Heightend Police Presence: Carrying Machine guns/ Automatic rifles! In Silver Spring, MD

Heightened police presence. Many having machine guns/ automatic rifles. Sliver Spring, MD

Hope I put this thread in the right place. Anyways, about twenty minutes ago I was on the second floor balcony of my building in Silver Spring, MD and notice this huge group of police cars, black unmarked SUV's, and unmarked vehicles. I was trying to figure out what was going on, when one of my colleagues approached me and said, "Crazy s**t, right?!". So naturally I asked if he knew what was up. He told me that he didn't know for sure, but that he had just come from the metro station across the street, which is the Silver Spring metro (obviously), and that there had to be about two hundred police and what looked like S.W.A.T teams surrounding the stop, and that they were in fact armed and carrying around machine guns or automatic rifles. He then pointed out to me that the entire side of my building had police vehicles lining the sidewalk as well. I was able to take a quick picture with my phone of a group of the vehicles, as well as the metro in the background. Unfortunately from my view I couldn't see all the hubbub in the station myself, and being that I'm on the clock I can't just leave to check it out.




I don't know if this is just a "drill" or what, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up! If anyone finds out anything about this, please add your info. I'll post anything I find out about it as well. I just hope nothing crazy is going down.


[edit on 6/29/2010 by FoJAk]

[edit on 6/29/2010 by FoJAk]

Sorry about the extra header. Still kind of new at this thread posting thing.

Any loudspeakers or megaphones in use?

Any gunshots?

Keep us posted.

Did you or your friend see the bomb squad there? Could be a suspicious package inside the station! Try and spot the bomb squad van. It's usually very noticeable.

voices.washingtonpost.com...

Its a drill. Good response though OP. With pics too.

reply to post by mutantgenius

That's good that it was only a drill. I saw what looked like a paddy wagon pull up as well, and then a lot of hand shaking. That's when I figured it wasn't a big scare.

Is anyone else dismissive of the fact that there have been claims of these "drills" all over the place lately? You throw a few handfuls of crap at people and tell them it's chocolate and they might believe you. Bury them in it, and it's hard to get them to believe it's not crap.

Maybe I've been here too long, but I don't buy all these "drills" as of late. Admitting there is an outbreak of public endangerment would undermine the sense of control. At this particular point, I can see good reason for TPTB to deny viable threats.

Edit to add:

We've been dealing with "terrorist threats" for going on 10 years now. It's the fact that we're seeing this increase in activity at this stage in the game that makes it hard for me to believe 100%.

[edit on 29-6-2010 by PayMeh]

I'm an engineer, so I totally understand the need for drills or trying something out first to make sure everything works correctly before saying "OK, we're good to go for next time." But something about these drills just make me feel uneasy. Whether it's to keep the fear factor going in the public, or just plain drills for the sake of being efficient and making sure communication is good, I don't know. I'm not leaning one way or the other right now on this matter. I try to see everything objectively and not jump to conclusions. I just get a very strange feeling in my gut when "drills" like this are going down.
Anyhow, thanks you guys for keeping up on this with me and updating the situation. As always, I'll be keeping my eyes open and informing everyone of what I can.

reply to post by PayMeh


I agree with you, I have seen Homeland security vehicles in my area, I have heard reports of police presence and military persence here on ATS all over America. If they are doing drills then they are expecting something, but I think it goes deeper than that, maybe get us all used to it so when something really does happen we are all calm and complacent...only a drill, don't panic, everything is OK.
Thats why its nice to have someone like the OP, quick on the uptake, pictures and all.

reply to post by PayMeh


Yeah, I've got somewhat of the same sentiment going.
I'm just glad no one started shooting. Who knows, all the hand shaking could have
meant they took care of a real threat...and no one would know it, because it's "just a drill". " you can move along with a smile now."

They have been doing drills around the country for decades.

The only way to prepare for anything is to practice for it.

What would you want them to do,sit around on their hands and when something happens(and it will) screw it up and have the citizens complaining because they were unorganized?

The only way for multiple law enforcement agencies to learn to work together is by having these drills.

There are a lot of drills that are just done on paper by people sitting in a room together.

Drill, my aching posterior they probably had a Julian Assange sighting.
No just kidding.
Agreed, good response by the OP pictures and all.