On this date in 1770, government troops under Captain Thomas Preston opened fire into an unruly mob of civilians in the city of Boston, killing five. The incident outraged the public and fanned the flames of revolution against the central government.
In retrospect, the government should have claimed that the crowd may have had illegal guns, was manufacturing drugs, and was maybe even touching small children inappropriately. Then the redcoats could have shot another fifty or seventy-five and nobody would have revolted against anything.
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And if it had happened 231 years or so later, 6 or 7 years for a war would have taken *way* too long and perhaps we'd still be flying the Union Jack and playing 'God Save the Queen' at baseball games.
you mean cricket?
John Adams was the lawyer for the defense. He did so in order to ensure a fair trial.
Although the deaths were noted along with the riot the ability of the Crown to right wrongs became less as they became foreigners and alien to Americans. "They" weren't us'ns, not even cousins.
In defense of the British, they were in Boston after all. I wouldn't expect to enter Boston without being forced to shoot at least a couple people, even today.
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