The Jackson-Kent Killings

Richard Nixon originally appointed the Scranton commission because of the bloodshed at Jackson State and Kent State universities. Having reported first on the general tensions between students and society, the group has now turned to specific cases. The last two reports it has released leave no ground for charges of being "imprecise" or "equivocal." Instead, they come down hard on Mississippi policemen and strongly criticize the Ohio National Guard for their indiscriminate firing at students last spring.

At Jackson State, the commission concluded, "racial animosity on the part of white police officers was a substantial contributing factor in the deaths of two black youths and the gunshot injuries of twelve more." It also placed blame for the killings on "the confidence of white officers that if they fire weapons during a black campus disturbance, they will face neither stern departmental discipline nor criminal prosecution or conviction."

As the commission reconstructed events, the firing began without any warning and evidently without any order from the police commanders. The investigators also confirmed reports that the crowd of 75 to 200 students had taunted the police and pelted them with a "small number of bottles, rocks and bricks." But, the report added, this was far short of the "constant barrage of flying missiles" described by police.

The commission, however, was unable to determine whether the police had been subjected to sniper fire, and that is the report's greatest weakness. Police claim that they opened fire on the students only in self-defense. But the report clearly condemned the ferocity of police response. "Even if there was sniper fire--a question on which we have found conflicting evidence," it stated, "the 28-second barrage of lethal gunfire . . . was completely unwarranted and unjustified." The commission also cast doubts on police contentions that they had fired over the heads of the crowd. Both of the dead students, it observed, were at ground level. One was found lying on the side of the street opposite the alleged sniper's window.

Turning to Kent State, the commission "strongly suggested that no sniper fire preceded the 61-shot National Guard fusillade that resulted in the death of four students. It also took Guard leaders to task for allowing Guardsmen to carry live ammunition on campus. In contrast to the police at Jackson, however, Guardsmen at Kent State were portrayed as panic-stricken, acting out of confusion and fear.

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