Don't remember if the National Guard was called in by or through the Governor (Nixon) there were hundreds of homemade signs that could have said anything. The Guard split the protesters which was a mistake everyone rallied at the Circle and broke off into small groups and entered Humanities bldg Students Cemter etc. This left the Gusrd practically powerless.
Why not? In this hypothetical situation, those soldiers made an oath to the Constitution and they would have been in uniform attacking someone over a sign.... 1A protected speech.
Couldn't tell, they ( a few?) may have gone rogue but the feeling was that they were given marching orders and were acting under those orders. I do know for certain that the TBI/FBI were there. We knew them in person from the frat raids over drug possession. They would try to 'hide' as maintenance workers, entered the frat house, and our rooms, to 'fix' the telephone wiring or HVAC...neither of which were broken.
The Guard was not happy with their task, many of them were ex-ROTC and schoolmates at one time. They were in the Guard to avert being drafted. Until the draft lottery was put in play, then the only way out was to pull a high number, I think over 180, They would pull a ball with a number on it, then pull a ball with a date on it (birthday) and voila. FYI, the reason that the draft lottery was installed was that Nixon was getting heat from the elite's who wanted to protect their sons. The black population had been well over represented in combat and they brought the heat as well.
timeline.utk.edu
volopedia.lib.utk.edu
Officers of the state beat up students over a sign = "nobody's perfect"I’m saying I wasn’t there, that I have no idea what it was like to have been a soldier during that time. Get off your constitutional high horse man….. people are people and no one is perfect.happens
