Bush and Omar compare police responses to anti-war protests in Gaza with the Kent State Massacre on the 54th anniversary

Progressive Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Cori Bush (D-Minn.) compared police responses to ongoing pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country to the Kent State Massacre on its 54th anniversary in Saturday.

“54 years ago, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State. Students have the right to speak out, organize and protest systemic wrongs,” Omar said. he said in a post on the social platform X Saturday. “We cannot silence those who express dissent, no matter how uncomfortable their protests may be for those in power.”

Four students were killed and nine were injured at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970, after the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd protesting the Vietnam War.

Two notable recent cases of violence that arose during confrontation between police and protesters occurred this week at Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), when the New York Police Department (NYPD) ) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) cracked down on pro-Palestinian protesters at the two schools.

“On the 54th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, students across our country are being brutalized as they endure an endless war,” Bush said. he said in his own post on X. “Our country must learn to truly defend the rights of free speech and assembly upon which it was founded. Solidarity with our students[.]”

The comparisons followed reports that an NYPD Emergency Service Unit (ESU) officer “accidentally” fired a gun while clearing a Columbia University building seized by protesters earlier this week. The officer was searching the first floor and only officers were around during the incident, according to the NYPD.

“At approximately 9:38 p.m., an Emergency Service Unit officer was conducting an extensive and methodical search of an area on the first floor,” a spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “During this time, he was attempting to access a barricaded area.”

“The ESU officer has a firearm equipped with a flashlight and was illuminating the area to find the best way to navigate the barricaded area. The officer accidentally discharged his firearm, causing a single shot to be fired. The bullet hit a frame in the wall a few meters away. The bullet did not hit anyone and caused no injuries.”