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The Legal Background And Aftermath Of The Kent State Tragedy, David E. Engdahl

Cleveland State Law Review

Events of tragic violence occur with such commonness today that they are greeted most frequently either with a callous indifference or a generalized despair. Yet to thoughtful observers, there is an essential difference between those tragedies attributable to extremist and criminal factions, and those which result from overbearing acts of the agents of government themselves. Jackson State and Attica are only two of the most recent examples of events that test the strength of our modern commitment to the standards of government behavior our heritage had led us to expect. Even among the recent instances of tragic government violence, however, …