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Kent State: 1,500 Battle Police, Horses, and Gas

By VVAW

Officials at Kent State University have planned to build a gym on the site of the murder of four students by the national guard in a protest against the war in 1970. While other sites were equally convenient and even less costly, they wanted to cover up the site, the murders, and all remembrances of people fighting against that war. (See the last issue of the Veteran for details) in response to this there have been a series of protests demanding "Move the Gym."

On October 11, there was another demonstration and protest which met fierce opposition by university and state officials. Court injunctions, newspaper editorials, threats from the university president, arrests of students and hundreds of police couldn't stop the demonstration. The march, with members of Vietnam Vets Against the War in the front dressed in fatigues, marched to the rally point on campus. The police moved in, and the protestors moved off to another part of the campus to finish the rally.

At the conclusion of the rally, the police moved in again, this time on horseback. Students with long poles held off the horses while the demonstration formed up and marched away. The march moved to the gym site, and the police hit with their tear gas, throwing hundreds of cannisters. The demonstration reformed. Students, angered by this attack, were ready to take to the hill which is the gym site.

While more students came out of the dorms to the gym site, the demonstration moved to join them, avoiding the cops as they marched. The new students doubled the size of the demonstration. Some kept the marchers informed of the police movements on the sprawling campus. Others shouted out of their dorm windows, "Pigs off campus."

Two more assaults were made on the hill. Each time the cops let loose with their gas. Students and vets picked up the cannisters and threw them back at the cops until the final retreat. The whole thing lasted about five hours, and when it was over, the cops, the university and the state knew they had been in a battle and knew they had been in a battle and knew that if they do build the gym there they'll pay for it. The students and vets came away with a feeling of victory, having learned how to fight and feeling the strength of 1500 people fighting to keep alive the spirit of Kent State and getting ready for the next protest on May 4th, the 8th anniversary of the murder of the four students.