"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, We're finally on our own, This summer I hear them drumming, Four dead in Ohio..."
 
 "Ohio," was written by Neil Young for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in 1970 in the immediate aftermath of four students being shot dead by the Ohio National Guard at a non-violent Vietnam War protest on campus at Kent State.

Here in 2011, the nation was outraged by the shocking still and video images of a University of California, Davis police officer casually pepper spraying ten students in the face who were sitting and staging a peaceful protest on the campus Friday afternoon. By Sunday, the video went viral and it became the top news story in the country.
 
The universal reaction was gutteral and understandable. Sheer disgust by all. Embattled U.C. Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi issued a statement Sunday saying she spoke with students and said "I feel their outrage." Katehi added she has heard from "overwhelming number of students, faculty, staff and alumni from around the country" denouncing the incident.
 
Bill Ostertag is a long-time UCD professor. He wrote a long, thoughtful blog on the militarization of campus police. He said students are frustrated that just six years ago, tuition at UC Davis was $5,357 and is currently $12,192.
 
"I teach at UC Davis and I personally know many of the students who were the victims of this brutal and unprovoked assault. They are top students. In fact, I can report that among the students I know, the higher a student's grade point average, the more likely it is that they are centrally involved in the protests,"
Ostertag wrote.
 
By Monday, campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza and two campus officers were placed on administrative leave while Katehi announced she was asking the Yolo County District Attorney to investigate the police actions.
 
The action could not come in the nick of time. Emotions are running feverishly high right now across the country with the Occupy movements and concurrent campus protests at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Davis. They are escalating to the point that possibly, it was only a matter of time emotions would overflow, tensions would rise and someone would snap and use a gun instead of a baton or Taser  -- like Kent State.
 
On May 4, 1970, four students were killed and nine injured when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students during an anti-Vietnam War rally on the Kent State campus. The students killed were unarmed and in good standing with the university. The Ohio National Guard fired 67 rounds in 13 seconds. The iconic photo of a wailing young woman standing over the body of a dead, under 20 college student became one of the symbols of that turbulent time in our history.
 
I am old enough to remember the standoffs at Columbia University over the Vietnam War and even marched on my state Capitol in Trenton, New Jersey to protest rising college costs when I was a student. My youngest daughter just finished college. No parent who sees those images of the students coming out of U.C. Davis wants what happened to those students to happen to their child.
 
I've worked closely with law enforcement during my 25 years in the news business and respect them immensely. Campus police are in a conundrum for our times. Ever since 9/11 terrorist attacks and 1999 Columbine shootings that left 25 dead, we expect campus cops to respond in immediate, full-out attack mode to take down campus shooters. Yet, we don't expect them to be Storm Troopers in riot gear for spontaneous, peaceful protests. We can only hope their training and professionalism helps them discern the difference between the two.
 
As University of California President Mark G. Yudof wrote in his statement Sunday:
"Free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history...I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and lawful fashion...
 
But... 
 
"I intend to convene all 10 chancellors, either in person or telephone, to engage in a full and unfettered discussion about how to ensure 'proportional' law enforcement response to non-violent protests."
 
The pepper spray was awful. But it forced officials to take immediate action. And just in the nick of time. Four decades later, we don't want another Kent State.
 
...."Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down. Should have been done long ago. What if you knew her? And found her dead on the ground? How can you run when you know?" "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young after 1970 Kent State shootings.