Comments on: Order To Open Fire In Kent State Shooting?

Man Shot By National Guardsmen Says He Has Tape Of Someone Giving Order To Open Fire

[processorr2]

The government should shoot people when they protest.

Freedom aint free.

[pwrslm]

burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.
Posted by processor2

That really doesnt matter, the Government has no right to conceal information during a criminal or civil trial to protect its agents from guilt.

The FBI had both a moral and lawful obligation to disclose this tapes contents for use in the trials that proceded this incident.

[pwrslm]

What really needs to be investigated is why the FBI had this tape, and failed to disclose it to the public. If its authentic, this is a huge case of government coverup of organized criminal activity.

The failed disclosure violated the right to due process of the defendents. The Guardsmen would have been instantly vindicated of any criminal wrongdoing if they were given a lawful order.

The Government let a sharade go on. Its no less criminal than Mafia or Tong activity.

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[dollybaird]

Another Steven Spielberg movie....
Iraq another Vietnam; and now there talking about Kent State again, shouldn't we be focusing on today%u2019s issue of global warming, the high price of gasoline, and when are we getting out of Iraq!!

[RicF964]

The Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard told reporters that a sniper had fired on the guardsmen, which itself remains a debated allegation. Many guardsmen later testified that they were in fear for their lives, which was questioned partly because of the distance of the wounded students. Time magazine later concluded that "triggers were not pulled accidentally at Kent State". The President's Commission on Campus Unrest avoided the question of why the shootings happened, but harshly criticized both the protesters and the Guardsmen, concluding that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

[RicF964]

At this point, a number of guardsmen at the top of the hill abruptly turned and fired into the students. The guardsmen directed their fire not at the closest students, who were on the Taylor Hall veranda, but at those on the grass area and concrete walkway below the veranda, at those on the service road between the veranda and the parking lot, and at those in the parking lot. Bullets were not sprayed in all directions, but instead were confined to a fairly limited line of fire leading from the top of the hill to the parking lot. Not all the soldiers who fired their weapons directed their fire into the students. Some soldiers fired into the ground while a few fired into the air. In all, 29 of the 77 guardsmen claimed to have fired their weapons. A total of 67 bullets were fired. The shooting was determined to have lasted only 13 seconds, although a New York Times reporter stated that "it appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer." The question of why the shots were fired is widely debated.

[RicF964]

While on the practice field, the guardsmen generally faced the parking lot which was about 100 meters away. At one point some of the guardsmen knelt and aimed their weapons toward the parking lot, then stood up again. For a few moments several guardsmen formed a loose huddle and appeared to be talking to one another. The guardsmen appeared to be unclear as to what to do next. They had cleared the protesters from The Commons area, and many students had left, but many stayed and were still angrily confronting the soldiers, some throwing rocks and tear gas canisters. At the end of about ten minutes the Guardsmen began to retrace their steps back up the hill toward The Commons area. Some of the students on the Taylor Hall veranda began to move slowly toward the soldiers as the latter passed over the top of the hill and headed back down into The Commons.

[RicF964]

When it was obvious the crowd was not going to disperse, a group of 77 National Guard troops from A Company and Troop G began to advance on the hundreds of protesters with bayonets fixed on their weapons. The guardsmen had had little training in riot control. As the guardsmen advanced, the protesters retreated up and over a hill (Blanket Hill) heading out of The Commons area. Once over the hill, the students, in a loose group, moved northeast along the front of a building (Taylor Hall), with some continuing toward a parking lot in front of another building (Prentice Hall, slightly northeast of and perpendicular to Taylor Hall). The guardsmen pursued the protesters over the hill, but rather than veering left as the protesters had, they continued straight, heading down toward an athletic practice field enclosed by a chain link fence. Here they remained for about ten minutes, unsure of how to get out of the area short of retracing their entrance path (a move some guardsmen considered could be viewed as a retreat). During this time, the bulk of the students were off to the left and front of the Guardsmen, approximately 50 to 75 meters away, on the veranda of Taylor Hall. Others were scattered between Taylor Hall and the Prentice Hall parking lot, while still others, perhaps 35 or 40, were standing in the parking lot, or dispersing through the lot as had been previously ordered.