forget my 9 year old confusion that had me asking my mother: If they [the students] are protesting for peace, why did they use violence and burn building and throw bricks through store windows?
The story of the events reached mythic status long ago, and the complexities which reside in the truth of the events before, during and after, are lost.
Perhaps because I'm older [much] now, and we regularly see the youthful faces of guards men and women killed in Afganastan or Iraq, I'm reminded of how very young many [though not all] of those guardsmen were. And at 49, I see that 20-something young adults are often more kid than adult.
Armed young men (including bayonettes, live ammo, and tear gas) with no training in non-lethal crowd control [probably little of any training in crowd control] were sent to control/disperse a protesters, some of whom were actively committing, had committed, or were believed to have committed violent acts. All this was occurring in a context of distrust and animosity between many young adults in the country and the government.
The deaths and injuries were tragic - but the story is complex, and tragic on far more levels, than just the deaths and injuries it produced.
It is perhaps in part because of these events, that our National Guard and police are now trained in non-lethal riot/crowd control.