This is, without a doubt, the creepiest thing you will read all week:
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.
More nutty excerpts after the jump:
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.”
Yes but have you heard of the Obama Youth? 😉Report
I was a Boy Scout for many years, but never an Explorer. Most of the Explorer troops are attached to police departments, fire departments, etc. The kids in them get uniforms that make them look like the real deal. They carry walkie-talkies, etc on tool belts to make them look even more officials. They often work special events directing traffic or whatnot. In my experience they are alsmost always good kids but they are the kind that are ‘hangers-on’ to these organizations and maybe have a little bit too much fantasy involved.Report
Mike –
Most of that sounds pretty innocuous, but the guns and the combat training stuff is really creepy.Report
The part I found most disturbing was this:
‘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?”’
Because nothing keeps our rural counties safe like a little blinkered xenophobia.
That being said, when I blogged about this myself, a few people seemed to think I was being provincial in my thinking, and that this was simply a hands-on experience for kids interested in law enforcement careers. Having a pack of hormonal vigilantes made me feel a wee bit uneasy, but maybe I’m just a sheltered northeastern liberal type?Report
You know this strikes me as something the young Dwight Shrewt would be involved in….Report
Schrute* (for the record)Report
Damn you, Will. Always correcting my spelling…Report
E.D. – That’s probably about the best analogy you could make. Like I said, they’re good kids, just a little too serious about what they are doing.Report
I, of course, didn’t need to involve myself with firearms to feel cool in high school. I was in band.Report
Seriously – I’m like this site’s freaking copy editor.Report