With all the National Guard surrounding many university campuses nationwide, it came to mind how potentially similar outcomes could be to the infamous day on the Kent State University grounds…and wouldn’t you know it?, the incident happened 54 years ago today!
Today in History: On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.
The confrontation, sometimes referred to as the May 4 massacre, was a defining moment for a nation sharply divided over the protracted war, in which more than 58,000 Americans died. It sparked a strike of 4 million students across the U.S., temporarily closing some 900 colleges and universities. The events also played a pivotal role, historians argue, in turning public opinion against the conflicts in Southeast Asia.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, called editorially for “an immediate investigation and prompt steps to prevent a recurrence of the most tragic campus violence ever in the United States. […] “Many questions will have to be answered: Why were these people shot? Who shot first? How could these deaths have been avoided?
Let’s all cross our fingers that history doesn’t repeat itself.
Remember…Parma spelled backwards is AMRAP!
!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social
Edited to fix attribution!
🤓 actually it is by Crosby Stills Nash & Young, though Young did compose and do lead vocals.
Oops! I edited my comment. Thanks for the correction!
The PSU library just got forcibly cleared out, and I believe I saw a report that during the clear out, one cop fired one shot, and the rest of the cops turned around and descended on him to disarm him and remove him from the scene.
They still pretty violently cleared out the library, so I’m not handing out any medals, but still.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In 1998, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski (kah-ZIHN’-skee) was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, California, under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
In 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley, wife of actor Robert Blake, was shot to death as she sat in a car near a restaurant in Los Angeles.
In 2006, a federal judge sentenced Zacarias Moussaoui (zak-uh-REE’-uhs moo-SOW’-ee) to life in prison for his role in the 9/11 attacks, telling the convicted terrorist, “You will die with a whimper.”
In 2011, President Barack Obama said he had decided not to release death photos of Osama bin Laden because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks.
Officials told The Associated Press that the Navy SEALs who’d stormed bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan shot and killed him after they saw him appear to lunge for a weapon.
In 2023, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.
The original article contains 541 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Screw, tin man.