Mayor kicks Marines out of Toledo(Ohio)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NBC24

Mayor Carty Finkbeiner on Friday ordered some 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines from Grand Rapids, Michigan, out of Toledo just before the unit was supposed to start a weekend of urban warfare training downtown.

The mayor’s spokesperson, Brian Schwartz said, “the mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people. He did not want them practicing and drilling in a highly visible area."

Toledo police said they knew about the training and had approved the unit’s use of the Madison Building and the Promenade Park area. The training was scheduled to start Friday afternoon and last until Sunday. Police said the unit’s presence would have a minimal impact on the city. Police issued a press release earlier in the week saying the Marines would be wearing green camouflage uniforms, operate military vehicles, carry rifles, perform foot patrols,and fire blank ammunition during the exercise.

Schwartz said there was a breakdown in communication between police and the Finkbeiner administration that led to the mayor’s action.



Read more: http://www.nbc24.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=94192

---

He must be with the terrorists. :sarcasm:

[moosen]

1. how long until FOX news/O'Leilly make a big stink about it

[NanceGreggs]

2. Ten, nine, eight, seven ...

... it's just seconds away.

[moosen]

3. "FOX News Special Alert...far left Ohio communists have.....

...apparently chased the freedom protecting US Military out of Ohio with what appear to be hammers and sickle's"

[NanceGreggs]

4. "Film at eleven!" n/t

[Robbien]

5. This is biased reporting. The article doesn't report that the Mayor

told them not to come back after the 2006 war games.

Mayor Finkbeiner spokesman Brian Schwartz said the mayor informed the Toledo police chief in 2006 he didn't want the Marines back.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/02/toledo_mayor_nixes_gr_marines.html

Having troops practice war games in an abandoned building in the middle of town is not something I would like to have happen in my town.

[jimboster]

8. I don't know

Considering the crime rate in Toledo, I'd think the good people would be happy to have the Marines downtown. And considering the economy in Toledo, 200 extra souls in the city has to help.

[RamboLiberal]

9. To be fair to the article it is reported - From OP article

NBC24 spoke to Jack Smith who recalled that after the Marines last visit, he and the mayor had a heated exchange about the training.

“He told me he did not want them, as he put it, 'playing war in Toledo,'" Smith recalled. "I told him, as a former Marine, that if one young Marine’s life is saved because of training he or she received in Toledo, Ohio, then it was worth the inconvenience.”

They just didn't spell it out as 2006.

[ohio2007]

13. there's no place for truth in a good headline

The article I saw said the marines were going into a building downtown to practice and a few days before the exercise, the mayor first learned about it.
Way to keep a pulse on city activities your honor. ;)

the headline tries to make it look as if what Berkley did is spreading
lol

Now the Berkley mayor is putting on the knee pads begging and apologizing the ruling


He doesn't want to loose the $2 million in federal funds.The local ferry boat riders will protest the fare hikes and all ;)

[OKthatsIT]

6. GOOD! It's about time the Mayors and Govenors said NO

POSSE COMITATUS LAWS protect citizens from a GANGSTER GOVT.
And just because the dollar is collapsing doesnt give them an excuse to terrorize US. They're getting what they wanted, destroying our economy isn't enough either.

The WAR on TERROR IS A FRAUD! WAKE UP AMERICA!

You need to WAKE UP NOW!

[Sherman A1]

7. Wasn't it a Republican who said

"Beware of the Military-Industrial Complex".......?

[ixion]

10. yep, Eisenhower said it

although it apparently fell on deaf ears. :(

[Ian David]

11. There was an incident a couple years ago where the military did this and terrorized a town.

I'll go googling and see if I can find it.

[Blue Diadem]

14. I think that was the one around here too. IIRC

a small town(Millbury comes to mind) not far from Toledo woke up on a Sat. morning to the training exercise complete with blank gun fire. IIRC, many residents were not aware it was going to happen but the mayor had given permission and didn't inform the residents. A small paper(not online) published an article about it but it never made it to the Blade. I remember posting about it in GD but in doing a search I can't find it.

[OKthatsIT]

16. Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Texas, even Wisconsin

Urban Ops have been going on...but corporate media does not cover it.

MAKING SURE THE DUMBED DOWN KEEP SLEEPING...bahhhhhhh!

[flashl]

12. Geez, where are 'we' going to get to use all of the neat urban warefare stuff?

Companies Offering Urban Warfare Training Aides

There are several companies that are offering products and training aides to help the military accomplish its goals in urban warfare training. General Dynamics Information Technology has built several MOUT sites for the U.S. Army around the world. ... GD also developed PEO STRI’s first MOUT site at Fort Polk, La., and has been awarded all of STRICOM’s follow-on contracts that pertain to MOUT facilities, the company said.

Cubic Defense Applications, a subsidiary of the Cubic Corporation, offers the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES 2000). The laser-based system allows troops to fire infrared “bullets” from the same weapons and vehicles that they would use in actual combat.

Saab Training Systems AB provides several urban operations training products, incuding the BT 46 laser simulation system, the BT 47 small arms transmitter, personnel detection device (PDD) and the GAMER instrumented training system. GAMER simulates the effects of various area weapons, including mines, mortars, field artillery and chemical weapons, and provides a high-level architecture interface that enables it to be compatible with other live, constructive and virtual simulators. The Saab system for training in urban environments is an add-on package to the GAMER system.

Icon Systems offers a range of MILES and geo-bearing based products that support live training in MOUT, as well as other live training simulations. The company’s dismount as well as vehicle systems work in multiple environments, including MOUT.

Advanced Training Systems (ATS) in St. Paul, Minn., provides modular shoot houses, 3-D simulation systems, portable tactical target systems and permanent pneumatic shooting ranges.

Autodesk Government, a unit of Autodesk, offers iMOUT (Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain), a software solution that integrates the widest range of data—including Computer-Aided Design, Geographic Information Systems, 3-D modeling, building information modeling (BIM), and subterranean utility infrastructure data—to deliver a 360-degree intelligent and interactive precise synthetic environment that can be used to exploit the inside, outside and under of an urban location.

Quantum3D, a leading supplier of COTS, open-architecture, real-time visual computing solutions, offers ExpeditionDI, an un-tethered, field-ready, man-wearable, Immersive Training (MWIT) Platform that enables soldiers to participate in individual and collective synthetic environment training and mission rehearsal exercises without being tethered to a facility.

MPRI, a division of L-3 Communications, provides the U.S. Army with a simulation convoy and combat patrol driver’s training program for the standard M-1114 and up-armored High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. Vcom3D Inc. offers Vcommunicator Mobile LC, an iPod-based language and culture training mission aid for in-theater operations. The tactical technology allows soldiers to interact with local residents in their native languages as well as by culturally appropriate gestures.

Military Training Technology

[InkAddict]

15. Good for the Mayor!

Camp Perry is nearby enough. By now a whole Blackwater diorama of a city street could have been built there and they could have called out to their Ohio base to come be "extras" on their fairy-tale street(s). The OMR could also be called out to provide support and "hospitality".

Guess the fear factor just wouldn't be the same, huh? :shrug:

[ohio2007]

17. " residents here and elsewhere expressed disappointment, disbelief, and even outrage."

snip
residents here and elsewhere expressed disappointment, disbelief, and even outrage.
snip
-the mayor's reaction had become a national news story picked up by Internet blogs....

snip

Some compared the flap to the one Mr. Finkbeiner set off during his first term in 1994, with his proposal that the city move its deaf population to land near Toledo Express Airport.


snip

"It makes Toledo look like a national disgrace," said Steve Baxter, 47, of Columbus, who learned of the ordeal through a national political blog. "And it reflects poorly on your mayor."

snip

While glancing about a downtown nearly empty of people yesterday afternoon, Douglas Finch, Sr., 55, of West Toledo, said he found the mayor's concerns unbelievable.

Mr. Finch recalled witnessing the camouflaged and rifle-bearing Marines in downtown two years ago. He said the sight was attention-grabbing, not scary.

"We have enough empty buildings here, so why not let them train in one?" he asked.

snip

Dwight Griffin, 68, a former Army National Guardsmen, said the Marines became the unwitting scapegoat for whomever failed to keep Mayor Finkbeiner informed.

"Somebody dropped a memo and the Marines got caught in the middle," Mr. Griffin said.

City Councilman Frank Szollosi said he was "dismayed" by the mayor's actions. He said he would support
organizing a council-led apology next week to the Marines on behalf of the city.Mr. Szollosi likened Toledo's present image to that of Berkeley, Calif., where City Council passed a measure urging Marine recruiters to leave a downtown office, citing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

After some California lawmakers threatened to cut $2 million in federal funding to that California city and its university campus, Berkeley's mayor apologized to U.S. servicemen.

This might be a situation where the City Council has to apologize for the mayor's actions," said Mr. Szollosi, a Democrat. "I would certainly hope that the city of Toledo's federal funding is not put in jeopardy."

snip

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080210/NEWS16/802100347

[geiger]

18. The only person in Ohio who has a more controversial record than Finkbeiner is the (late) former Gov

Rhodes (R)

[sarcasmo]

19. Preparing for Martial Law. Iraq and Toledo have nothing in common.

Except maybe the high crime rate.

[LynnTheDem]

20. Gotta get the American population used to the sight.

The New America; full-blowm military decidership.