From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Kent State at 25 (NYT)
Date: Fri, 05 May 1995 08:53:18 -0700 (PDT)

From: Jim Rosenfield <jnr>

KENT STATE AT 25 - New York Times, May 4, 1995
By Joseph Kelner, MINEOLA. L. I.

   In this season of historic anniversaries, Kent State deserves
notice.  It remains a testament to the malignant power of
inflammatory rhetoric from officials who, in the service of narrow
ambition, create the conditions for tragedy.
   On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops were summoned to
control a student rally protesting President Richard Nixon's
decision to invade Cambodia.  The troops fired tear gas grenades
and fixed their bayonets.  They marched about and without
warning, fired their M-1 rifles.  Four students were killed and
nine wounded.
   Imprinted in the nation's consciousness, even now, is the
Pulitzer-prize-winning photo of Jeff Miller, his body lying on a
roadway 270 feet from the firing line In a pool of blood streaming
from his head.  A young woman hovers over Jeff's body, her hands
raised to the sky, a stark display of shock and
dismay that such a shameful, gruesome event could occur in America.
   Jeff's mother, Elaine Miller, retained me a few days after he
was killed.  She said she wanted justice, not money.  I wanted the
same, and took the case on a pro bono basis.
   It was a time of division and turmoil.  A few days before the
shooting, President Nixon had described protesting students
everywhere as "bums." Thus inspired, Ohio's Governor James Rhodes
- then locked in a fierce campaign for the Republican senatorial
nomination - came to Kent State, where the old ROTC building had
been set afire by persons unknown.  On May 3, in a closed meeting,
he made a fiery speech to the National Guard, then held an
explosive press conference.
   "We are going to eradicate the problem," he roared.  "These
people just move from one campus to another and terrorIze the
community.  They are worse than the brownshirts and Communist
element and also the night riders and the vigilantes."
   The next day, 500 students gathered on the campus green.  Orders
to disband were Ignored.  Shots rang out.  Federal, state and local
investigations later showed that 67 M-1 rifle shots were fired by
the Guard in 13 seconds.  The student closest to the
firing line was 60 feet away.
   A commission headed by the former Pennsylvania  Governor 
William Scranton found the shootings "unnecessary, unwarranted and
inexcusable." -Yet after the shooting, polls in Ohio showed
overwhelming support for the Guard.  The students had asked for it,
the polls suggested, and they got what they deserved.
   We went to trial in 1975, In Cleveland's Federal Court, with a
civil action against Governor Rhodes, his adjutant general and the
guardsmen.  Amazingly, the anti-student sentiments were still
alive.  During jury selection, some prospective jurors announced,
"I can't be fair.   The students caused all this trouble."
   Not surprisingly, in the fierce anti-student climate fueled by
Mr. Nixon and Mr. Rhodes, the 9 to 3 jury verdict favored the
defendants.  Though the verdict was reversed upon appeal because of
errors by the trial judge, the result was wholly unsatisfactory. 
I learned then what we all know now: the fires of hate are kindled
easily by shallow ImpressIons and by reckless officials.  They
shape public opinion and jury verdicts.  They poison the system of
justice.
   After losing the appeal, and faced with a second trial, Ohio
offered to settle.  The exhausted plaintiffs and their families,
contrary to my advice, agreed to accept the paltry sum of
$675,000 in settlement.  The settlement included a statement of
regret signed by Governor Rhodes and the other defendants.  It was
an insipid solution.
   History will record that our Viet-nam adventure was reckless and
that our students were right, terribly right.  But at what a
ghastly cost! 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Weiner was chief counsel to the victims of the Kent State
shooting and their families.