On this date:
Four Dead in Ohio.
1970 Kent State University

Hard to believe how the Jack Boot Thug has changed, isn't it?

I remember the protests on UO campus. They came in to my 3rd year physics class. We shouted them out.

quote:

Originally posted by Hamden106:
I remember the protests on UO campus. They came in to my 3rd year physics class. We shouted them out.

Why, in hindsight they were correct. Oh that's right we were going to stop the spread of Communism. We did so well, it's here in the USA.

Remember it well. It was the last straw for a lot of us. Shooting college students. Of course the National Guardsman were our age and some dumb ass gave them live ammunition. Still remember the pics.

I was not upset when I saw the news of the shooting and the protests.
I'm almost 72 years old now, I was just out of HS when this happened along with the other anti war protests.
MANY of my friends were in Vietnam or had been drafted. I had a high lottery number and avoided getting drafted, many of my friends did not.

I found the protests and the "Jane Fonda" types protesting against our own troops while they were there fighting, unacceptable.
I must confess I rooted for the Chicago Cops during the Democratic Convention in Chicago, watching them swing those clubs and kick some ass always put a smile on my face. I never liked old man Daley but his shoot to kill order for rioters put a smile on my face.

The new Dem convention here in Chicago should be a real shit show with the new administration here in Chicago, they (Law Enforcement) will be flattened by the mob this time. I pray they will stay home.

Really showed how the M-14 wasn't really all it was cracked up to be. They only managed to kill 4 of the bastards. A single mortar platoon would have laid waste to dozens and dozens.

John Filo took this famous pic --




I worked "with" him one week out of three at the Illinois State house in the later 70's. As he was a still guy (UPI or AP, don't remember) and I was a lowly TV photog, he ignored me. One of the other still guys used Leica gear and we got along well as I liked picking his brain. But Filo floated on a cloud above us all.

My wife was an undergrad student at Kent State, at the time. She did not have any classes scheduled that day, so she was not on campus.

It did shut down that mostly peaceful protest right quick.

quote:

Of course the National Guardsman were our age and some dumb ass gave them live ammunition.

What would be the point of carrying a rifle to a riot without it? Stop, or I'll yell stop again?

Sorry, but trash the town, destroy businesses, burn down the ROTC building, throw rocks at armed Guardsmen, and arguably shoot first, don't be surprised when they fire. Had the students dispersed when they were instructed to do so, nobody would have died that day.

Might be worth recounting the fact that the shooting followed 3 days of rioting on campus and that the ROTC building had been burnt to the ground on the Friday preceding the Monday shooting.

The girl leaning over the body is Mary Ann Vecchio. She was 14 years old at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Vecchio

I pretty much missed out on the event as I collected most of my hometown newspapers all together every week or so, in a remote part of the World.