The FBI said this was an accident. Yeah, right.
A man who was shot in the wrist when National Guard troops killed four Kent State University students during an anti-war demonstration says he has found an audiotape that reveals someone gave a command to fire.
“All we want is the truth because we seek healing at Kent State for the student victims, as well as the triggermen who were ordered to fire. And healing can only result from the truth, and that’s all we want.”
Four Kent State students were killed and nine were wounded in the 1970 clash, which followed several days of Vietnam War protests. Four years later, eight guardsmen were acquitted of federal civil rights charges.
Just before the 13-second volley of gunfire, a voice on the tape is heard yelling, “Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!“
The FBI has had a copy of the tape since the shootings took place. They’re as concerned about justice as they ever have been when civil rights and murder are used in the same sentence.
The National Guard had been shot at right before they opened fire. They had been sniped at all week as well. Not to mention the ROTC building was also just torched. This was not a peaceful protest. Not that you moonbats would care about that. Dasvidanya comrades
FBI, is only concerned AFTER someone ELSE finds fault.
It really speaks to the fragility of these people that 37 years later, they still need “healing.” Whatever the sequence of events, the outcome remains the same.
So why you’re saying is it’s okay to fire indiscriminately on students?
I think he’s saying that’s it’s ok to open fire on commie students…
There was no indiscriminate firing on students, the National Guard was shooting back at a mob that had just fired on them and torched a building. Unfortunately some students got caught in the cross fire. The National Guard did not just show up out of the blue and open fire for no reason.
Lesson in reality: Don’t shoot at people with guns, they may shoot back.
Ron, now I see. It’s not that you’re ignorant. You really believe those lies.
Even the original whitewash of the troops didn’t give credence to that crap. But, you lap it up. Interesting; but, sad, syndrome.
Ain’t nothing new about rednecks being cowards. Firing on unarmed civilians is part of the American rule of law. These cowards didn’t wear pointy-headed hoods like their role models. Gas masks work just fine.
That the FBI itemized no other weapons at the scene isn’t a surprise. That there ever was a sham trial – was. The FBI sat with this tape in their pants and did as little as they ever did.
The only thing that’s changed is that rednecks call themselves neocons, nowadays. PC.
Rednecks are now NEOCONS? Generally neocon refers to Jews, manyof whom used to be liberals. A lot of these rednecks are isolationaists, which is the opposite of neocon.
How did so many National Guard open fire and only hit 13 people? How did they just kill 4? They should have beefed up training.
Pretty good MikeN. You’re only about 40 years out-of-date. Better than usual.
Does anyone hear realize that the Nixon commission investigated this and concluded:
“Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.”
Eight guardsmen were indicted, but the charges were dismissed because of lack of evidence, which one could probably understand at the time.
I would say that this was a chaotic event and we’ll never know what happened.
[edited for content]
#1 – “The National Guard had been shot at right before they opened fire.”
Another chicken hawk Republican I take it. Bullshit. Having 5 years in the Army, I can say that’s not a valid tactic. Just being sniped at randomly is no excuse for soldiers to open fire into a random crowd. Just ‘hearing’ a shot doesn’t mean you can point your gun at someone nearby and fire. If you don’t know where the shot came from, you take cover, and use forward observers (or air support, surveillance) to find the shooter. Just “blasting” away at whoever is standing near you is insane.
This sort of thing happens in Iraq daily. Troops patrolling get shot at. They don’t just turn around and shoot into crowds at a market, in homes or whatnot. You HAVE TO find who is actually shooting at you. You can just kill random folks near you hoping one of them might be responsible.
It’s sucks being a soldier, being a “good guy” sometimes. You’re put in very very difficult situations. These guys just didn’t act properly.
republicans are people at a picnic that sit next near the garbage can because it has the best view of the lake, then continually swat at and kill flies, complaining that the flies should be smart enough to know that they’re about to get killed and quit flying near the people, instead of moving to another table or putting a lid on the garbage can.
they also then wonder why after swatting at a bee they get swarmed and are incapable of learning that you just can’t kill them all — you actually do need to find a better solution.
#1, Ron, you truly are a sad case. To suggest that blindly shooting into unarmed students is somehow justified is wrong on so many levels.
Lesson in reality: Don’t shoot at people with guns, they may shoot back.
I bet you smirk just like your Commander in Chimp does. Asshole.
Please crawl back under your slimy rock. And take James Hill and MikeN with you.
#15, Great analogy. I know several Republicans and can honestly say they are not all bad. Most have a sense of humor and are appalled at things like this.
Sp these student protesters were flies and the universities are garbage? Looks like those Guardsmen were putting a lid on the garbage can so to speak.
OT, but I’ve killed many bees and never been swarmed, so I think there’s a little more to it than that.
1. I did not suggest blindly firing. (see comment #6)
2. Unarmed students have a real hard time shooting at the National Guard (and others) and an even harder time firebombing an ROTC building. (Hint: if you get shot at, the person is not unarmed)
Try to learn to read.
#17, what i am saying that the republicans have historically favored using force over finesse because of their brutish unsophisticated nature,.
by saying “Looks like those Guardsmen were putting a lid on the garbage can so to speak.,” you have completely proven my point
thank you.
14 – David –
Troops patrolling get shot at. They don’t just turn around and shoot into crowds at a market, in homes or whatnot. You HAVE TO find who is actually shooting at you. You can just kill random folks near you hoping one of them might be responsible.
I wish I could be on your side on this one, but the fact is that you are outright wrong….
There are several high visibility trials taking place now for well documented events of the type in Iraq that you say do not happen. And those are only the publicly known events, stuff that has not been hidden from the public.
There is an interesting commentary published today, one pertinent paragraph that caught my eye:
There’s a checkpoint ahead. Incoming traffic has to slow down in front of a Hummer of the Iraqi Defense Forces. A soldier is talking to the driver of a van. Suddenly there is a shot. The soldier falls to the ground, right before our eyes, screaming in pain. He is not dead instantly. His companion, by the Hummer, takes some time to react, then also starts shooting. People duck in their cars; general wisdom is that if these were US troops, they would be shooting at random and every car would be sprayed with bullets.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/2qh24p (Which by the way is an excellent non-US commentary on conditions in Baghdad.)
With the generalized and official lowering of standards of conduct when it comes to this war, where there is no such thing as a POW, there are no allies that can be trusted, 40% of the occupation force consists of civilians that are not held accountable to ANY laws, lack of meaning to the presence of the US military members, torture is an officially accepted method of behavior, then conduct that ‘unbecoming’ actually becomes quite common.
oh, and btw, one of those students who died that day was the aunt of a buddy of mine.
i was just a baby at the time, but from what i understand she was a really nice person, not garbage.
perhaps if republicans weren’t so quick think of people they don’t like as garbage, they might be less like cavemen who demand respect and more like real men that deserve it.
Obviously this is Bush’s fault, the dirty neocon rethuglican nazi fascist that he is.
#21 they were all extremists who equated dissent with treason, a trait shared by the current crop of republicans.
LBJ? fair enough, i have to take him as one of us liberals who got seduced by the foolish notion that you will automatically win a war just because you have the best army the world has ever known
the amazingly powerful force that our brave men and women in uniform can bring to bear on our enemies is but one weapon at our disposal when looking to quell the sneaky bastards we face today
kent state is just one example of how misjudgments in the use of force can backfire, causing you to lose you objective.
Grog you used the analogy of garbage and flies. It was thinking like yours that turned so many Democrats into Republicans. In 1965 The Dems had 65 Senate eats and a huge House majority. Now they are down to parity.
#25 — please elaborate
During MLK’s PEACEful demonstrations it has been shown and proven that the Gov. (FBI, CIA, Whomever) had instigated a few to cause Mayham to disperse the group and Force police into PROTECTION phase..
But its also the FACT…
That 1 person, in one GROUP can cause the whole thing to turn into a mess.
1 person with a few fire crackers, or even a POP GUN, real or otherwise, as a NUTCASE, could have cause the WHOLE thing to Disintegrate into a MESS.
It actually takes 2…1 IDIOT NUT, and 1 paranoid NUT.
consider how many were wounded, and how many were killed.
13 seconds of Fireing, would Empty ALL weapons…
the SMART ones Aimed Over there heads or at trees.
But TRUTH is what is wanted/needed here. there were to many LIES in that time. Mostly from the Gov.
What would have made this go AWAY?
Easy…NO military or reserves…
Little or NO media coverage…
And the faculty NOT paying attention to it…
#13 – Content is a pretty strong word when judging my posts.
Having spent 22 years in the military, I have never heard the order “Get set, point, fire.” Sounds like some civilian giving orders. A military person would have said, “Ready, aim, fire.” What’s up here?
Get the facts straight:
1. The protesters did not fire at the Guard before being fired upon. Several of them did throw rocks from a distance, and a couple threw back tear gas canisters fired by the Guard.
2. The ROTC building was torched–two nights before. How was this provocation for being shot at?
3. All but two of the wounded were shot through the side or the back, not the front–hardly a direct threat to the Guard.
4. One of the dead, Bill Schroeder, was an ROTC member on the way to class.
5. The closest students to the Guard were over 70 feet away, again not a direct threat requiring armed action.
6. The closest student to the Guard who was killed was 265 feet, almost a football field, away.
7. Shots were fired by 28 different armed Guardsmen at the unarmed students.
The burning of the ROTC building, and the vandalism in Kent the weekend prior, was criminal, but to say that the shootings were justified, given the facts, is preposterous. The latest audio clip just confirms it. Why has it taken 37 years for this to reach the light of day?
As I understand it from a book I read on the subject a few years bac some of the people illed were not even involved in the protest is that correct?
Vietnam destroyed so many people not just the ones who died over there but many who lived to come home as well. While sitting in the waiting room of intensive care at the VA hospital waiting for the doctor to tell me when my husband was going to die (exposure to agent orange) I met a women who’s husband had just put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger the only way he found to stop the nightmares he had had for 30 years they both died on the same day at the age of 52. Now we will have a whole new generation who will suffer for the rest of their lives. That’s the real cost of war, every war, it’s just with Vietnam and now Iraq the price seems so senseless.