Army Attacks Chester, PA

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

URBAN WARFARE IN CHESTER, PA

I've heard of the explosive demolition of vacant public housing, and
I've seen military exercises in urban warfare, but what happened in
Chester, Pennsylvania this week came as a surprise to me, and more
important, it shocked local residents and officials. The Philadelphia
Inquirer (May 18, 1999) reports, "100 Army Special Operations troops
descended on two vacant public housing complexes in three training
exercises that terrified nearby residents and surprised even the housing
director."

One neighbor said, "There was a whole lot of noise, like bombs exploding
and people shooting off automatic weapons.... It really had the kids
scared; I would have thought they could have picked a better place."
Given the high concentration of locally undesirable land uses
(incinerators, etc.) in the predominantly African-American community,
the Army probably thought it had found a place where people wouldn't be
able to complain effectively.

Does anyone know of similar training exercises elsewhere?

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
(PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE PHASING OUT
MY OLD E-MAIL ADDRESS: lsiegel@igc.org)
http://www.cpeo.org