Audio Analysis Brings New Revelations From Kent State Shooting 289
a_nonamiss writes "The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting today on new forensic analysis by audio scientists Stuart Allen and Tom Owen on a recently discovered audio tape from the Kent State shootings. The analysis suggests that four shots from a .38-caliber pistol were fired 70 seconds before the National Guard opened fire on a crowd of student protesters, killing four and wounding nine others. The alleged shooter, student Terry Norman, was hired by the FBI to take photos of the protesters. It has been known for some time that he had a .38-caliber pistol on his person the day of the shootings, but he has always claimed that the gun was not fired during the protest, a claim that was backed up in sworn testimony from authorities at the time."
70 seconds ??? (Score:3, Interesting)
In a live fire situation 70 seconds may as well be next Tuesday.
Not a direct provocation, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:flowers to a gun fight (Score:2, Interesting)
never take a flower to a gun fight
Nor should you throw rocks, bricks, and bottles at a group of people carrying rifles. If anyone provoked the shooting it was the students. Deadly force was probably not justified at the point it was used, but the confrontations had been pretty violent for several days leading up to the shooting.
Re:70 seconds ??? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's true. The average gunfight lasts mere seconds...now, what happened an Kent State was anything but average, but still...over a minute?
There are so many things that are wrong with what happened that day, from all of the evidence, it looks to me and many others like this was orchestrated...someone wanted the anti war college students to be fired on, likely within the FBI - cointelpro, etc.
Re:Cause and Effect (Score:5, Interesting)
My brother was a student at Kent State and there the day of the shooting. He had always insisted that the guards did not fire first.
Re:flowers to a gun fight (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cause and Effect (Score:4, Interesting)
It doesn't mean it was HIS .38 firing. That's hardly an uncommon caliber.
Ohio Gov. James Rhodes still a criminal (Score:2, Interesting)
For ordering the Ohio National Guard to be at Kent State. Maybe I'll go spit on his grave today.
Re:flowers to a gun fight (Score:4, Interesting)
Your statement is very strange. The Kent State shooting contributed directly to the US withdrawal from Vietnam by showing the callousness of the Nixon administration and the unjustness of those calling protests "un-American". By remaining, and being shot, they actually helped end the war by exposing the criminal and callous behavior of those leading the war.
Shooting unarmed protesters has, repeatedly, triggered national changes of policy in favor of the people who were shot. Look up "Crispus Attucks" for an example at the core of the US revolution against British rule.
Re:Cause and Effect (Score:4, Interesting)
Grew up in the area, had friends that (later) went to KSU, was pre-HS at the time.
My father had a friend at work who had a daughter going to KSU. A few days before this got so bad, she called her dad, telling about what she heard from the apartment above. (thin walls, thin floors, cheap college rental) She heard the students there calling all over the US, lining up people to bring in to help with the protest. She was scared - her father picked her up and brought her home.
It pays to know older people (Score:5, Interesting)
He is working on a blog post about it now.
Re:no firearms != unarmed (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever been hit in the face with a thrown rock? It won't just leave a bruise; you WILL require surgery, and pray to God you don't have a fractured skull or spinal column (the likely result if the rock busts through your teeth into your mouth).
This sounds as if you were hit on the face with a thrown rock. Were you?
I actually researched this once, in the context of the Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian rock-throwers and justifying it with the claim that stones were "lethal weapons."
No Israeli soldier was ever killed by a Palestinian throwing a rock at him.
As it turned out, Slate had an article on the more general subject ("Getting stoned: how many police officers have been killed by rocks?"), which reported 3 police officers killed by rocks, 1 of them thrown, since 1792, and none in the last 70 years (out of 18,983 fatalities). Police departments teach that a rock isn't deadly beyond 50 feet.
I can't imagine how a policeman wearing riot gear, which includes a helmet and face shield, could be killed by a thrown rock.
(Actually, I was hit in the face myself with a thrown rock, by a neighborhood kid who was pelting my house with stones. He broke the window I was looking through. I had a minor cut from the glass, but no serious damage. I caught the kid and brought him home to his parents, who were profusely apologetic and fixed the window.)
hey, neocon asshole (Score:1, Interesting)
It was my volunteer unpaid "job" of sorts as an organizer back then to run security. We emphasized "non violence" and after a few demos it was obvious as shit to me that they ALWAYS infiltrated groups and had agents who wanted to instigate violence, even trying to get people to do ultra violent stuff. I caught them at it numerous times, it became easy. They were either pigs, a lot of pigs are dual badged, local then they get fed money and some title on the side, or military pigs, or some poor sap who they had busted for something like drugs and gave them the option, cooperate or face decades in jail. This shit goes on.
Here is the pigs mindset, hard evidence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio [wikipedia.org]
this one takes the cake, all those oath swearers...still fucking swine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods [wikipedia.org]
In other words, fuck you, you are consistently an asshole here, and you have no idea what you are talking about
Re:It pays to know older people (Score:3, Interesting)
The copy of the tape was found in 2007. Have there been "various trials and news specials" in the last 3 years about an event that's 40 years old?
Huh? Not that I know of in the past 3 years. Other copies of the same tape have been in use for 40 years. I hope that eases your confusion. He got the post finished here [blogspot.com].