Mayor LeRoy Satrom, a conservative Democrat who looked like a bespectacled Don Knottsii and had a nervous temperament, had been elected the previous autumn on a get-tough platform against “long-haired students.” Satrom declared a state of emergency, ordered municipal police in riot gear into the streets, and closed all the downtown bars. He then phoned the governor’s office, said SDS members were rampaging through Kent, and asked the National Guard to be put on alert in the event of more trouble.
