Photo credit: Todd Krainin / New York Times
The United States of America has changed. Naturally, the Boy Scouts of America must change with it. But arming them with airsoft guns and conducting simulations to teach how to fight terrorism, chase down illegal immigrants and raid marijuana fields?
Whatever happened to a campfire and hot dog roast?
The New York Times hits the mother lode:
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.
[...]
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.”
The Explorers group, based out of Irving, Texas, has not suffered much controversy over its law enforcement training for scouts.
However, in at least a dozen instances over the last 10 years, law enforcement officials in the Explorer program have been charged with sexually assaulting scouts, the paper added.
Read the rest, even if you're flinching already.
-- Stephen C. Webster
The United States of Nazism hasn't changed.
It's simply become more transparent.
It's always been Fascism Inc.
This is wonderful news. The Boy Scouts should adapt with the times. Learning how to use all kinds of firearms, to defend the country's borders, and to root out the pestilence of illegal drugs are key to becoming valuable members of society. They also could stand a firm grounding in history, government, philosophy, and economics so that they understand how allowing governments to gain too much control and limit freedom through various policies such as excessive taxation and regulation are destructive to the very way of life that Lord Baden-Powell and the Boy Scout organization have held dear. Emphasizing the importance and centrality of the Judeo-Christian faiths and traditions to what we understand as our Western civilization would also be a beneficial addition. Young people must be encouraged to strive for freedom and for preserving and advancing the way of life that we have enjoyed for millennia, and to not sink into the morass of personal and philosophical relativism, nihilism and passivity, coupled with socialism and government aggrandizement, that characterize contemporary liberalism. Be our scouts for freedom, boys!
What the HAY????? Nice little Brown Shirts!
Since when is law enforcement a boy scout activity?? good grief. What sort of badge do they give a kid for putting their knee in the back of someone they think is a criminal suspect? do they get extra points for making them eat dirt? Is there a badge for turning in their family members for speaking out against the party??
darn! this is truly a WTF moment. I wouldn't allow my child to participate in this sort of Gestapo training.
It's great to hear that a new cadre of fearless, well prepared patriots is being groomed in the USA. Why not also stress that these young people learn English and push for it to be the official language of the country? Our language is one of the things that not even the multiculturalists have been able to destroy. It's one of the few remaining barriers to cultural suicide.
Ja wohl, mein Fuhrer!
Say hello to the BrownShirts and the Hitler Jugend. And really Frdddie Krueger, as a gun owner, you my friend are a brainwashed IDIOT! "Militia" in the 18th century context does NOT mean a standing army, under the auspices of the Feds. Militia is voluntary, every able bodied men 16-55. It's there to prevent the TYRANNY of the gvt, not so your children can be indoctrinated early on to protect the STATE, and NOT the CONSTITUTION.
Hesus Cristos, READ the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. And puhleeeze for the love of god, don't talk about the Second Amendment, our freedoms, unless you understand the Natural Rights come from Nature, Creator, or whatever god of your creation, NOT the State, ya mook.
Who in their right mind actually believes they are being trained to "catch" border jumpers?
I could catch 100 of them simply stepping outside my Front fucking door...
( i am lower middle class so i live in an ethnically diverse neighborhood AND i can tell the difference between mexican americans and mojados.)
sounds like pedofile training to me...
I thought the Boy Scouts were rooted in community service? Helping the little old lady across the street kinda thing?
Gee, I wonder if Michelle Bachmann has her panties in a wad over this blatant 'indoctrination of this country's youth". Oh, hold on, I think I've got it: See, to Michelle Bachmann, asking our youth to volunteer for the betterment of their communities, and our country, without the need for arms and violence, is the equivilent of Hilter's Youth; asking our youth to volunteer in counter-terrorism, tactics drug raids, and illegal immigration tactics, with guns and all, is patriotic.
Heil Hitler, Boy Scouts!
Good chance a few of these boys will try to confront some actual gang bangers dealing crack and get killed in the process. I imagine that would end the program.
Yep, little Brownshirts in the making. And wouldn't you know there would be a couple of proto-fascist jerkwads like Fellatio Admirer and the Nazi-sounding Krueger, who seems to be enthralled with his own pseudo-intellectual pretensions.
Morons.
Beats sitting around a campfire getting bit up by mosquitoes.
Because auto accidents are 20,000-30,000 times more of a threat to the safety and security of our nation, I believe the little morons would better serve society if someone would train them to become crossing gaurds.
I remember my scoutmaster and his sons very clearly. I also remember my scoutmaster's daughter and wish I had known then about what a young girl undergoing daily sexual abuse looks like. It's my opinion that all the male members of that family would likely have been sent to prison. Boy Scouts....I have no respect for that outfit whatsoever.
Veteran '66-68
This is a bit hysterical for no reason.
There have always been police explorers and sea scouts and they represent a small portion of scouting.
It’s not like every scout troop in the land is teaching this stuff.
Explorers are to scouting as extra -curricular things, like yearbook, are to high school.
Yeah, put them in the mniddle of a dope ring shootout. If they die, then they suck as scouts. If they kill, graduate them to eagle scout. I can already see the next POTUS; a rabid, drooling Boy Scout! He would fit right in with the last few dozen POTUS's!
Also, let's not forget the Girl Scouts. Tell them to dump the cookie thing and start hooking for God and country. Blow jobs for every surviving Boy Scout from the shootout!
Maybe we can let them inbreed to make Junior Scouts. Krueger (above) can take the pics and make a little something on the side, as well as share with Handtitty, Limburger and O'Really! They can have a real neat hand party together!
Great.....mini militias with an added bonus of "Emphasizing the importance and centrality of the Judeo-Christian faiths and traditions to what we understand as our Western civilization would also be a beneficial addition"
let's just start up a new hitler youth group-USA branch!
Why don't we disband all police across the nation......utilize there new boyscout skills to protect the streets...(why should they study in school when they can shoot and hunt down terrorists) and use the saved money to get health care for all.
R. Krueger, I could not have said it better myself. Of course, every word you wrote is an valid statement as to why this training is wrong and misguided.
It would appear that they are being trained not only as Minutemen Mini Me's, but also DEA and FBI as well, sort of a new DHS sub-group. Are they to be given any actual power, or just the brainwashing to allow them to apply for positions with the actual govt agencies?
At least their shirts are already light brown, eh?
Completely unbelievable! As a former Boy Scout and Explorer I consider this to be a perversion of everything that Scouting used to stand for.
Krueger and his ilk seem to think it is a great idea to take a once great youth organization like the BSA and twist it into some sort of krypto-fascist para-military training corps. However, given the history of the USA over the past eirght years such atitudes should not surprise anyone.
Gerard R.
San Jose
Dionysis,
Yes. Fellatio Admirer and Krueger are, in fact, morons. They simply cannot comprehend the difference between a way of life and freedom. They think guns and god and all that other bullshit defines freedom, when, in fact, it is simply their chosen way of life. There are aspects of freedom in their way of life, but their way way of life does not equal freedom. They simply do not have the intellectual capacity to understand this. And so we get right-wing slogans such as "Let Freedom Reign", when anyone who really understands freedom knows that it does not "reign" nor rule nor command nor order nor anything else the right loves to worship. It is also why many people, idiots all, can actually believe that the war in Iraq is about freedom. When freedom becomes something you can impose upon others (a way of life), rather than what it actually is (a rejection of all ways of life except that which you choose), slaughtering and torturing innocent people becomes acceptable. Freedom simply exists. From birth. It is a natural state that doesn't cost anything, contrary to the slogan "Freedom isn't free". It most certainly is. It is tyranny that is costly. The Founding Fathers understood this and that is why "governments are instituted among men". Not to fight for costly freedom, but to protect the costless (and creator - endowed) natural state of freedom. Admirer and Kreuger are incapable of understanding that. They want to impose their way of life, their way of thinking onto everyone else and say they are bringing freedom in the process. For those who don't want that way of life, that "freedom" is actually tyranny. If you understand that little bit about the rightists, then everything else will become clearer. They do not believe in freedom. They believe in a way of life that they label freedom, that is forced upon those that do not want it.
I wonder if they will offer merit badges in water boarding and interrogation techniques and of course, how to set up a surveillance operation on your parents
Sad for the BSA and the Explorer program.
Even sadder is all the morons and idiots that come here to try and impose their version of "freedom" on others. As their leader would say, "Pinheads!".
Some trolls need more Americans to fight more wars for them.
Get them while they're young, Evita, get them while they're young!
IDF & Chickenhawk Neocons teach the 911 Cover-Story.
Not when I was a Boy Scout -
Not when I was a Cubmaster -
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
what part of "well-regulated" do you gun nuts not understand?
I thought all they were up to was circle-jerks. Now I see they're training the next batch of school shooters- brilliant, messing with the the adolescent mind.
Please, rescind the boy scouts' tax exempt status right now.
From the picture, I suggest that it might not be a bad idea to tell them that its a good idea to know where their guns are pointed. From right to left, kid 3 is about to blow the head off of kid 1 and deafen kid 2 unless kid 4 gets kid 3 first. In either case, kid 1 is gonna lose his front teeth from recoil.
As stupid and fascist an idea as this is, it's made worse by the fact that the "trainers" don't know what they're doing. First you train basics, then you train tactics. Putting the cart before the horse guarantees a reduction in ranks.
These people are idiots of the first class...
-ek
"Homeland" is VERY proud to be behind this NEW training & thinking.
FEMA wants in too!
The Explorers program helps boys and girls in scouting, or too old for Boy/Girl Scouts (the max age is 18) with career choices.
So, yeah, law enforcement is a career choice.
Becoming an Eagle Scout is about community and national service. It's a rigorous program of skill building and involves an extended community outreach project. Many Eagle Scouts go into military service or law enforcement, but that's Boy Scouts. Venturing and Explorers are for older kids, and serve a different function.
Keep in mind that scouting is an international organization, started in the UK and adopted over here later on. The organization is about service, that is helping others.
Oh, so that's why the Boy Scouts didn't want gay scoutmasters--they were competition for the real pedophiles. Nice.
The New Youth Brown Shirts in training! We know now that the reason they formed Homeland Insecurity (Heimatland) is to protect the elite from "We the People" and we are the enemy! The answer is 1776 and the Anti-Establishment Liberty Movements! End the Federal Reserve!
Don't look now, but almost all of the police, armed forces, government offices, etc. have been taken over by the Jesus Cult. They are a little harder to identify now, since, the people with allegiance to America have started waking up. But it will take nothing short of revolution to root them out now. Scouting, producing more Christo-Fascists for the Gestapo. They have always been controlled from the Vatican........BTW there is someone else posting under my handle his posts are even more vile and disgusting than me! Or, Maybe, my personality has split again!!!
Oh no! The kids being trained so that they will start turning their parents in for though crimes pretty soon... Orwell's nightmares are rapidly coming true.
This Hitler Jugend training is the end of a long line of despicable actions in turning what was once a free country into a a disgusting police state.
I was a scout during the militarist Reagan Years and it was never overtly fascist as this stuff is.
Assault weapong training? Assault training? Combat training? Scouting should be about building model citizens, not jackbooted thugs. This story is literally nauseating.
Liberty was a nice thing...
well, it beats reinstating the draft...
i just burned my neckerchief...
I sure hope they get better training in handling firearms. This group in the photo look like something out of Police Academy 2.
Whoever thought this up must have had fond memories of the Hitler Youth.
So is this the future military arm of the Christian Taliban?
Wildcat
Sounds like The Boy Scouts are now an official enemy of The American People. Marijuana raids? Are they blind and stupid? Marijuana IS going to be legalized soon and even Republicans are on board. I hope the these so called Scouts and their organization get sued for something.
In metropolitan LA, I witnessed the racism entrenched in our local boys scout troop. Sudtle, it was none the less real. I witnessed the boy scout officials and parents of white children and their behaviour towards non white boy scouts. We subsequently ended up moving and joined a new chapter; the behavior was the same. I, of course, took my children out of the boy scouts and instead encouraged sports participation. I see now that I made the correct decision.
Amazing to see a fellow second amendment supporter endorsing the War on (some) Drugs. Having been discredited years ago, the WOD is now just practice for the War on Guns.
The war on drugs has nothing to do with the right to bear arms. There is no right to bear cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy, LSD or any other drug. None. When that becomes a constitutional right, we'll all know.
I don't know which is worse. The fact that the Scout Masters are doing this or that the parents are obviously supporting it.
"The war on drugs has nothing to do with the right to bear arms."
True. Guns kill a lot more people than illegal drugs do. If you can forbid drugs on (e.g.) this basis, then you can easily prohibit firearms. BTW, I'm an NRA life member.
But there are certain similarlities. In both cases, a bunch of true beleivers on a mission from god are codifying their irrational fears and prejudices into law.
" There is no right to bear cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy, LSD or any other drug. None. When that becomes a constitutional right, we'll all know."
If you are going to argue with the no-mind gun-grabbers, you ought to know constitutional history. The consitution grants the gummit limited and specified powers, It is not a list of what is allowed to "the people".
In fact, the founders initially objected to a bill of rights because they feared people would make your argument, that what is not specifically-allowed can be forbidden. This is why they finally put in the 9th amendment, which basically says that "just becuase we list a few rights here, this does not mean that there are not others".
In more constitutionally-fastidious times, it took a constituional amendment to prohibit one drug, alcohol. Back then, people also knew that "Shall not be infringed" meant what it says.
Your response is incoherent. You are equating a constitutionally mandated right with something quite different, the possession of illegal substances, which may or may not kill people, but which is not a constitutionally mandated right. It's very simple.
The constitution doesn't guarantee a right to guns based on the number of people killed or not killed by them. It's an absolute right, the second in the bill of rights, based on the overriding principle of defense of country and self-defense. The Supreme Court again upheld this right.
Possession of illegal drugs without criminal penalties cannot be justified under any circumstances, unless those drugs are legalized. This is also different from suggesting that a right not enumerated in the constitution is forbidden. If something is legislated on a federal basis as illegal, that overrides the Ninth Amendment. Is that really so hard for you to comprehend? Also, more people die from the effects of cigarettes than from guns. Yet adults are able to access this highly regulated form of drug delivery for historical and cultural reasons. There is no right to cigarette smoking in the constitution, yet our society has deemed it okay for adults to smoke. The same is true of alcohol. But not of cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, or other hard and very dangerous drugs.
When our Congress passes either federal statutes decriminalizing drug possession or a constitutional amendment bill legalizing currently illegal drugs and the states ratify it, you can make your argument and I'll buy it. But it's not happening anytime soon.
Doug Diggler and others, please don't fly off the handle. Neither the US government nor any of the major political parties is compelling these Explorer Scouts to undertake the actions described in the article.
That's quite different from Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, or any of the other examples that are likely to be bandied about around here.
If the US government were to be behind these scouts learning these new skills, or the Democratic or Republican Parties were sponsoring these scouts, we should all be up in arms. If the Boy Scouts, a private civic organization, however, wants to train scouts to protect the US borders and other such things, that's okay.
If you disagree, let them know. Don't send them money. Picket outside their offices.
But it's a long way from what happened with the Hitler Jugend, okay?
This is bullshit!!! They are going to be responsible for the deaths of these kids!!!
Gee wow how this sounds familiar.
I live in China.
So Red Scouts, Boy Guards and whatever: the USA is now inventing its own People's Great Cultural Revolution so what's new about that?
Chairman Mao did that in 1966.
Anything new about trying to pull off the same trick in 2009?
This is another smoke and mirror designed to draw attention away from the economy, which is designed to draw attention away from torture, which is designed to draw attention away from the illegal war(children ACTUALLY being killed, ACTUALLY bearing arms)and the EVERYDAY DEATHS of innocent men, women and children; theirs and ours! And, to me ending the war would begin the healing this country needs to solve all the other problems we have.
Fucking bloody hell! It's the fucking Hitler Youth!
We have become the nation our parents laid down their lives to defeat.
Um, il you folks want the baseline: "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein -- that's where the fire behnd the smoke.
The rest is, as several contributors, smokescreen & propwash -- which is fun to watch too, mind you all.
Definitely fascists in the making here. Sure, they'll hunt down illegal aliens but have them mow their lawns when no one is looking. They'll hunt down drug dealers then snort cocaine in the bathroom while their kids sleep. I know this because that's the way these right-wing parents behave and hypocrisy is just another value they pass on to their children. Something about religious lunacy and forbidden fruit that really gets these nut cases off. They think freedom is forbidding others the right to do something they secretly do behind everyone's back. Right-wingers are sociopaths and really need to be monitored closely so they don't turn into a judeo-christian hyper-nazi pack of loons.