Frank Zappa - I’m the Slime

Crosby, Stills & Nash - Ohio

From Kent State Shootings Wikipedia page

Many guardsmen later testified that they fired because they feared for their lives, which was questioned partly because of the distance between them and the protesting students. ==Guardsmen that claimed they feared for their lives variously listed an assortment of reasons, including: they were surrounded, the crowd pursuing them was almost on top of them, the protesters “charged” them or were advancing on them “in a threatening manner”, “the sky was black with stones”, and a sniper fired at them; some listed a combination of multiple such reasons, and some gave no explanation as to why they believed their lives were in danger.== Most guardsmen that fired said they did so because they heard others fire or assumed an order to fire in the air had been given and did not claim they felt in danger. There was no order to fire, and no guardsmen requested permission, though several guardsmen later claimed they heard some sort of command to fire. Some guardsmen (including some who claimed their lives were in danger) had their backs turned to the protesters when the firing broke out. No guardsman claimed to have been hit by rocks immediately before firing, and the guardsmen were not surrounded. The FBI determined that at least two guardsmen who denied firing likely lied and had fired and that there was reason to believe that guardsmen’s claims of fearing for their lives were fabricated after the event.

Now this is me [JMK]: The police and military have every advantage in such a scenario. They have armor, weapons, radios, training in hand-to-hand combat, and regularly practice the use of all four of those. The fact that police or troops can rely on a defense like “I was afraid for my life” while confronting and shooting/killing a(n) unarmed person(s)… it is ponderous. It seems the value of armor, radios, and manual self-defense training disappears under such stress. Yet, the training to deploy the guns survives… I believe the group sworn to protect and serve should have the initial instinct to suppress the urge to subjugate and kill when they only feel threatened. Rely on the armor and radios and hand-to-hand techniques to protect you from ordinary harm. Like any martial arts training. Know that you CAN do things to protect yourself, but try everything in your power to not have to.

Lastly, marking the 80th Anniversary of the Trinity test:

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