Interesting article today on Border Patrol training young kids in the Explorers (a Boy Scouts affiliate) on how to take down terrorists, drug dealers, and act like mini SWAT teams…
“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”
This is pretty scary- on one hand, you’ll have kids who know how to handle situations and equipment that may come in useful. On the other hand, they may be your kids… And they may decide that you’re not a “true blue American” at some point… They could become young party loyalists who’ll turn their parents in for perceived transgressions against the state- think 1984, of course… Or, and potentially worse if they’re NOT your kids- they can become disillusioned later in life and turn to the other side… Taking their training and information on how our Law Enforcement system works with them. We’ve seen this with the Zetas in Mexico, and we really don’t need similar paramilitary groups here. It only takes one or two well-trained people to teach their information to willing gang members, and now you’ve got a problem.
Thoughts?
20 responses so far ↓
1 Jack // May 14, 2009 at 10:31 am
The Explorers have been around for a long time, it is (was) a relatively benign organization. They worked with us in the mid 80’s, so they could learn about law enforcement careers.
However, the part the I found troublesome was
that they made the bad guy a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, while they considered a bad guy dressed as an Arab to be politically incorrect!
If you’re going to be training for the border patrol, shouldn’t the bad guy be simulating a illegal alien? Or is that politically incorrect too?
Brain washing? Indoctrination? Maybe…
2 Bitmap // May 14, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Here is the link that the nyslime didn’t seem to provide:
http://explorerprogram.com/
I’ll agree with Jack on not liking the veteran as the bad guy in their scenarios.
3 Mountain Steps // May 14, 2009 at 5:55 pm
My wife did explorers in high school. It was basically riding around with officers as they busted parties, helping out with paper work, and going throught an explorer police academy training where they learned many of the skills in a full police academy. The explorers definitely were never armed that I know of. (although they did get gun training at the academy) I think this terrorist training of the explorers might be an isolated explorer group doing it, probably not the typical training. Explorers seems to be a good way to get teens interested in law enforcement and they volunteer in your community.
That is a bit odd using an iraqi vet in the scenario, though.
4 Squib // May 14, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Oh, come now, their just doing it for the greater glory of the Fatherland! Heil Obama!
5 sirlancelot // May 14, 2009 at 8:03 pm
after reading the post was thinking of that movie Soldier with Kurt Russel ( 1998 )
this looks like a LE version of the boy scouts .
couldn’t find the bad guy Iraq Vet scenario training , but that’s pretty strange because you can’t touch LE job around here ( Mass. ) without vet status.
of course with the recent comments from the Dems about military personal being conservative ( guess they didn’t account for the large number of minority personal ) it sounds like the currant administration has a hand in this.
can’t see this being too bad for a kid interested in LE. hell, maybe it might make them stay in school and get a nice desk job 9-5 w/weekends and holidays off
6 Bill // May 14, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I WAS an Explorer with the Las Vegas Metro Police for 3 years before I got hired on here as a cop. After I got hired on, I was an advisor for 10 years. Had it not been for the program, I don’t think I would have had the edge I did in getting hired. Being a police officer is a very competitive field to get into.
I think that anyone who believes that these programs are harmful to youth are misinformed. The only exception would be a bad advisor teaching the kids wrong stuff: Like you don’t need any probable cause to stop someone as long as you doll up the arrest report or tuning up a bad guy after you handcuff them for a little street justice (although we all want to!). Otherwise, it’s an excellent recruiting tool.
As far as gang member infiltrators, yes, it happens. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that these kids aren’t Jason Bourne. You can identify the infiltrators pretty easily. They ACT like gang members, not like the highly disciplined teenagers and young adults that most departments demand of their Explorers. The ones you have to watch out for are the mega-wannabes… the kids who drive around in their cars with police scanners and store-bought red lights on their dashboard playing cops and robbers, going from call to call. Many times you can identify them only after a fellow cop pulls them over doing something stupid. Then as an advisor, you get that call at 1 in the morning telling you that your kid is in custody (been there).
And don’t worry… even after training these kids a lot to prepare for a competition, they’re still piss poor… bless their hearts.. hahahaha. They’re not as high speed as this article portrays them to be, I don’t care how long they’ve been Explorers. I can count on one hand the times I’ve either competed, had my kids compete, or judged scenarios where I said about an Explorer, “Damn, at 19 or 20 years old, you could be a cop right now!”
The Border Patrol Explorers always sucked ass, at the competitions we went to, by the way. They were shitty in everything except the target shooting competitions. They always clean house in those. Then again, actual Border Patrol Agents always do excellent in NRA shoots, too.
-My 2 cents
7 winston smith // May 15, 2009 at 6:15 am
This is something to start instilling FEAR in the tinfoil wearing nuts.
This is a good way to identify potential members for you local defence units.
On the other hand it will help to inspire the hitler (oops I mean Obama) youth movement
Lets hope the other youth groups DO NOT follow suit
Winston smith
8 Dennis Lee // May 15, 2009 at 7:38 am
Mr. Smith said it best…Hitler Youth.
9 theotherryan // May 15, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Really the Explorers are nothing to worry about. This reminds me of when that KGB Colonel called the Eagle Scouts an elite para military organization in red dawn. I was a police explorer for a little while. You get to do some shooting which is cool but going to the range now and then doesn’t make you into Rambo.
Of all the things to worry about the Explorers are very low on the list.
10 Sawbuck // May 16, 2009 at 6:40 am
The scenario doesn’t surprise me - A few years ago I was at a Federal Contracting Conference in DC and they had a “terrorist” scenario - this was in about 2003 - and it was a “domestic terrorist” - the Free State Project no less!
(For those who don’t know of the FSP - their goal is to elect enough libertarian legislators in NH to tell DC t0 stuff it. More granolas in that organization than in a health food store and not a violent word ever spoken by anyone in the organization beyond “Get off your ass and vote.”
This is MUCH more insidious than Hilter Youth - they are being presented with the fact than anyone who criticizes the government - whoever is in power - is mentally ill. Clinton did it, and now Obama. The Founders would scream if they saw what we did to their grand experiment.
I miss my Republic. All Obama is doing in opening the throttle as we approach the cement wall.
11 vladviking // May 17, 2009 at 2:45 am
Border Patrol LOL . Yea send em there to learn how the FED pays em for a job skill and then tells em NOT to do the job. “Let all the illegal immigrants go by we out here in the middle of nowhere waiting for terrorists sneakin across.”
12 M.D. Creekmore // May 18, 2009 at 9:22 am
The thing that stood out to me was that the bad guy was a disgruntled Iraq war veteran. This just doesn’t seem right.
13 Survival Guy // May 21, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I dont think it’s about the specific organization so much as it is about the general principle of it all. these kids were focused more on tactical/firearm portion of the exercise than value (like the boy scouts).
And to Bill, not all (my guess is few) of the instructors would teach my personal values. So you really can’t assume that because this organization has been traditionally benign, what theyre doing now is completely innocent.
The Hitler Youth was started with far less weaponry than the Explorers seem to use, and far fewer tactical exercises. It’s no surprise that the Iraq Veteran was the bad guy because, eventually all of us will be the bad guy.
14 SurvivalTopics.com // May 22, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Cub Scouts are, after all, a para-military organization
15 Bill // May 23, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Survival Guy,
Comparing the Explorers to the Hitler Youth is not accurate. Having been involved for the long time I was with the program, I had the opportunity to work with a ton of other agencies. Not very many of them had bad advisors-a few, but not too often. Advisors are typically screened and highly scrutinized by each agency because they have to live up to Boy Scout standards (Exploring is a branch of the BSA) AND the standards of each department. I know in my agency, the Sheriff would have a shit-fit if he discovered that his advisors were opening the department up to liability by imposing any sort of socialist doctrine on the kids or was subverting them in any way. I like the fact that Exploring is affiliated with the scouts because it helps ground each department’s program in American tradition and values:
http://www.learningforlife.com/exploring/lawenforcement/index.html
I know this may deeply offend some people, but as part of the mission statement listed in the policy manual that we give the Explorers on our department, it actually talks about patriotism and God. **GASP!!!**
Call me nerdy, but I think that’s cool!
16 Bill // May 23, 2009 at 3:22 pm
And ya, I think the American vet being used as the badguy is chicken shit. That’s a FEDERAL Explorer post for you. You wouldn’t see that in a local PD or Sheriff’s Dept. program. That’s why the Border Patrol gets their asses handed to them by the locals every year when their kids compete in scenarios….
17 FireSteel.com // May 24, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Still, this is treading on dangerous ground. And when you talk about patriotism and God, blind obedience is not patriotism. And whose God?
18 Bill // May 25, 2009 at 12:10 am
Obviously you’re not gong to take my word for it.. Think what you like. And I thought that I was paranoid.
19 Mike in Maine // May 26, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I hope they also take those kids to a federal prison to give them a taste of what will happen to them if they someday actually use their “skills.”
20 3rdman // May 27, 2009 at 9:49 pm
This is just another example where someone can take a set of facts and twist them into something there not. The explorer program is a great program along with the other scouting programs out there. Next thing someone will say is that the Brownies are really a dessert that Boy Scouts like to eat. Or maybe I’m just being paranoid. Or maybe thats just what I want you to think. haha!!!
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