Genocide Training Day? Albany’s SWAT team Stormed a Public housing complex with Fake Grenades, Ammunition - no notice to residents

From [HERE] and [HERE] The story about the Albany police department's failure to alert residents of a public housing complex about a hostage drill the department was staging at the complex, and the residents' angry reactions, shows the gap between public institutions like police departments and residents of subsidized housing. Apparently, all the residents are all non-white. 

The department claims to have made a couple of token efforts to alert residents before the drill. But given the size and intensity of the drill -- which included squads in full gear, the use of flash grenades and the firing of weapons -- the police should have gone much further to alert people who lived right next door. These are families with kids, and for all they knew, a full-scale police assault was taking place and they were in danger.

Again, Albany Police Department's SWAT team conducted a hostage rescue drill in a vacant apartment at the public housing complex, just a few yards away from occupied homes. Residents heard gunfire, flash grenades and breaking glass, and said they had no idea it was a training exercise.

The department's executives threw out some half-hearted apologies. But can you imagine if such an exercise took place, for example, on Coolidge Street in Glens Falls, in a house that happened to be owned by the city? We'd have such a riot of lawsuits and complaints it would bring down the city administration. And the same thing would happen in Albany, if the drill had been staged in a [white] neighborhood. (Practice racism and then apologize and then practice racism and then apologize. Repeat.)

But the police in Albany believe they can act with impunity in non-white neighborhoods, even to the point of staging mock battles along the same hallways residents (including children) walk to get to their apartments. It's an unmitigated outrage and should have serious consequences. But it won't, because the members of the privileged group in charge of the city's institutions (including the Albany newspaper (indeed, the white media says "some residents might have been frightened" by the grenades, fake blood and gun fire- bw) can't imagine themselves living in such a neighborhood and therefore cannot see how wrong this was. [MORE] - (Such is the nature of white supremacy.

So, intentionally not notifying the residents was not apart of the drill? That is, not notifying the residents about a tactical exercise that used significant resources, manpower and took detailed planning was a simple oversight? If you believe that bullshit then you probably also directly or indirectly support white supremacy. File under Genocide Watch). 

Albany police assistant chief Brendan Cox talks during a discussion at the Arbor Hill Neighborhood Association meeting Monday. Residents Chelsey Morales said police confined her to an apartment and Thurston Gross said police threatened to arrest him for trespassing as he tried to get to his own home. He said, "you can't bring me one person who was notified."

The chief of police in Albany, New York says that his department just wanted a “realistic” setting when it frightened residents in a poor, predominately Black neighborhood with SWAT training exercises that included firing blank ammunition and exploding flash grenades. The public housing complex was scheduled to be demolished.

"It looked like a small military operation complete with fatigues and full gear," said Ida Yarbrough resident Lauren Manning, who said her 4-year-old child is still shaken up. "Children should not be exposed to that, not on television, not on radio and definitely not in real life."

Fake blood used by Albany Cops on the sidewalk outside Ida Yarbrough apartments where a police training exercise occurred March 21, 2013. Overseers (officers) used fake blood to make it seem real. If cops knew the blood was fake, then who were they trying to make it seem real to? White supremacy is conducted through violence and/or deception. Wake up. You can be killed in the name of racism anytime, anyplace. Watch your back. 

On Saturday, Police Chief Steven Krokoff said it was "insensitive" to conduct a drill near the occupied apartments.

Deputy Police Chief Brendan J. Cox, who attended Monday's neighborhood meeting, said there was a breakdown in communication.

Cox said police officers met with the building manager and had visited the apartments Tuesday night to inform neighbors of the upcoming training exercise on Thursday morning, but residents in the audience — including the president of the tenants association — said nobody was told.

"You can't bring me one person who was notified," Gross said.