Kent State University Incident: The End of the Innocence
After a long period of fighting a defensive war in Vietnam, on April
29, 1970, President Richard Nixon launched a full scale attack in
Cambodia, which greatly accelerated America¹s involvment in this
conflict. The reaction from the American college student population
was one that led into great controversy and heated debates. When Nixon
announced his decision on the following day, many people were upset,
and thousands of people protested. The end result of one particular
protest was bloody, and a perfect example of what terrible shape our
country was in during that period of time (Guard Fired in Self
Defense). Thoughtless mistakes such as the ones made on that day will
often have a snowball affect that lead into problems for all persons
envolved.
On May 3, 1970 students of Kent State University rallied to protest
Nixon¹s announcement. There was violent protesting all through the
night. Windows were broken, cars were destroyed, and the ROTC building
was burned to the ground. When the firemen arrived, their hoses were
taken by students and used aganist them. At that point Governor James
Rhodes called for the National Guard to come in and protect the
campus(Four Deaths at Noon).
The following day Kent State University was under the ³protection² of
the Ohio National Guard. Around noon on that day, students fromed in
protest. They were told to disperse, but refused. The first action of
the National Guard was to release tear-gas grenades upon the masses of
students (Guard Fired in Self Defense). These grenades were
marginally suscessful, and only caused a temporary retreat. The
students then responded by throwing concrerte, rocks, and everything
else they could find. This was the first of a group of poor decisions
that led to the bloody disaster of May 4, 1972 and all of the other
problems associated with the disaster (Kent State Continued).
From a distance of about sixty feet from the crowd of students, a
member of the National Guard believed that he heard sniper fire. In
response to these alleged shots, he opened fire on the students with
his M1 .30-06 caliber rifle. He was immediately backed up by several
of the men in his squad, all of whome were shooting the same rifle
except for one man who shot a military issue Colt .45. When the smoke
had cleared, ther had been about thirty-five shots fired, and four of
Historians claim that Hoovers term during the depression was filled with false promises and accuse the president of doing nothing while the depression worsened. Along with worsening the debt and a fairly aggressive use of government it is clear his approach towards the situation was not the best. FDR’s approach would prove during his administration to suffice in the augmentation of the crisis. Although it seemed like a completely opposite presidency, many ideas came from his predecessor. Roosevelt’s team of advisors understood that much of what they produced and fashioned into the New Deal owed its origins to Hoover’s policies.
``In criminal law, confession evidence is a prosecutor’s most potent weapon’’ (Kassin, 1997)—“the ‘queen of proofs’ in the law” (Brooks, 2000). Regardless of when in the legal process they occur, statements of confession often provide the most incriminating form of evidence and have been shown to significantly increase the rate of conviction. Legal scholars even argue that a defendant’s confession may be the sole piece of evidence considered during a trial and often guides jurors’ perception of the case (McCormick, 1972). The admission of a false confession can be the deciding point between a suspect’s freedom and their death sentence. To this end, research and analysis of the false confessions-filled Norfolk Four case reveals the drastic and controversial measures that the prosecuting team will take to provoke a confession, be it true or false.
At first Hoover opposed any relief efforts, but as the Depression worsened, he started a few farm assistance programs. Hoover hoped that theses farm programs would help the farmers’ situation with the low crop prices. Unfortunately farmers had to come dependent on this government handout. Hoover also started federal work projects such as the Grand Coulee Dam and the Hoover Dam. These projects provided many jobs for people and provided affordable hydroelectric power for people but the Great Depression was a much bigger problem than a few extra job openings could fix. Hoping that raising tariffs could help American business Hoover created the Hawley-Smoot Tarrif. This actually worsened economy and caused lower export rates. One of Hoover’s big mistakes was that he wouldn’t go off the gold standard. Hoov...
What happened at Kent State University? This is a question that many Americans were asking following the crisis on the Kent campus. In the days preceding May 4, 1970, protests, disruption, and violence erupted on the university grounds. These acts were the students’ reaction to President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia. The events surround the deaths of four students in Kent, Ohio are disorderly and violent. In the government’s investigation after the shootings, the officials made several recommendations to students of the future. As the massacre is looked back upon, there are several key events that set the tragic day into motion.
As a juror in any court case it would be difficult to come to one conclusion with twelve different opinions. The fictional play Twelve Angry Men proved this to be true, however, the jurors in the Sandusky trial found it relatively easy to decide on a verdict. Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State assistant football coach and founder of the 2nd Mile charity, was convicted of fifty-two accounts of child molestation. Although members of the jury would like to discuss every aspect of the case, in the end, convicting Sandusky guilty would be a simple task.
The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine covers many topics of American history during the "Great Depression" through 1941. The topic that I have selected to compare to the text of American, Past and Present, written by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Frederickson and R. Hal Williams, is Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president of the United States and America's president during the horrible "Great Depression".
1. BREYER, STEPHEN G. "A Look Back At The Dred Scott Decision." Journal Of Supreme Court History 35.2 (2010): 110-121. History Reference Center. Web. 13 May 2014.
The 1932 presidential election came in the midst of the greatest economic depression experienced by the American people. Never before in the history of the United States has pessimism been so universal. The descent from the height of prosperity of the late 1920s had been rapid, bringing fear and uncertainty. By March 1932 approximately 12 million men and women were unemployed. By March 1933 unemployment had reached 13.5 million. In the hard-hit cities, long lines of hungry people waited before charity soup kitchens for something to eat, and thousands unable to pay rent, huddled in empty lots. Homeless people made shelters out of old packing cartons. More than one million Americans wandered through the country aimlessly looking for work.
When put into the position of complete authority over others people will show their true colors. I think that most people would like to think that they would be fair, ethical superiors. I know I would, but learning about the Stanford Prison Experiment has made me question what would really happen if I was there. Would I be the submissive prisoner, the sadistic guard, or would I stay true to myself? As Phillip Zimbardo gave the guards their whistles and billy clubs they drastically changed without even realizing it. In order to further understand the Stanford Prison experiment I learned how the experiment was conducted, thought about the ethical quality of this experiment, and why I think it panned out how it did.
In Corsicana, Texas Cameron Willingham and his family’s home was burned down the twenty-third of December is 1991. According to the report Cameron was asleep when the fire started and survived the accident with only a few injuries, as for his children they were not so lucky, they lost their lives to the tragic accident. At the time of the accident Cameron’s wife was buying presents for their children for Christmas. According to a witness and her Daughter Diane and Buffie from a few houses down went outside and saw Cameron screaming, “My babies are burning up!” Diane and Cameron tried countless attempts to rescue the girls from their room until the fire department could get there. According to the New Yorker “The house, in short, had been deliberately transformed onto a death trap.” According to the reports on December twenty-fourth and twenty-seventh of 1991 the fire was declared arson and they later decided to conduct a criminal investigation. Cameron was questioned by the investigators on December 31st and was then later arrested on January 8th of 1992 for the death his three daughters.
Hoover’s response to the Depression was shaped his conservative Republican ideas. He thought that the poor were lazy and that the rich became rich because they worked hard. The believed in “Big Business”, and that the money would “trickle down” if the poor worked harder. He thought that the Depression would solve itself. He thought that big business would end the depression. So that’s why he didn’t take actions sooner in the Depression. Hoover waited too long to take action thus, resulting in him getting blamed for the Depression
Scott Peterson was an educated man from California Polytechnic State University where he graduated with a B.A. in Agricultural Business. He was married to his wife Laci Peterson who was also pregnant with their unborn son. In December of 2002 Laci Peterson went missing in the Modesto, California area where she shared a home with Scott. Once the investigation of Scott’s missing wife started authorities began to suspect Scott as a suspect in her disappearance. In April of 2003 a fetus and a female torso that was missing hands, feet, and a head were found on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay area was where Scott was boating the day of Laci’s disappearance. The body was later identified as Laci Peterson and the fetus as Laci and Scott’s unborn son. Scott was also arrested in the month of April shortly after the discovery of Laci and their son’s body and was later sentenced to the death penalty. Over the course of this paper I will cover the whole event of the disappearance of Laci Peterson, relating it to a sociological theory, the impact the event had on our society and how the media had influence over this national event.
Sidney Farber’s injection of folic acid into leukemic children without sure knowledge of the effects nearly killed the patients. Utilitarians would regard his actions as the right actions to take considering that if Farber did not attempt to cure the disease, the kids would most likely die anyway like many before them did. My argument contradicts with this utilitarian thinking due to the unethical nature of Farber’s actions that endangered the innocent against their will. By not giving informed consent, the actions by Farber at that time were highly unethical as there was no assurance of the results of his experiments. Later on, in the lives of the majority, happiness is maximized because Farber did end up. However, at the time, it is highly unethical and erroneous for anyone, utilitarian or not, to refuse informed consent to innocent people and put them at harms risk with the possibility that their sacrifice may be in vain.
“ The concentrated explosion of 1,800 tons of bombs – incendiaries among them – resulted in a lethal firestorm. At least 10,000 people died in the explosions and ensuing fires, and the flames were still burning seven days later.
This tragic accident was preventable by not only the flight crew, but maintenance and air traffic control personnel as well. On December 29, 1972, ninety-nine of the one hundred and seventy-six people onboard lost their lives needlessly. As is the case with most accidents, this one was certainly preventable. This accident is unique because of the different people that could have prevented it from happening. The NTSB determined that “the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the flightcrew.” This is true; the flight crew did fail, however, others share the responsibility for this accident. Equally responsible where maintenance personnel, an Air Traffic Controllers, the system, and a twenty cent light bulb. What continues is a discussion on, what happened, why it happened, what to do about it and what was done about it.