According to the FreePress, a neighborhood near the airport might as well be in the South Bronx as in South Burlington.
Having already suffered the indignity of being judged expendable in the name of progress and security, the fragmented community has also now been targeted for urban assault games.
Few details seem to be available as to which law enforcement bodies are involved or who called open-season on the devastated neighborhood, other than that permission for the use appears to have been granted by Airport management. Maybe gunfire and explosions are expected to condition local ears to receive the roar of F-35’s without a whimper.
South Burlington Police Chief Trevor Whipple says it wasn’t his force disturbing the peace.
He said the South Burlington police haven’t used the empty houses for training and added he is unclear which agencies have.
Beyond the obvious insensitivity, it seems astonishingly unprofessional and dangerous to conduct such exercises without a great deal of prior public notice and some opportunity for public comment.
We all recognize the need for police services, just as we accept the need for some amount of military capability; but lately in the Green Mountain State, the line between the two is beginning to blur as communities get themselves equipped with tanks, and Tasers become the accepted means to control drunks and unruly kids.
I don’t really understand this push.
On the one-hand you have the argument that the state’s population is aging out; that there aren’t many young people left and we need to grow the economy to attract them back again. On the other, is the fact that the larger the population in our towns and cities, the more policing services and equipment we seem to need; and the greater the opportunity for criminal enterprise to find a toe-hold as well.
We already have an inordinately large prison population; so large in fact, that we have to export it. It’s a well-known fact that that burgeoning prison population is largely the result of unrealistic drug laws and a broken approach to mental health and addiction at the state and national level.
How can we be so anxious to “grow” our towns and cities without first fixing those population-related vulnerabilities?
It seems that the popular wisdom holds that we should invite Walmart and other cheap employers to invade local economies, expand our vulnerable populations, and, at the same time, attract the parasitic criminals who feed on their poverty and our enabling drug laws.
This, in turn, forces an expansion of police presence and provides a golden opportunity for armaments makers to expand beyond the profits they have enjoyed during our interminable modern wars.
Is it any surprise that people…neighbors, actually…have come to be largely beside the point when our growing need for security must be satisfied at any cost?
story. Saw it this morning in the not so Free sqaurish Press.
Why can’t we use some of that housing stock coupled with a non-profit or two to provide shelter for our growing homeless population? Nights only. Closed during the day, so flight noise wouldn’t be much of an issue.
And open up the yards for community gardening, or cheap lease it out to CSAs. Assuming the soil tests OK.
I’m assuming whatever agency(s) are running the training own the properties? Can chief Whipple press trespass charges / breaking and entering / etc. if he ever finds out ‘whodunit’?
“conduct such exercises without a great deal of prior public notice and some opportunity for public comment”
But then they would give We, The People a voice and input on the program. That might jeopardize the whole plan. It is far better to just do it, and hopefully the demonstration of the use of force might intimidate those that complain into silence.
“tanks, and Tasers become the accepted means to control drunks and unruly kids. I don’t really understand this push.”
Because they can. Who is going to stop them? The next thing are armed drones flying over your house ready to shoot you remotely for any reason.
Again, who is going to stop them? No Politician will dare lift a finger against this, and a mass of people gathering together for a redress of their grievances is just another training opportunity, so no help there.
When the ruling class declares any Democratic electoral victory to be a result of ‘fraud’ the police have to be ready to stomp down anyone that dares protest. America can’t turn into a police-state overnight!
Just a wild guess but I’ve got to wonder if there is a DHS money is behind this and contingent on training of this sort.
Maybe the Free Press article mentioned this but the Free Press is outside my current media budget.
… and moved by the buyers (we were hoping to do so for my father). Most of the houses were built when construction standards resulted in some very strong frames that could last hundreds of years, if properly maintained. It’s insane to waste them this way.