I’m washing the dishes after dinner when I hear a WAMP-WAMP-WAMP coming from Mears Park.
Mitchell: “There’s a helicopter outside. Oh, there’s another one – and it has a bunch of guys with guns hanging out of it! What the hell?”
We rush to the window and see several helicopters circling low over the park. Apartment windows around the park fly open as people take pictures.
We exchange uncomfortable looks with our neighbors. Maybe there’s a manhunt going on? Terrorist attack?
Eventually, we have to take the dogs outside despite Mears Park feeling like Little Baghdad. We run into another dog walker in Mears Park and she tells us that the helicopters are part of urban warfare games.
Neighbor: “Yeah, I had to call the cops to ask if we were under attack, and they said that it was some urban warfare drill. They didn’t say how long it would take or what the hell they plan on using helicopters for. This isn’t Ferguson…”
On Twitter, a there’s a flood of St. Paul and Minneapolis downtowners bitching about the helicopters while tagging local news anchors (who also seem to be unaware of the drills.) The local news stations didn’t even announce the Defense Department training exercises until after they began.
The helicopters continue circling our park until after dark. We watch as the unlit helicopters swoop really close to the Galtier balconies. A few times it looks like the helicopters would land in alleyways.
Flying helicopters over residential neighborhoods is sketchy enough – flying war choppers next to people’s balconies without notice is completely unacceptable.
My neighborhood isn’t a war game arena, and the police (or feds, whatever) should make us feel safe, and not be terrifying us with unannounced military exercises. The training is expected to continue for a few days, so hopefully it’s something that we can get used to.
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