In late April 1970, the Vietnam War was raging, the draft for that war was still extant, and President Richard Nixon was describing our invasion into Cambodia as means of gaining the upper hand on the Viet Cong. The counter culture, which had already erupted violently at various times in the previous months and years, began to show signs of erupting once more. On and around the campus of Kent State in Ohio, the possibility for trouble was especially keen: protestors marched, fights broke out (both on campus and off), and police and National Guardsmen (who had been called in to keep the peace) were pelted with rocks. On the campus, the ROTC building was set on fire as “war protestors” unleashed their venom on what was the most recognizable symbol of our military they could find (apart from the National Guardsmen whom they were pelting with rocks, that is). Those first four days of May 1970 were crazy.
A month ago, Wall Street protesters revived the kind of protests we witnessed in the late 60s and early 70s. These soon became occupations (Occupy Wall Street) and, like those at Kent State so many decades ago, proved to be but a small part of a larger counter culture movement around the country. Sadly, the protests occupations also proved disrespectful, and frequently downright dangerous, to police officers, as those at Kent State proved to be during those first four days of May. From defecation on police cars, to graffiti on the same, to throwing objects at policemen, occupiers in cities around the country have literally gone after the police with an abandon that begs for relation yet criticizes any. Through it all, the police have somehow restrained themselves.
I often wonder how the police held back while freaks like those at Occupy Oakland were “throwing feces, paint, rocks, and M-80s [firecrackers]” at them? Sure, the police used tear gas and other “less lethal” means to respond, but even this was criticized because one of the protesters was allegedly struck in the eye by a police canister. Of course, had that protester not been with the freaks who were throwing stuff at the police he would have been fine. And in Denver over the weekend, members of Occupy Denver “kicked police and knocked one officer off his motorcycle.” These last 30 days of occupation have been crazy.
On May 4, 1970, the National Guard was finally hit with enough rocks (and in some reports, pieces of concrete), so they opened fire. The rest is history, forever caught in the lyrics of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young:
Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
I don’t know if the hippies and the freaks protesting today want the police to open fire on them the way the National Guard did in 1970, but I do know that throwing “feces, paint, rocks, and M-80s” is pushing the limit (if not crossing it). It just seems like the political correctness that crippled our military after the Vietnam War is now being trusted by hippies who disparage and attack policemen while expecting no consequences in return. In so many ways it’s evident that entire generations of Americans have learned absolutely nothing from our past.
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