The U.S. Has No Problem Shooting Innocent Citizens
It did it on May 4, 1970
Trump wants to militarize the police, to deport “home growns” to foreign gulags, is ignoring court orders and plenty more. His administration has already arrested at least one judge. Innocent citizens who have not been charged with any crimes have been targeted.
This is fascism. It’s not at our front step; it’s already busted open the door and is seizing all our valuables.
If you feel safe, you’re either a billionaire or deluded.
Shooting innocent citizens is nothing new for the U.S.
One very good example happened 55 years ago today. I was too young to remember the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970. My first knowledge that my own government had opened fire on college students — killing four of them and injuring nine — first came from hearing a song on the radio.
Neil Young, of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young wrote the song Ohio, which has had such heavy airplay on classic rock stations that you must have heard it even if you’re not a fan of that kind of music. The haunting refrain “four dead in Ohio” repeats multiple times.
President Richard Nixon’s decision to expand the Vietnam War into Cambodia angered people across the country, especially young people on college campuses. At Kent State, the Ohio Army National Guard opened fire during a confrontation. Some of the students shot were protesting — as supposedly protected by our First Amendment — and others were merely walking to class.
Today, as we note the 55th anniversary of the government killing college students protesting a war, we again have college students protesting a war.
The last time students protested this much, the government killed some of them. If you are worried about history repeating itself, you are not alone.
Each time I think the divisions in the U.S. are unprecedented, I remind myself of the divisions and assassinations of the 1960s — and of the 1970 murder of four college students by the government. Things are not worse now, even though they feel that way.
But that could change in a heartbeat.
There’s a long tradition of campus protests
It’s a natural place for movements to bloom — you have a concentration of young people, and many of them have somewhat more freedom and time than they will after they begin their careers and start families. It’s a time when you’re figuring out who you are, what you believe, and what you’re willing to take a stand for.
When I was in school, some students built and stayed in shanties on the quad to pressure the college into divesting from South Africa during apartheid. It was mostly peaceful, although some passersby shouted obscenities at the shanty students, according to an old story in my college paper I found online. (I couldn’t find any of the pieces I remember writing at that time about divestiture and the shantytown on the quad, but the one I did find was written by a fellow student who is now the senior international correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek in London.)
Now, it’s people of all ages
I’ve been attending a lot of peaceful protests lately to protest everything Trump is doing. It’s my right — I would almost say obligation — to stand up for what I believe in. There are young parents pushing kids in strollers and elderly people using walkers.
We all woke up and smelled the fascism, and I suspect many of the oldest protesters also did this sort of thing when they were young.
But there’s a problem with insisting on peaceful protest: There’s a very long tradition of people who do not agree with the protesters bringing in the violence, and then the authorities seizing on that to brand the entire peace movement as being anti-American and illegitimate.
The word at all these events is to stay peaceful and to resist the actions of agitators. If violence occurs, it will not be from the people I’ve been marching with most weekends lately.
Some students were throwing rocks at Kent State
They weren’t the ones singled out, though. Some victims weren’t even protesting — they were just walking to class and were caught in the crossfire. It’s sometimes unclear in the muddle how much violence comes from the actual protestors and how much of it comes from the people who hate the protesters and want to smear them.
At a Black Lives Matter protest I attended in my town in 2020, every protester was peaceful and organizers repeatedly stated that during the event, but Trump supporters tried to stir things up. (Click here for an NPR story by another person I worked with at my college paper, and with some photos supplied by myself and yet another alum of the same college newsroom.)
The demonstration I attended was marred by four people cited for disorderly conduct — but they were Trump supporters who showed up to protest the protestors. I’m grateful that the police made the right call in that case.
There are times when you have to take a stand
If our founding fathers had not believed in freedom of speech and the right of assembly, they would not have put both of them in the First Amendment.
When there’s a cause you believe in, show up to make your voice heard. Pick up a sign. Write a news story or opinion piece or, if you have Neil Young’s talent, a song.
I’ve been listening to Ohio a lot.
And I’d go visit Young live if I could afford the travel — he was on the job then and he’s on the job now.
There are two clear sides here
Some of the same people who have no problem with rioters who broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 are incensed with peaceful student protests. If you’re tempted to say, “Well, sure, some of the Jan. 6 people did bad things but so do some leftie protestors,” let me remind you of something.
The Jan. 6 people literally broke into the Capitol in an attempt to change the outcome of an election, whereas the people on the left are just begging the government to respect the Constitution, the rule of law and human rights. You cannot equate the two.
As usual, it’s free speech and freedom of assembly for me but not for thee. Some of the conservatives who were so upset with what they called liberal “cancel culture” want to do the canceling now.
I’m just worried the canceling will be done with guns — again.
To see John Filo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken 55 years ago today, visit the Wikipedia page on the Kent State shootings.
About Michelle Teheux
I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here and on Medium. I also have a new Substack aimed at authors who want to self-publish books, called The Indie Author. My most recent book is Strapped: Fighting for the soul of the American working class. My most recent novel is The Trailer Park Rules. If you prefer to give a one-time tip, I accept Ko-fi.
No one was ultimately punished for the Kent State shootings. While investigations and charges were filed, the individuals accused were acquitted.
A study done at the time of the Vietnam War protests found that protests would remain peaceful unless the police showed up in riot gear. Riot gear starts the riots, not protesters