Kent State - Video I hadn't seen

[DGUtley]

I thought I had seen ALL the footage out there from Kent State...until now. Reminded me of the Zapruder video of JFK. This was a powerful video, even without dialogue. Armed troops on a college campus. Because of a protest.

[MisterVeritis]

I thought I had seen ALL the footage out there from Kent State...until now. Reminded me of the Zapruder video of JFK. This was a powerful video, even without dialogue. Armed troops on a college campus. Because of a protest.

That night, the town of Kent was restless . After visiting the bars and becoming increasingly rowdy, crowds built bonfires in the streets, broke windows and threw bottles at police cars. The worried mayor of Kent, Leroy Satrom, declared a state of emergency in the town and called Gov. James Rhodes for help. In an action that inadvertently exacerbated the situation, Satrom also closed the bars. As a result, patrons spilled out into the street and joined the rioting crowds. Finally, the police dispersed the crowd using tear gas and encouraged students to return to campus.

Tensions only increased on Saturday. At about 5 p.m., Satrom asked Gov. Rhodes to dispatch the Ohio National Guard to Kent. He'd heard threats and rumors circulating and feared more riots like the night before [source: Lewis]. Before the Guard arrived, a crowd of about 1,000 protesters gathered around an ROTC building on Kent State's campus and burned it to the ground. Authorities never found out who was responsible for the fire, and protesters cut fire hoses to prevent the fire department from putting out the blaze [source: Heineman]. The National Guard reached Kent by 10 p.m. and broke up the crowd.
https://history.howstuffworks.com/hi...ent-state1.htm

Propaganda is designed to be powerful.

[nathanbforrest45]

As soon as I heard of the shooting I immediately labeled it "The Kent State Massacre" It wasn't long before that was the name we heard over the news. From what I remember it was the Ohio National Guard and someone in the Guard freaked out because of who knows what and opened fire on unarmed protesters. Then others in the guard also started firing. Completely unnecessary. A sad day for all. As a Vietnam Veteran I had mixed feelings about the protest. I was opposed to the protest because most of the protesters were only in favor of getting out of Vietnam because we were opposing the spread of communism. I saw the Vietnam War as a civil war between the North and the South and while I supported the South more than the North I felt, like Afghanistan today we had no right to be mixed up in that. I was particularly disgusted when one politician claimed we were not fighting for us and we would gain nothing from being involved. Therefore he said we were, because of our altruism, righteous in our battle. We lost over 50,000 young men and women for nothing.

Sad times. Lets hope history does not repeat itself.

[Mini Me]

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young!

[Mini Me]

More! And the crowd called out for more!

[DGUtley]

That night, the town of Kent was restless . After visiting the bars and becoming increasingly rowdy, crowds built bonfires in the streets, broke windows and threw bottles at police cars. The worried mayor of Kent, Leroy Satrom, declared a state of emergency in the town and called Gov. James Rhodes for help. In an action that inadvertently exacerbated the situation, Satrom also closed the bars. As a result, patrons spilled out into the street and joined the rioting crowds. Finally, the police dispersed the crowd using tear gas and encouraged students to return to campus.

Tensions only increased on Saturday. At about 5 p.m., Satrom asked Gov. Rhodes to dispatch the Ohio National Guard to Kent. He'd heard threats and rumors circulating and feared more riots like the night before [source: Lewis]. Before the Guard arrived, a crowd of about 1,000 protesters gathered around an ROTC building on Kent State's campus and burned it to the ground. Authorities never found out who was responsible for the fire, and protesters cut fire hoses to prevent the fire department from putting out the blaze [source: Heineman]. The National Guard reached Kent by 10 p.m. and broke up the crowd.
https://history.howstuffworks.com/hi...ent-state1.htm

Propaganda is designed to be powerful.

Saturday to Monday. Troops on a campus Sad.

[Common]

They never show and have probably buried the actual footage of what caused the shooting and as it panned between the protesters and the national guard. I watched it LIVE as it happened on tv and this is what I saw.

A huge group of protesters on one side approx 150 yds from a national guard formation, the protesters started running towards the guard throwing rocks and bottles, you could see a guardsman I assume an officer with a loudspeaker yelling to them, they did not stop, when they were mid way one of the ill trained guard at the time fired and subsequently other guards fired. Should never had happened at that point

Those guardsman had none of the proper gear for riot patrol even at that point in time. They should have had water canons and tear gas and rubber bullets, instead of live rounds.

Back then the national guard was truly a two week once a year thing they were untrained to confront such a large protest. The whole incident was a calamity that turned tragic

[MisterVeritis]

Saturday to Monday. Troops on a campus Sad.

Burning down ROTC buildings. Sad.

[Mister D]

Dumb protest. Bad music.

[DGUtley]

Burning down ROTC buildings. Sad.

On Saturday.

One of the problems was the national guardsmen had just come from a teamsters strike. Some of them were from my hometown. They were worn out, tired and hot. You don’t shoot students for protesting.