The Day Shit Got Real

[Kharakov]

A single incident like this over 50 years ago is just a blip.

Point of order: 1970 is rather less than 50 years ago.

It wasn't 5 years from now.

 

[Horatio Parker]

NG units trained to maneuver and fire together are not aggregates of police officers. And, as you pointed out, why they were there at all is nontrivial.

It doesn't matter what their training is. When they are assigned there as police officers they need to be treated as police officers in regards to their roles, responsibilities and restrictions. If they lack the training for the roles they are being given, that's the fault of the people who sent them there and any liability for poor policework on their part needs to go up the chain. It does not count as an excuse for poor policework on their part.

You don't get to use the "it was my first day" excuse when you kill somebody. They have an assignment and part of that assignment is the rules of engagement which restrict their activities. Those rules need to be based on the rules which govern every other police officer, because that's what they are while they're there.

Send in a poorly trained, inexperienced, and badly led unit, things like this can happen. But it's not at all the same as a power drunk cop throwing his weight around. The commander, perhaps, but not every line soldier.

- - - Updated - - -

There seems to be some belief that Officer Friendly is an example of the police and GI Joe is an example of a soldier.

Officer Friendly was shot by a SWAT team and GI Joe got bomb by a drone.

Time to rethink what the differences are between the police and the army. They may not be as distinct as you think.

They were more distinct in 1970.

 

[KeepTalking]

"Middle America" did not go to college back then.

Only the kids of well off parents did.

This is why going to college got the guys an exemption from the draft.

Guys who went to trade school or blue collar workers were the pool of draftees.

"Rich man's war, poor man's fight" as the old saying goes.

Honestly, the current generation thinks nothing of this event. If it even rings a bell.

Mass shootings on campuses is a horrific, though regular thing now.

A single incident like this over 50 years ago is just a blip.

Not by those in positions of authority, it isn't.

Also, mass shootings on campus were not unheard of back then either. You live in Texas, according to your profile, you should remember this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman