Nope...Not Berkeley...

Try Toledo, Ohio...

Mayor to Marines: Leave downtown

Another fine example of "supporting the troops."...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

I agree Berkeley is all %@#$-ed up.

But you're missing a bigger picture here regarding Toledo.

The 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., planned to spend their weekend engaged in urban patrol exercises on the streets of downtown as well as inside the mostly vacant Madison Building, 607 Madison Ave.

"He did not want them practicing and drilling in a highly visible area."

The issue was clearly stated.
I wouldn't want a bunch of marines running around downtown in "urban patrol exercises" either.
Did you even bother to think if they would be carrying weapons?
Oh wait. The article talks about THAT too...

Past exercises have involved mock gun fights, ambushes, and the firing of blank ammunition.

So not allowing the military to do this in DOWNTOWN TOLEDO is somehow an "anti-military" thing to you???
The mayor doesn't want gun-fire in downtown Toledo streets, and that's "anti-military"?

Geez.
There's a reason they practice on MILITARY bases and not in our streets.

Are marines practicing and drilling in a highly visible area offensive to you? It is okay for trannys ,homosexuals and other degenerates to have a parade for everyone and their mom to see but your offended at the idea of idea of marines training section of the city?Do you think they are going to have little kids running around,cars driving by and school buses full of kids and the marines going into schools?


Oh no weapons with blanks and blank adapters,look out there are marines running around downtown with little orange/red blank adapters on their weapons and fake ammo.

Oh no say it isn't so mock gun fights and ambushes and black ammunition?Oh the humanity.What if the kids see that kind of stuff.

Yes

Yes.The mayor is being a anti-American douche bag and pussy for trying to cater to the anti-war scum.

The military trains in all kinds of places outside of military base.It is done all the time.Just as police and fire fighters have mock drills in cities.

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"There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”—Theodore Roosevelt

Nope...

As the article says...

This wasn't something new...

If there was an issue with previous exercises and the mayor believed he had a legitimate reason for the marines to end their practice of going into downtown Toledo, he wouldn't have WAITED until they showed up at the front door...He would've explained at the end of the last exercises that future exercises would't happen...

And also as reported, the police knew about this days in advance and did not have the same thing to report as the mayor...And the police, since they have direct contact with the marines during these exercises more than the mayor ever would, would've been first to "cry foul" if the excuse the mayor used had any legitimacy in it...

But instead, they actually threw out a PRESS RELEASE of the upcoming exercises...and the mayor STILL didn't know about it?!?!...

Apparently, you missed this part of the article, too...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines are from my home town and they returned today.All we were told is "something" went wrong last year.I hope more info on this will be revealed in the near future.

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"Destiny must be shaped and not left to mere chance."..Spencer Collins

If trannys, homosexuals, and other christians (those are the degenerates you were talking about, right?) wanted to run around downtown carrying weapons, I would be against that too.

You obviously couldn't muster the brain cells necessary to understand my point, so next time at least put forth the effort...

Otherwise, you'll just be "raging" cause you don't understand what is really going on...


You presume his timing was chosen based to inconvenience them.
I question when he was informed in the first place.

The article states:

Toledo police knew days in advance about their plans for a three-day exercise. Yet somehow the memo never made it to Mayor Finkbeiner...

The better question is why did some "WAIT" until they were showing up to tell the mayor about it.


BOTH the mayor and the police should have a say in this.
The police aren't the only ones to judge the concerns here. Sometimes, they can be cavalier about inconveniencing the public. There are frequently stories about individual cops (not the norm) who act out badly, and little to no repercussions upon them.

Moreover, since the police are effectively "under" the mayor, you'll have to excuse the fact that the mayor DOES get a say in all this.


Perhaps he didn't know until Tuesday.
Perhaps he wasn't watching TV that day.
Perhaps somebody below him decided not to waste the mayor's time with something that he thought the mayor wouldn't mind.

WE DON'T KNOW.

But I think there is something you're missing in the statement:
....issued a news release to media outlets on behalf of the Marines that asked Toledoans not to be startled by the sight of camouflaged soldiers toting M16 rifles.

Can you get WHY that might be a problem for some people?

"You can go to military ranges for live fire [exercises], but there's no way to duplicate the urban jungle unless you actually train inside a city," Major O'Neill said.

No. I got that part.
I never said anything about "why do the marines want to practice downtown".
I understood why.

I've seen a variety of news reports on CREATED MOCK towns that are used for this type of stuff. They don't require the citizens to suddenly be confronted with a gun toting marine who is running around.

MY point was the whole issue of citizens suddenly confronted by gun toting marines. How many people do you think got that "news release"?
Oh wait. Let me guess.
If they didn't get the news release, that's THEIR fault cause they didn't take the time to find out that the marines were going to invade their downtown area and run around with guns, firing weapons with sounds that would sound very real.

Do you get the concern here?


But my counter question to you regards something YOU might have missed in your rush to judge the mayor.

Mr. Schwartz said the Marines declined Mayor Finkbeiner's alternative offer for them to practice their urban patrol tactics inside the former Jones Junior High School, 550 Walbridge Ave.

So if the Mayor is so anti-military, then why this offer?
He must hate the military sooo much that he offers them another place they could practice at, huh...

Right on the Mark: Toledo/Berkeley: what the...?...

The so called offer wasn't given until after the gaffe of kicking the Marines out.

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"To educate a man in mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society." --- Theodore Roosevelt

You Rock, JR!

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