The Martha’s Vineyard Tactical Response Team (MVTRT) recently performed training drills at the Champ family preserve on Chappaquiddick, a building that is scheduled to be razed.
According to a press release from Adam Moore, executive director of the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, Captain Greg Arpin of the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office led 10 members of the tactical response team in a series of drills, including simulations of hostage rescue scenarios, breaching procedures, and isolation exercises.
The 5.7-acre property on North Neck Bluffs was donated to the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation in 2018 by Norman Champ. The foundation has agreed to remove the house and return the land to nature, according to the release.
The release stated that members of the tactical response teams are required to receive annual recertification in gas grenades and flashbangs, which are ostensibly nonlethal methods of disorienting a target. The drills also included usage of these devices, as well as the use of firearms.
“This is a unique opportunity to practice in a house that’s set for demolition,” Arpin said in the release. “The venue was a perfect fit for us to complete our training using gas and flashbangs.”
“We were very pleased to provide a place for the M.V. Tactical Response Team to train,” Moore said in the release. “The team does very important work for our community, and we are happy to help where we can.”
“ostensibly”??? I am happy to hear that when the MV Tactical Squad does its “important work for the community “, they operate with such certainty of their “non-lethal” arsenal upon suspects who have been convicted of nothing.