Police.military drills in downtown Miami

[barfife]

What do you reckon that they are practicing for?

[WiseOwl]

I have no explanation for this.

Why train there?

[Grand58742]

Sometimes the .mil trains with the local police. Could be SOF types doing some training with the locals. It happens as counter terror teams (major urban area SWAT and the likes, SEALs, SFOD-D, etc) cross train all the time. Most use the same playbook for high risk situations and let's face it, who wouldn't want to be trained by the best (the aforementioned SEALs, Delta, etc).

From the looks of it, that's right near what most would consider a high profile target and something that Miami Police Special Threat Respnse would take a keen interest in being able to respond to. You have police blocking the roads so they know it's happening. You have MH-60 types and MH-8 types flying past the lights which are used by SOF types. And .50 caliber (yes, that's Ma Deuce for certain) firing in the background which may or may not be from the choppers since sounds tend to bounce around urban areas pretty good. Both helo types are actively used by SOF.

Miami Metro and surrounding areas are conducting an exercise at the center since it is, again, a high profile target and certainly something they should be training to secure. Working with the military SOF who are the recognized resident experts (along with the FBI HRT) in the field of high risk response and hostage situations. Same with the chopper pilots who probably don't get to play over major urban areas very often.

Miami has the high profile target that needs to be exercised, SWAT maybe needs some additional training. SOF has the training to give, but doesn't have the major urban area to practice in. They may face a situation overseas where they have to secure a stadium/center or conduct operations in a large modern urban area (think Munich 1972) so they need to have a place to train beforehand. Both sides have something for each other. So after months of coordination, they get it going one night and just happened to get caught on tape.

No sinister motives behind anything and the official story of "drill" or "exercise" is probably correct except in the minds of those who will never be convinced otherwise.

Just my take on it...

[Matt In Oklahoma]

When I was in the Guard we trained in the city all the time especially at empty places. Specops do stuff all the time too. I've even used local off road courses, warehouses, parking lots, ranges etc.
Everyone wants to make this into the gun ban spin but the real truth is no one is gonna push it that far otherwise they would have already. Everyone laid down and just waited to see what was/is gonna happen and when it does everyone will run out and bury their stuff and whine just like last time. There will be nothing else

[snarlbuckle]

It irritates me when people get all worked up about military training exercises. I've been a part of them before and let me tell you that it is nothing you need to worry about. Usually it is just a valuable and rare chance for us to train in a much more realistic setting. Honestly I wish there were more opportunities for LE/military to get this sort of quality training. So just relax, pull up a chair and enjoy the show.