Posted on 02/09/2008 8:00:26 AM PST by coffee260
OK, so 200 Marines stationed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, piled on to five buses and came to Toledo, Ohio, yesterday to practice some urban patrol exercises. The Toledo police knew about the request for the three-day exercise well in advance, but somehow Mayor Carty Finkbeiner didn’t see the memo requesting permission for the event. So when when the first bus arrives at 3:20 p.m. and Staff Sergeant Andre Davis steps off, he is greeted by a city employee and told that the mayor wanted him and his soldiers out of town by 6 p.m. “I wish,” Sgt Davis drily remarked, “they would have told us this four hours ago.”
Indeed.
I gather that Mayor Finkbeiner (a Democrat, readers will be surprised to learn), like the folks in Berkeley, California, can’t think of the United States Marines without having the first lines of “The Destruction of Sennacherib” float through his head (“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold …”) “The mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people,” said Brian Schwartz, the mayor’s spokesman.
Gee, isn’t that a shame?
Lance Corporal Brandon Bukrey-McCarty recalled how useful such training was when he had been deployed in Fallujah in 2006-2007. The training, he said, “got me used to looking up on rooftops, looking around every alley, every open door.”
Too bad, Brandon! Carty Finkbeiner thinks having U.S. soldiers in town will frighten the voters, so your comrades will just have to do without that training.
The company’s commanding officer, Major Jeffrey O’Neill, was disappointed by Carty Finkbeiner’s cold shoulder—it would, he noted, be difficult to find a suitable alternative venue for the exercise—but “we’re Marines,” he said, “We’ll adapt and overcome.”
I have no doubt about that. I hope part of the adaptation will be to present the City of Toledo—or maybe Carty Finkbeiner himself—with the $10,000 tab that the aborted exercise cost the Marines.
Mayor Finkbeiner can boast on his official website that Tony Packos Restaurant in Toledo was “made famous on the television show M*A*S*H.” But when he has an opportunity to help the men and women who in real life protect this country, including the City of Toledo, he refuses to grant them the sort of permit he would routinely give to a bunch of anti-American activists who wanted to organize a protest march down Main Street. I think it’s disgusting. If I lived in Toledo, I’d be wondering when Carty Finkbeiner was up for re-election and would look forward to sending him out on a 6:00 p.m. bus at the earliest opportunity.
Hat tip for this item to Instapundit.
I live just outside of Toledo and worked inside the city for more than a decade. This is an outrage. First Berkeley, now Toledo? The Toledo mayor is an ass of the highest order. He got into some hot water last summer for leaving his dog in his parked car for hours at a time, with heat indexes of 100+ degrees, with no water bowl or food inside the car.
So much for the RATS ‘we support the troops’ mantra!!
We need more contact info about who is responsible for this travesty. I have a fax machine with free long distance, I’ll be happy to pass on my disdain for this kind of action.
Berkeley California is getting a different fax about their stupidity every hour on the hour.
leofl
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What an a$$.
But of course they support the troops and you better not question their patriotism (or in their case its so-called patriotism). For the record mayor, YES I DO QUESTION YOUR PATRIOTISM.
Well that was Bush's fault for causing global warming.
Just went to his website and sent him a piece of my mind. I have a son in the military, and told him I will not visit his hateful city.
Right! Like Blanco thought the National Guard would frighten the (voters?) of New Orleans.
That would be our local Marine reserve unit. They did a tour in Irag last year.
They didn't have to travel to Toledo though. We have lots of "Urban" right here in Grand Rapids.
“The Toledo police knew about the request for the three-day exercise well in advance, but somehow Mayor Carty Finkbeiner didn’t see the memo requesting permission for the event.”
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Then the Marines did not have permission to run this excersize? Where did they get permission if not from the mayor?
The Filthy Libs keep their reputation up -— that are the best at being exactly what they are...
How the heck do you question something that doesn't exist? Would you question a paraplegic about the color of their socks?
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