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Kent State

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Submitted By demonte15
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Kent State Massacre
Demonte Wesley May 4th, 1970 will always be remembered as the day America killed its children, when a group of student protestors were fired upon. This terrible event took the lives of four students and injured many others. The Kent state massacre was a devastating and tragic event that shook the U.S. on the day of May 4th, 1970.The invasion of Cambodia was one of the things, which lead to the protesting of students, which then lead to the Kent State massacre. President Nixon ordered the Cambodia invasion. He ordered our troops to clear out the North Vietnamese and Vietcong supply centers. This didn’t go to well with about 1.5 million college students around the U.S. Students protested outside there colleges for a few days which caused about 1,200 campuses to close down. Kent State was one of the colleges that had students protesting. The protest started out as students innocently gathering around the campus. Then they started to get out of hand. It all began when students tried to burn down the R.O.T.C. Building. This forced the mayor to call in the National Guard. Then on May 3rd officers were forced to throw teargas into the crowd to calm them down. Two people wound up being stabbed because they lunged at the guards. The next day, which would be May 4th, was the day of disaster. Students were throwing rocks at the guards and would shout curses at them. The guards threw teargas into the crowd but it just didn’t work .The wind that day was very strong and it just blew the smoke away. After a while the guards just turned around appearing like they were going to leave. Then all of a sudden some of the guardsman turned around and fired sixty-one shots into the crowed. Hitting thirteen students and killing four. The closest student shot was fully sixty feet away; All but one was more then 100 feet away; All but two were more then 200 feet away: One of the dead was 255 feet away: The rest were 300 to 400 feet away. The most distant student shot was more than 700 feet away. There was some violence going on, like rocks being thrown but why would the guardsman fire when they were just a few feet from safety. No one has been able to establish why they fired but all the guardsman that shot have said that they heard one person fire first and then they thought they were all supposed to fire. This is just a mystery that might never be solved.The four victims of this tragedy were Alison Krause, Jeffery Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. A sad thing to hear about this event is that two of the four students who were killed were not even in the protest . They were just students going to there next class. Along with the four that were killed there was nine others wounded. The injuries ranged from being paralyzed and having to spend the rest of there lives in a wheel chair to just being shot in the arm, and being better in a couple of months. However, no matter what kind of physical pain some of these students went through, no pain will be greater then the pain of having to remember seeing people shot and killed for no reason.The worst part of this whole thing is that no one got in trouble. None of the guardsman that fired the shots was in trouble. There were a few theories about who fired first. One was that there was a mysterious sniper who shot first but they could never prove that because there was no evidence. Another is that one guard just turned around and started to fire, which caused the other guardsman to fire. There is a picture of one of the guards firing first but a mask covered him so he couldn’t be identified. Also they all went with the same story that one person fired so they all just fired. This meant that the blame just couldn’t be put on anyone. On May 4th, 1970 the Kent State massacre was a devastating and tragic event that shook the U.S. and will never be forgotten. In memory of the four victims of this tragedy there are numerous memorials for them around the campus where this evil act was committed. No matter what people say about this day it will always be remember as the day America killed its children. For me this event was just Insane to see our own Nations guard murdering our own nations kids,its unbelievable to know that people do Such scary things. The men who shot those students even though they never got in trouble, will always remember what they did that day on May 4th, 1970.For as long as we live we now know that there is evil in everyone and for the family who lost there children,those families will never get justice.

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