I’m not defending Toledo, but the situations seem rather different. Berkeley called the Marines unwanted intruders, doesn’t want them recruiting there, and gave the pinkos a free parking pass and noise permit. Toledo doesn’t want urban warfare exercises conducted in the city.
I’ve never heard of the Marines conducting urban warfare exercises in real cities before. Is this a first?
“Toledo doesn’t want urban warfare exercises conducted in the city.”
Actually, the mayor offered the Marines two unpopulated sites.
Toledo has not rejected the U.S. Marines.
There are certainly better experts on this subject than I, but I do know the answer is no, marines have conducted urban warfare exercises in real cities before.
If they do it in an area where there are going to be civilians around they give plenty of advance warning, and get permission of the local authorities, as they thought they had in this case.
They do it all the time and in all the cases I know of the cities love the experience. Dayton, New Orleans, Charlestown just to name a few.
MEU-SOCs have been conducting such exercises in various cities around the country for a decade or more now. They even did so in Toledo last year evidently. I lived in New Orleans in the 1990s and the Marines came through twice for MOUT training. It was all over the news and the city was proud to take part. I watched them assault the old Falstaff Brewery across from the NOPD headquarters myself.
The mayor of Toledo is an unpatriotic slimeball. Pure and simple.