[Image: Youth storm a building; photo by Todd Krainin for the New York Times. The rest of Krainin's slideshow should not be missed].The Boy Scouts of America apparently have a youth anti-terrorism training program here in California, partially dedicated to simulated border patrol exercises.
"The Explorers program," as it's called, "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 training, we read courtesy of The New York Times, "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." The kids, toting compressed air guns styled to look like heavy weaponry, even once "raided" a simulated marijuana-growing operation. “I like shooting them,” a 16-year old Scout named Cathy Noriega said, referring to said guns. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”
These and other replicant crime scenes spill out across private backyards temporarily donated for the purpose of youth-officer training. This deliberately militarized new spatial order of well-run simulations – including "building[s] rigged with tripwire, alarms and 'poison' gas" – seems to fall somewhere between immersive game, after-school program, sports training, and indoctrination exercise.
The slideshow is worth a view.
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