Black helicopters Downtown & Police Militarization

[mattaudio]

Practicing taking over American cities?

[grant1simons2]

Practicing stopping a takeover of an American city...

[go4guy]

Or just doing normal training. I suppose we could outsource our training to other countries so we never have to see a helicopter in the sky.

And to say that a white person and a black person looking up in the sky, seeing a helicopter, and having a different reaction because of their skin color, is inappropriate.

[VAStationDude]

And to say that a white person and a black person looking up in the sky, seeing a helicopter, and having a different reaction because of their skin color, is inappropriate.

Jesus Christ.

[mplsjaromir]

I'd be less cynical if the forces of law in this country weren't fraudulent & devoted to maintaining a chokehold on minority communities.

[EOst]

And to say that a white person and a black person looking up in the sky, seeing a helicopter, and having a different reaction because of their skin color, is inappropriate.

Of course it is. But the fact is that many people of color do feel that way when they see a helicopter. We need to come to terms with why they do, and which parts of it are our (as reasonably well-off white people) fault, and what we can do to solve that problem.

[IllogicalJake]

I'm confused.

This thread is asking about black helicopters downtown.

The question has been answered: They're Navy SEALS doing a training exercise using a realistic urban setting, which happens every two years on a schedule.

The events in Ferguson are tragic and spark strong emotion, but they have absolutely nothing at all do with this training exercise or this thread...

[grant1simons2]

Exactly. The thread should be locked or renamed to Black Helicopters v. Black people

[Gman12]

Last night was wild, felt like a movie. I happened to be driving by the Federal Reserve and heard a loud noise so I turned off my radio and looked through my sun roof and saw a helicoper flying extremely low. Then I heard another one and looked up as it looked like it almost clipped the Federal Reserve clock tower. I got home and could see them looping around downtown and flying extremely low across the river then flying upward and doing a bunch of touch and go landings on the Reserve. Supposed to be more activity the next few nights.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Ok, so for some of us, it's obvious to connect downtown helicopter training to urban warfare to suppression of marginalized populations to subversion of democracy at large.

For some, those connections are ludicrous. Against my better judgment, I will attempt to spell it out.

First, we must stipulate to the fact that police have adopted the equipment, tactics, and training of a military force. This has happened in several ways since 9-11. Police forces all over the country have used the gusher of federal anti-terrorism money to buy armored vehicles, military helicopters, weapons, and non-lethal crowd control weapons whose use was honed over a decade plus of over-seas occupations. The national security apparatus has coordinated with state and local police to provide surveillance, training, and command of operations. We can disagree whether this was necessary, but it should not be disputed that this has happened.

Second, this newly militarized police force has been unevenly deployed against marginalized populations. How many of you have been subjected to stop-and-frisk on your way to work? How many have had your house raided by a swat team on a bogus tip from an informant? How many of your family members have been shot by police? To David's point, these are things that are all too common in the black community locally and nationally. Again, we can disagree whether the police response in these communities is proportionate, justified, or helpful - but the reality is black communities have borne the brunt of the swat teams. Thus, militarizing police is inherently a race issue.

Another example that ties the first two points together is the CIA coordination with the NYPD to profile and spy on largely peaceful muslim communities. Constitutionally, the CIA is barred from operating domestically, but that did not stop their efforts to compile dossiers on entire communities of American citizens and even send in moles to agitate for violence.
http://www.ap.org/Index/AP-In-The-News/NYPD

So yes, some communities viscerally see those helicopters downtown as an insidious threat in ways that are difficult for us to understand. And some will see these measures as the cost of doing business in the war on terrorism.

But, Matt is right when he said this affects us all. I might not feel the military presence of police in my neighborhood, but the precedent is set for all. We now know the NSA isn't just monitoring insurgent groups in Yemen or mosques in the United States, but all of us wholesale. Our internet activity, web chats, skype calls, phone metadata and the content of calls. It's unlikely all that data is captured and stored, but its all fair game according to the national security state. When folks stood up to Washington and Wall Street as part of the largely peaceful Occupy movement, they were crushed by the national security state in a federally coordinated campaign. When folks showed up to register their disapproval to the Republican Party in St Paul in 2008, they were met with a Green Zone military style campaign. Peaceful protestors were trapped, tear gassed, and jailed. It’s been established the FBI had sent in moles in the years prior to the convention, to agitate activists towards violence, thereby justifying their military response to democratic expression.

Seriously we need to think about this folks. Our federal government has asserted the right to kill American citizens by drone strike without due to process by simply adding them to a secret kill list.

Where does that leave your liberty? All indications are you're allowed to say what you want as long you don't mount a credible dissent. Don't have anything to dissent about? Please enjoy that privilege for as long as it lasts.

[FISHMANPET]

If nothing else, it could be seen as somewhat tone deaf to be conducting military training maneuvers (whatever the reason) at a time when a community, not unlike some in the Twin Cities or around the country, is under siege.

[MNdible]

Agreed. I'd be uncomfortable with them doing this ever, but the timing and the optics of this are so terrible.

[FISHMANPET]

Last night was wild, felt like a movie. I happened to be driving by the Federal Reserve and heard a loud noise so I turned off my radio and looked through my sun roof and saw a helicoper flying extremely low. Then I heard another one and looked up as it looked like it almost clipped the Federal Reserve clock tower. I got home and could see them looping around downtown and flying extremely low across the river then flying upward and doing a bunch of touch and go landings on the Reserve. Supposed to be more activity the next few nights.

I was on the West River Parkway bike trail, maybe 50 feet east of the Hennepin Ave bridge, when I posted the thread, so I had a front row seat to them buzzing the roof of the Fed building. It was kind of surreal.

[David Greene]

And to say that a white person and a black person looking up in the sky, seeing a helicopter, and having a different reaction because of their skin color, is inappropriate.

It is not inappropriate. It is fact. The skin color and our policies around it result in a set of divergent experiences that lead the two groups to experience and interpret the same events very differently.

[ECtransplant]

Ok here's what I don't understand. The people that conducting these exercises are the people that go shoot terrorists for blowing up our buildings. Not the people who shoot people and pets over a little bit of pot. I deal with the problems created by militarized police every day in my day job, so I understand those issues. But this isn't the police, this is the actual military.

[MNdible]

They're being coy about it, but if you read between the lines, the MPD and SPPD are very much involved in these operations.

[IllogicalJake]

They're being coy about it, but if you read between the lines, the MPD and SPPD are very much involved in these operations.

They were aware of it and consulted, no more extent than that. Do you think the Navy men just decided to take some city police officers with them in their federally-funded training?

[MNdible]

Per the Strib:

Minneapolis and St. Paul police, along with the military, are conducting training exercises from 8 p.m. to midnight for several nights this week, according to a Minneapolis police spokesman.

If this were really just about the military, they could just do it out of Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The reason they're here is to train with the locals.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Yes, they're practicing coordinating the military and civilian police into one integrated response.

[IllogicalJake]

Per the Strib:

Minneapolis and St. Paul police, along with the military, are conducting training exercises from 8 p.m. to midnight for several nights this week, according to a Minneapolis police spokesman.

If this were really just about the military, they could just do it out of Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The reason they're here is to train with the locals.

Except this training was specifically tied to the Federal Reserve building in this city, not Fort Campbell in Kentucky...

Even the article you quoted says it's a Department of Defense exercise.