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A Different Kind of Boy Scout: Armed and Fighting Terrorism
For Explorer Scouts, Good Deeds Have Whole New Meaning
IMPERIAL, Calif. - Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.
In a training exercise run by Border Patrol agents, Explorer scouts from Visalia, Calif., prepare to storm a “hijacked” bus. (Todd Krainin for The New York Times) The responding officers - eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 - face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots - BAM! BAM! - fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.
"United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!" screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.
It is all quite a step up from the square knot.
The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence - an intense ratcheting up of one of the group's longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.
"This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl," said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff's deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. "It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts."
The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out "active shooters," like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.
"Put him on his face and put a knee in his back," a Border Patrol agent explained. "I guarantee that he'll shut up."
One participant, Felix Arce, 16, said he liked "the discipline of the program," which was something he said his life was lacking. "I want to be a lawyer, and this teaches you about how crimes are committed," he said.
Cathy Noriego, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns - known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets - in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.
"I like shooting them," Cathy said. "I like the sound they make. It gets me excited."
If there are critics of the content or purpose of the law enforcement training, they have not made themselves known to the Explorers' national organization in Irving, Tex., or to the volunteers here on the ground, national officials and local leaders said. That said, the Explorers have faced problems over the years. There have been numerous cases over the last three decades in which police officers supervising Explorers have been charged, in civil and criminal cases, with sexually abusing them.
Several years ago, two University of Nebraska criminal justice professors published a study that found at least a dozen cases of sexual abuse involving police officers over the last decade. Adult Explorer leaders are now required to take an online training program on sexual misconduct.
Many law enforcement officials, particularly those who work for the rapidly growing Border Patrol, part of the Homeland Security Department, have helped shape the program's focus and see it as preparing the Explorers as potential employees. The Explorer posts are attached to various agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police and fire departments, that sponsor them much the way churches sponsor Boy Scout troops.
"Our end goal is to create more agents," said April McKee, a senior Border Patrol agent and mentor at the session here.
Membership in the Explorers has been overseen since 1998 by an affiliate of the Boy Scouts called Learning for Life, which offers 12 career-related programs, including those focused on aviation, medicine and the sciences.
But the more than 2,000 law enforcement posts across the country are the Explorers' most popular, accounting for 35,000 of the group's 145,000 members, said John Anthony, national director of Learning for Life. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many posts have taken on an emphasis of fighting terrorism and other less conventional threats.
"Before it was more about the basics," said Johnny Longoria, a Border Patrol agent here. "But now our emphasis is on terrorism, illegal entry, drugs and human smuggling."
The law enforcement posts are restricted to those ages 14 to 21 who have a C average, but there seems to be some wiggle room. "I will take them at 13 and a half," Deputy Lowenthal said. "I would rather take a kid than possibly lose a kid."
The law enforcement programs are highly decentralized, and each post is run in a way that reflects the culture of its sponsoring agency and region. Most have weekly meetings in which the children work on their law-enforcement techniques in preparing for competitions. Weekends are often spent on service projects.
Just as there are soccer moms, there are Explorers dads, who attend the competitions, man the hamburger grill and donate their land for the simulated marijuana field raids. In their training, the would-be law-enforcement officers do not mess around, as revealed at a recent competition on the state fairgrounds here, where a Ferris wheel sat next to the police cars set up for a felony investigation.
Their hearts pounding, Explorers moved down alleys where there were hidden paper targets of people pointing guns, and made split-second decisions about when to shoot. In rescuing hostages from a bus taken over by terrorists, a baby-faced young girl screamed, "Separate your feet!" as she moved to handcuff her suspect.
In a competition in Arizona that he did not oversee, Deputy Lowenthal said, one role-player wore traditional Arab dress. "If we're looking at 9/11 and what a Middle Eastern terrorist would be like," he said, "then maybe your role-player would look like that. I don't know, would you call that politically incorrect?"
Authenticity seems to be the goal. Imperial County, in Southern California, is the poorest in the state, and the local economy revolves largely around the criminal justice system. In addition to the sheriff and local police departments, there are two state prisons and a large Border Patrol and immigration enforcement presence.
"My uncle was a sheriff's deputy," said Alexandra Sanchez, 17, who joined the Explorers when she was 13. Alexandra's police uniform was baggy on her lithe frame, her airsoft gun slung carefully to the side. She wants to be a coroner.
"I like the idea of having law enforcement work with medicine," she said. "This is a great program for me."
And then she was off to another bus hijacking.
86 Comments so far
Show Allwatch out troop leaders! your explorers might accuse you of uttering a thought crime in your sleep....
love the conflation of marijuana growers, terrorists, and illegal immigrants. certainly pot is a threat: to the mindset of this hitler youth knockoff.
i've long been suspicious of the moral hygiene proposed by the scouts. where is the courage to rebel against authority, the obligation to disobey & transgress?
as long as you harass, surveil, detain, torture, & kill the "right" people, you are moral. such is the morality of the capitalist, the fascist. obedience to authority is moral; disobedience, immoral.
no comment on their on-line course to warn about the dangers of pedophilia. hopefully the catholic church, juvenile prison officers, etc., are seeing the future of child abuse prevention.
The US Gov's economic and healthcare policy has created and is maintaining economic conditions that have created a defacto draft wherein most of the job opportunities are military or paramilitary. While this condition is most visible in places like Imperial County, it exists nationwide.
Everyone here should also check out the comment thread following the article with the same picture on the far left side bar near the bottom of the main page... Different article... But about scouts in Texas being trained by pedophile cops to do "counter-terrorism" drills...
I thought it was isolated to Texas until this article came up on CD... If this is a national trend then the future Gestapo are being groomed as we speak...
Right on ! they took scouting down in the sixties - moved it from jersey to texas because too many scouts went anti war. we learned conservation and Native American skills - now they learn to follow orders.
They should move it back to Jersey for the intellectual stimulation.
As an Eagle Scout, I would like to point out that Boy Scouts of America does NOT indoctrinate kids to be extra super conservative or to hate minorities. It is an opportunity for kids to explore the outdoors, learn life skills and accomplish things worth talking about. Perhaps it attracts mildly more conservative types, but it is what you make it.
"Hitler Youth Knockoff"-Really? These kids aged 13-21 volunteered to partake in training with the idea of learning what law enforcement as a profession is about. THEY VOLUNTEER. I was a Boy Scout and I never felt compelled to sign up to work with cops. Lets be real, no one likes the police. To imply that it is a "hitler youth knockoff" is offensive because that's not what law enforcement is about. These kids sign up for it for the experience and to have something else to put on a college application. Don't blow it up as some paramilitary training youth corp.
My best friend was in Explorers and did it because it was fun. He met local cops in our area, partook in regional competition with other departments from the area and had a great time doing it. This guy is a liberal just like me and even signing up for this group and spending tons of time doing all the police-skill training and what-not did not "indoctrinate" him or any of that crap. As a post below points out, this organization has been around 60 years. Have you heard of any paramilitary uprisings originating from the Boy Scouts recently, or ever? No me either.
This is Winston Smith - fight Big Brother before it's too late, please.
Even though this disturbing militaristic training program is disturbing as it resembles elements of a fascist movement, I wouldn't freak out just yet...this Explorer program should be watched closely.
I joined the Boy Scouts in 1963 after having been a Cub Scout. It was an entirely different era in America and what it meant to be a Scout was entirely different. I have, therefore another perspective on all of this.
The Jugend or as we know them the Hitler Youth, didn't join to become Storm Troopers either. They joined for the same indoctrination into virtuous life and citizenship etc, in the same way these young people joined the Explorers. The Glider Clubs in 1930s Germany didn't form to train pilots for the Luftwaffe either. Yet both groups were coopted by the Wermacht and the most accomplished of these young people became the core of the SS.
Before you convince yourself that we are somehow immune to the sway of fascist drumbeats, you might study the conditions of civil society in post WW1 Germany. There are so many parallels to our current American society that many of us become disturbed by any Para-military training of any group of young people.
Note the dateline -- *Imperial*, California.
The Empire needs Stormtroopers ...
"Imperial" California is next to the Mexican border like Blackwater.
Are these children being training to shoot farmworkers?
Damn! When will these "true-blooded" American guy's and girl's learn who the real threat to their freedom is? The corporations (and their lackeys) that control our nations capital do a hell of a lot more damage--all in the name of greed--than any dope growing, border-jumping, dressed like an Arab terrorist, could even dream of doing. They don't call Washington D.C. corporate occupied territory for nothing. But don't you worry none boy's and girls, with the training you're receiving, you'll be at the front of the line for one of those cush jobs down at the local prison.
this is yet another ratchet for the sickness level of the us
how long before one of these twisted little buggers - armed to the teeth and in a teenage angst - takes out his grade 7 class
this country is so fucked up
Wow.
We're so f__ked and we're never going back.
Truer words were never spoken!
"All anybody talked about was going home, but I had been back there and I knew it didn't exist anymore." ---Capt. Willard
It's the Hitler Youth!!
My thought exactly, but its the Homeland Youth.
Hitler had the brownshirts we have the Homeland Blueshits
This is Winston Smith - fight Big Brother before it's too late, please
"Hitler had the brownshirts we have the Homeland Blueshits"...more people need to realize this obsessive focus of terrorism which isn't a existential threat to the nation but has has become a tool to restrict freedoms & for politicians to bludgen each other.
At least the Hitler Youth still wore the Boy Scout uniform and confined their energies to singing songs, camping, learning knife and axe, etc. They didn't run around with guns.
Sorry, but the Boy Scouts of America is and always has been just waiting to be corrupted into a children's army.
FUCK all uniforms and all attempts to make the people inside them uniform.
"FUCK all uniforms and all attempts to make the people inside them uniform."
Amen. Suits, ties, uniforms, etc are all nothing but examples of forced conformity.
Or the OBAMA Youth!
Exactly what I was thinking. It's the American version of the Hitler Youth.
WOW, all i can say is WOW.
Do you think America is moving towards fascism?
You can't move somewhere you already are.
This isn't your father's fascism, though.
Gee, it turns out that for the Boy Scouts of Amerika, homophobia was only the hors d'oeuvre!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Time to get those Nazi youth camps underway.
I grew up in the Commonwealth's Boy Scout movement, founded by Sir Baden-Powell. This movement is not quite as nationalistic as BSA, but Baden-Powell's original intention was to train the youth as a home-guard movement, in case the UK was overrun by the 'Hun'. The emphasis was on fitness and survival training.
However, this is very, very different to 'law enforcement' as now practiced by the evangelical BSA.
I was a Boy Scout flunkie many years ago.
The BS/GS exist to mold young people into obedient soldiers. Many may not ever wear another uniform, but they will always remember how to take orders, salute, and pledge to be "morally straight."
The militarization of Boy Scouts has been going on for years. Leaders show up at campouts with military uniforms and in some cases Nazi and skin head patches and decals. Corporate Scout leaders run their Troops like corporate dictators with little room for dissent. Scouts have become a Republican youth stronghold with informal links to the military. God and Country mean only a right wing God and a right wing Country. Scouts are becoming the American version of Hitler youth.
Sioux Rose
STONE: The military training is sickening, and it's helped along by too many pro-war churches, the dehumanization of "other" in video games that lend ease to shooting persons down from joystick control panels, added to movie themes that create fantasies around good guys and bad guys/enemies. This nation is mortally wounded, and it's a blow aimed at its heart and soul. An Orwellian future appears to be shaping up before our eyes. I feel for the next generations.
from the BOY SCOUT MANUAL, “Handbook for Boys” circa 1931, p 544
(NOTE: This is no longer part of the manual.)
Indexed: Subject: WARS, The disease of WAR
“War is one of the tragedies of the life of the world. In its wake stalk sorrow, poverty, disease, mortal let down, debt, hatreds, fears.
One-third of the taxation of the world is either to pay for old wars or prepare for new. War tears down civilization. The effort of home, church, school and state is for us to guard life and respect property – war says kill and destroy. Tragic as is the wastage of billions in property and millions of lives – this reversal of the channels of civilized order is yet more serious in its influence upon youth.
The insane thing about war is that after killing and destroying THEN folks must gather around a table, find what the points at issue are and adjust them finally. In the same world, this would be done FIRST. It is not CONFLICT but CONFERENCE that settle. Therefore, have it first.”
(CAPITALS as printed in the manual.)
---We close down schools and open up new prisons. The Boy Scouts are the new Mao Kids or Hitler's Youth. As a species, we are totally despicable. Long have we wallowed in invincible ignorance.
Sarah Ruth
Eugene OR
Thank you for this quote.
It serves as a good reminder to the overly cynical that the US was not always so warmongering and Americans wer not always so callous and selfish. The 1930's with the horrors of WW1 and the capitalist abuses of the 1920's still fresh in people's memory, were positively pacifist and socialist compared to today.
I recall an early WB Looney-Tune where Porky Pig is being chased by the terrifying man from the draft board - who was the villin of the cartoon.
Lots of the other cartoons - plus the 3 Stooges - the Marx Brothers, and the Little Rascals/Our Gang all has a subtle and often not-so-subtle criticism of war, nationalism, and capitalism.
Indeed. Not only was "Duck Soup" a hilarious movie; it was also great social commentary. One of my faves by the Marx Brothers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM01v_vVnbg
I think it's kind of touching to picture these Scouts helping Mexican and South American little old ladies cross the border-- BACK ACROSS the border, I should say-- at gunpoint.
And after all, you've got to remember that if these kids didn't join the Explorers, they might drift into joining gangs who thrive on weapons and violence!
· Yr Obd't Servant
There is nothing wrong with training children for roles in their adult life, especially roles needed in the community.
Don't diss the scouts or explorers to a 'conservative' because these organizations place the highest emphasis on authority, group structure, dicipline.... all morals highly valued by 'conservatives'.
There is a basic premis where authority is betraying us- that the roles are immigration and drug enforcement... all very prevelant, are by choice. But you can find all sorts of info on why the wars on drugs and immigrants are misguided and detrimental to society.
Training them to be good christians and activists (like the scouts do) is also good- though you don't get to fire a gun as much, or in such 'cool' ways.
Then again, what 'good christian' means may be changing too, due to the changing make up or sponsoring churches.
"Cathy Noriego, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns - known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets - in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.
"I like shooting them," Cathy said. "I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.""
I don't think we're supposed to be helping minor teen girls get off to violence.
I love how being a "true-blooded American guy and gal" is arming yourself and attacking people...
God bless America.
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
Brown Pants
All you males out there between the ages of 18 and 26. . . don't worry about the rebirth of conscription so we can fight the Vietnam War again in Afghanistalingrad (and lose). The Boy Scouts will take up the slack. And they already believe in "the mission".
At this point it would be child abuse to put your boy into the boy scouts. There should be a great effort to boycott the Boy Scouts on the part of parents. We need children to fight for the environment, learn about technology and how things like electric cars can save our environment and our economy, help disabled people, the list is enormous. Supporting fascist brainwashing of our children should be removed from the list.
So many exciting things for boys to learn and explore and the treasonous trolls at the Boy Scouts of America have them supporting fascism, how insane is that?
Boycott the Boy Scouts and start your own local scouting program! Would be fun to design the uniforms and set up the great adventures for the children.
Why do there have to be uniforms?
Men think they look good in uniforms, like Robert Redford in his Navy dress whites in "The Way We Were".
Which is a good argument for simple, unobtrusive military uniforms that don't appease the vanity of those who wear them (particularly the higher ranks). Not just the abolition of dress uniforms (or perhaps their restriction to certain personnel only), but the abolition of those "snazzy" camouflage uniforms and reverting to plain, simple olive drab.
I've noted that the armies that have the "snazziest" uniforms have been losing armies. On the other hand, the armies that look "rough and ready" are winners. (It probably helps that the "rough and ready" armies tend to fight solely in defense of their homelands, not to create empires.)
As I said in the other post with the same photo, "The Hitler Jugend rides again!
Unfortunately, we are not becoming fascist. That happened quite some time ago. We are just transitioning from covert fascism to overt fascism. Unfortunately, I don't see this disappearing, or the United States reverting back to a Constitutional Republic under the rule of the Obamanation.
So much for hope.
At least the Girl Scouts evolved along a much more enlightened, tolerant, and humanistic path.
I hadn't realized just how militaristic and fundamentalist the Boy Scouts are until I ran into someone who works, or worked, for the Girl Scouts in Texas.
One of her duties involved visiting a local Boy Scouts group or facility involved in a cooperative program with the Girl Scouts. These meetings MAY have been held in a church, or on church property-- I'm not sure.
But after someone noticed that she had a rainbow sticker on her car, and she disclosed that she was gay when asked about it, she was removed from the program at the Scout administrator's request. There was no problem with the work she was doing-- just that she is gay.
She said she was disappointed, but not surprised. And just in the course of conversing, she related a number of ways in which the Boy Scouts and churches were joined to the hip-- at least in Texas.
Onward, Christian Soldiers!
· Yr Obd't Servant
"The law enforcement posts are restricted to those ages 14 to 21 who have a C average, but there seems to be some wiggle room. "I will take them at 13 and a half," Deputy Lowenthal said. "I would rather take a kid than possibly lose a kid."
Oh, I suppose if a kid was really promising but had a greater than C average we could bend the rules a bit. I would rather take a smart kid into the program than lose a chance to teach fascism.
"I don't know, would you call that politically incorrect?"
Of course not. Teaching hate and racism is not politically incorrect in America.
My parents and their relatives lived through Nazi-rule and were liberated by, amongst others, the Americans. So hard to imagine that now, when you see what the USA has become.
1984, here we come. Only totalitarian societies that despise the lives of "other" people teach their youth to hate and kill.
..."highest emphasis on authority, group structure, discipline.... all morals highly valued by 'conservatives".
These are not right vs. wrong 'morals'. These are group-think-business-as-usual-us-against-them morals.
Funny how a catholic 'saint' and a communist leader both said the same thing.... give me a child for the first years and they will belong to the church/party for life.
These boy scouts are not playing with guns, they are preparing to uphold 'conservative values'. Involves none of the original boy scout pledges of integrity, honest, helpful, kind, courteous...... Just another program of indoctrination.
No god would bless this mess.