May 4, 1970, Kent State Massacre

RIP

Allison Krause

Jeffrey Miller

Sandra Scheuer

William Schroeder

4 Dead in Ohio

This wouldn't happen today. 

They generally don't shoot white kids anymore.

max_weisenfeld said:

This wouldn't happen today. 

They generally don't shoot white kids anymore.

 Good point.

"Mr. Franklin,  what kind of government have you given us"?     "A Republic,  if you can keep it."

Now May (the) 4th is more recognized for fiction than for this national tragedy. 

nohero said:

max_weisenfeld said:

This wouldn't happen today.  

They generally don't shoot white kids anymore.

 Good point.

Since Kent State, when have National Guard troops in a domestic deployment shot anyone? There was Los Angeles 23 years ago. Not Waco, from what I can find. Any others?

A good friend of mine was a National Guard MP platoon leader at the time of the Newark riots.  On their first night in the city they took incoming fire from the protestors and returned fire with their automatic M-14s.  It was a mioracle they didn't kill anyone.  The next night only the officers and senior non-coms had information. 

Jackson State a couple of weeks later. May 15.

GL2 said:

Jackson State a couple of weeks later. May 15.

 Even in the historical record, Black lives matter less :-(

wharfrat said:

GL2 said:

Jackson State a couple of weeks later. May 15.

 Even in the historical record, Black lives matter less :-(

Wasn't that the police, not the Guard?

Not that it matters in the bigger picture, which also includes a major caveat -- the militarization of the police and the blurring of roles -- that could completely undermine what I was considering. But what I was considering was this: that the Guard's record since Kent State may offer at least a glimmer of hope.

There was an excellent documentary on last week on PBS called "The day the 60's Died"  http://video.pbs.org/program/day-60s-died/

It interviewed many who were there from , students, to activists, to a national guardsman to a young man who was in vietnam.  It described the political situaiton of the time and the hows/whys of Nixon's decisions.  It aired on the heels of the Baltimore protests and made me wonder if we had learned anything in 45 years.