While the antiwar rhetoric reached a fever pitch and students began taking their anger off campus, so too did the established authorities raise the level of their own hyperbole. Some, like Rhodes, saw the only remedy as being force. Their fears were just as compelling as those of the protestors. Windows are broken on banks, utility companies and loan companies. Firemen arriving to put out the blaze are driven back by protestors.
Police move in to quell the crowd and allow the firemen to work.
National Guardsmen move in to clear the campus and enforce the curfew. Governor Rhodes, up for election in two days, makes an appearance and delivers his 'brownshirt' speech. That evening, more demonstrations are broken up with tear gas. When the demonstrators refused to disperse, Assistant Adjutant General Robert Canterbury ordered the guard to clear the area. The guardsmen swept the Commons area and proceeded on to the football practice field, where the situation stagnates for several minutes with tear gas cannisters and rocks being thrown back and forth between the two sides.