Days of intense military training have SoCal residents on edge

"A series of military exercises taking place in empty buildings across the Southland in CA are scaring residents and rattling neighbors as the sound of gunfire rings out in the dark and troops descend from helicopters.

Multiple nights this week, the sounds of simulated urban warfare have erupted in the middle of the night in parts of sleepy Pasadena and Long Beach and in an empty mall in the San Gabriel Valley.

As some residents went to bed, video showed a helicopter thundering across the sky as soldiers jumped onto the roof of an empty hospital in the middle of a tree-lined residential neighborhood in Pasadena Wednesday night.

…

"People are trying to sleep," said Rick Cole, a Pasadena City Council member in a video posted on Instagram late Wednesday as the training continued …

The operation, at the vacant St. Luke Medical Center in the 2600 block of East Washington Boulevard, included simulated gunfire, flash grenades and a military helicopter that hovered over the building.

Police were told by the military about the training and asked officers to provide security around the abandoned hospital months ago, a city spokesperson told The Times. But city officials were not given details about the operation, and were not able to notify the public until hours before the training began.

….

Cole said he was concerned …whether the training was part of an intimidation tactic from the federal government to California cities.

"Is this part of some pattern of, you know, either training for domestic warfare or intimidating a domestic audience?" Cole asked. …

In September of last year, while addressing a rare gathering of top U.S. military leaders in Quantico, Va., President Trump said he was interested in using U.S. cities as training grounds for the military.

During his address, he criticized Democratic leaders in U.S. cities for their response to immigration protests. The comments came about three months after the president deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles as large crowds protested widespread, aggressive immigration raids in the city.

"And I told [Secretary of Defense] Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," Trump said in the speech.

Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

https://www.aol.com/news/days-intense-military-training-exercises-110000541.html (citing LA. Times)