WEBVTT - Part Two: The Boy Scouts are a Bastard 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:09.879 And we're all of that, Chris, every little bit of 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:14.520 that goes into the episode. I'm Robert Evans, are you hi? 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:19.919 This is Behind the Bastards with Matt Leeby I I'm back. 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.239 How are you feeling learning all this fun stuff about 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.239 the Boy Scouts of America? All, I'm you know, remember 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:27.960 earlier when I was saying I always felt like I 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.880 missed out and not being a Boy Scout. Yeah, I'm 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.599 I'm a feeling that that was that was God just 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.199 looking out for me, because that's gonna get dark. It 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.599 is it's so fucked up. Like again, not to like 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.519 center my own experience like in this, but it is 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.320 weird to me that, Like, again, I know, I've spent 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.560 all of this time writing twenty pages on how fucked 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:52.880 up the Boy Scouts are. I personally have like nothing 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.600 but positive memories of my time in the Scouts um, 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:58.440 and it was it was weird, like I didn't start 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.080 to recognize because there was We're not talking about a 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.200 lot of the other stuff that's fucked up about the 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.400 Boys scaust like everyone knows like they for decades would 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.560 not let you be gay or trains or whatnot. In 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.160 the Boys Kicked out. If you came out, you couldn't 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:13.840 be an atheist. You had you didn't have to be 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.080 a specific religion, but you had to you had to 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.880 acknowledge the existence of a higher power. There's like other 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:20.880 stuff that they've been attacked for. And part of the 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.319 reason why I'm not really focusing on that is that, like, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:28.400 that's bad. That is not something that would render an 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:34.880 organization founded in nineteen ten fundamentally unsalvageable. Right, A lot 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.520 of organizations that old had weird attitudes, bad attitudes towards 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.360 gay people, even racist attitudes, and can change over time. 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.360 Be like, well, yeah, the people who founded us believe 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.760 these things. The fundamentals of our organization are good. Teaching 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.040 people how to camp. We're we we've we've grown that all. 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.680 I think that the Boy Scouts could have grown past, 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:55.800 you know, the anti LGBT thing, and they have started 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:57.800 accepting kids who are gay and trans. I think they 0:01:57.840 --> 0:01:59.960 could have grown past the restriction to just boys because 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.200 now they do accept girls. They could have grown past 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.040 a number of the problematic things. But you cannot grow 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.799 past is enabling the rape of tens of thousands of boys. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:14.160 That that cannot be redeemed. That's the thing that seems systemic. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:16.880 It's one of it's it's one of those things like, yeah, 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.000 an organization found in nineteen ten. People who made it 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.839 probably had some weird beliefs on race and gender, and like, yeah, 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.079 you can, you can. The organization I think can move 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.360 past that as long as it acknowledges the flaws of 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.799 its past and it confronts them head on, which I'm 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.640 not saying the Boy Scouts did, like they delayed way 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.799 too long performing on that stuff. But I think that 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.519 we're like the thing that makes them unsalvageable. The reason 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.240 I think the Boy Scats just needs to be destroyed 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.480 as an organization is the mass rape of children. Like 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.680 that's you can't, there's no no getting past that, moving 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:56.080 on a fair that's a fair problem, Yeah, it's Yeah. 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.720 If not for the mass rape of children, I feel 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.320 like would be you know, an organization that could make 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:08.000 do some reform, move past it's past. Yeah, But it's 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:10.360 that little thing where there was a master of children, 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:15.000 the tens of thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands of boys raped. Yeah. Yeah, 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.800 and and thus also creating a cycle of abuse and 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.000 predation due to the nature of you know, early childhood 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:28.480 sexual violence like that alone probably grounds. Yeah, they should 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.600 destroy the organization. I don't feel differently about the Catholic 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:37.800 Church in fairness, Um it is weird, like I can say, 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.520 because then I grew up very conservative. As I said, 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.040 I said a number of times if I had been 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.480 like sixteen in two fourteen, I might have wound up 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.080 like a right for a while. Um, I was really 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.480 right wing. Um one of like the first cracks in 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.360 the armors. When I was I'm not sure if I 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.160 was seventeen or eighteen. I think it was my senior 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:56.120 year of high school. It was an academic to Cathalon, 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:58.640 which is like a nerd thing, and we had our 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.240 own little like classroom. If you were on the team, 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.400 you could hang out in that classroom in between classes 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.440 or during lunch, which as a nerdy kid who just 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:07.840 wanted to read his Warhammer books, that was nice to do. 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.080 And so I'm in there one day with another kid 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:13.480 on the team, um, who was in the Boy Scouts. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.240 We were in different troops, but he was, he was, 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:17.240 and he was. I think I actually quit the because 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.000 I quit the Boy Scouts at like sixteen, fifteen or sixteen, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.000 he was still in the Boy Scouts and was like 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.400 either eighteen or almost eighteen. It was very close to 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:27.440 getting his eagle. And you know, he and I were friends. 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.440 We were sitting in the classroom one day and kind 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:30.760 of in the middle of just sort of like we're 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.120 both reading separate books quietly alone in this room, he 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:34.960 just looks up at me and tells me that he's gay. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.440 And this is the first person I ever met who 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.240 like I knew was gay, who would like that I 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:45.679 had talked to me about it. Um and um. I said, oh, okay. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:47.760 And and he immediately after that because it just like 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:49.679 I think he just had to tell somebody just burst 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.640 out of him immediately after they said, please don't tell anybody, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:54.839 Like the most important thing in the world to me 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.640 is finishing my eagle Scout, is like getting my eagle Scout, 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.359 like and they won't let me. And that was that 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.800 was like for me a moment of left like that's 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.240 really fucked up, actually that this kid's this kid who 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.440 clearly loves the Boy Scouts, is dedicated to like what 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:13.200 this organization stands for, is terrified of being kicked out 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.120 for just like something like it was just very obvious 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:18.359 in that moment, like, oh, yeah, that's clearly not a choice. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.039 Like the way he told me about it was just 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.160 like this he had to let somebody know, is this 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.320 thing that was? I don't know. That was a moment 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:29.000 for me. Um, and like, uh, just a, I know that. 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.120 That's when I first started to think really critically about 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.640 the Boy Scouts as an organization. Um, because again, I 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.600 grew up in this right wing you know bubble um, 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.080 And I guess I think it's it's like that one 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:40.599 way or another for a lot of people, like you 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.880 live in this kind of ideological bubble until you like 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.039 meet someone who's you care about, whose life experience contradicts 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.760 the things that you just never thought about before. Oh 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:55.599 I'm wrong about some really important ship. Yeah. Sometimes it 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.640 just takes that, you know, having an actual one on 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.520 one or just a human experience to get you outside 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:06.080 of like kind of the the strict dogmatism of your 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.440 like inherited ideology where you're just like, you know, of 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.320 course I'm a libertarian. My dad's a libertarian and he 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:16.000 raised me to be libertarian, you know. And then uh, 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.640 and then you you know, you live life and you 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.839 meet people who you know, in which the government was 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.520 actually uh a necessary entity in their life, and you're 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.800 like a ship. Like you know, people who just grow 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:30.560 up in a bubble. I think as soon as they 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.040 have that you know, bubble bursts a little bit, then 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.880 they can kind of move past whatever you know, do 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.680 ye ideology they have Yep. It is that thing where 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.560 like the Republican politicians who have like a life experience 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.720 that doesn't fit in with conservatism are like the ones 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.440 who have these very public like John McCain arch Republican 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.200 and everything but torture because he was tortured. It was 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.600 very consistently like, no, we can't, this is not okay. Uh, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.480 Dick Cheney arch Republican and everything but gay rights because 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.760 the daughters gay, and he's like yeah, um, it's just yeah, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:05.800 I mean that's just how people are, I guess. So 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.440 the Boy Scouts of America began operating what they called 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:13.240 an ineligible volunteer file system in nineteen nineteen, so they 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.360 did impel still alive when they this is like they 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:18.720 and this is not just even primary, this is not 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.600 primarily about sexual assault. This is obviously You've got this 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.760 growing organization, a bunch of men join it, and for 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.960 one reason or another, they do not meet the standards 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:27.880 that the b s A does have for adult volunteers. 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.640 And they're not screening people, but people who do the 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.360 job and are bad at it. And I think most 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.560 of these people again, are not molesting kids. They're like 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.320 they get some kids killed on a hike or some ship. Right, 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.680 Like they're they're irresponsible, you know, like there's a lot 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:42.720 of ways to be bad at being a scat past. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:44.960 You know, you're taking kids into the woods, a number 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.720 of things can go awry. Um usually pedophilia isn't the 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.120 first problem when you're stranging alone in the woods with 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.120 an adult, but you would think, yeah, and most of 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.560 the men in the ineligible volunteer files had not purposefully 0:07:57.600 --> 0:07:59.520 harmed a child. They had just like funked up in 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:01.920 some way, probably some way that's like still deplorable, but 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.960 like not they're not trying to harm anybody. A subset, though, 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.960 of the ineligible volunteer list are men who had been 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.600 caught or at least accused of molesting the children in 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.400 their care. This subset of the Ineligible Volunteer system were 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:21.720 dubbed the p files or perversion files. Yeah. Yeah. I 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.960 thought they would go with yeah yeah, not pedophile, pederist. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.800 I mean it's a lot of rape. Yeah yeah. So 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.600 this starts in like the twin problematic files, Yeah, the 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.280 problematic So when Maiden peals alive, they do like attempt 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.120 to and again they don't attempt to by screening people beforehand, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:43.560 but they do attempt to be like, oh, we should 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:45.400 if a guy gets kicked out for raping a kid, 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.520 we should probably put his name in a file somewhere. 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:53.200 We should we should probably write this down. Which is 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.920 the minimum, the barest minimum. I just want to remember 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.120 his name. You have a list of the guy, as 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.679 you who sucked the kids in our care? If I 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.559 can also get their phone numbers, just so we can 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:09.320 talk and just see if they have photos exactly? Do 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:15.400 you want to go to the lake? Oh, Biden pal So. 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.360 In nineteen the list was computerized, but there's still existed 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.480 a hard copy, and there is still one today, which 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.400 reportedly fills fifteen file cabinets at the b s A 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.960 headquarters in Irving, Texas. Only a handful of men at 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.160 the very top of the organization can access them. In 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:31.840 the b S as the Boy Scouts of America. So 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:34.120 I should know when we talk about this, this is 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.160 all focused on the b s A, which is not 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.800 technically the organization Biden Pal founded, because it's very decentralized. 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.120 There's like the different countries, they're different like organizations right 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.160 effectively kind of corporations almost um. And they're all kind 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.160 of like linked and related to each other, and they 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.520 do gamberally people get together from different countries. But in 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:53.079 the b s A is made in the image of 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.000 what Biden Pal talks about. I'm sure there is a 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.839 lot on like abuses in like England and great in 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:02.120 the UK and in like other countries. The vast majority 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.360 of the the the documentation on abuse within the Boy 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:07.760 Scouts is within the b s A. And so that's 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:12.000 what we're focusing on here today. Um. So, for decades 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.840 the files were either entirely unknown or at most a 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.240 rumor to those outside the organization. They would occasionally make appearances, 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.640 though by the time Lord Biden Powell died in nineteen 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.120 forty one, there had already been multiple cases of child 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.600 molesters who had been caught and convicted for what they've 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.480 done as Boy Scout leaders. This pattern continued up to 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.559 the present day, and when those cases would end in 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.880 criminal charges and trials, files on the perpetrator would often 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.840 be admitted into evidence, usually under seal. This most frequently 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.199 happened in the latter half of the twentieth and early 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.280 twenty first century, when boys and groups of boys began 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:46.400 to allege that what had happened to them, the abuse 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.160 they had suffered, was not an isolated incident, but was 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.719 instead the result of a pattern of abuse within the organization. 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.120 The files contain often harrowing firsthand accounts from victims, like 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.480 this interview with a ten year old scout in nineteen 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.640 seventy to the victim of a sexual assault by Georgia 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:07.160 troop leader Samuel Max Deboa Jr. Quote, I was crying 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.320 and I reached around and hit Max in the face 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:11.040 and said I was going to quit the troop and 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.560 tell my daddy. Then we heard the others coming back 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:18.760 and Max said, put your pants back on. Yeah, that's 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.040 like one of the less harrowing ones. I'm not gonna 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:25.680 I'm not gonna read in detail, but we will discuss 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.920 what happened, like read detailed accounts of kids getting molested here, 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.040 but you do need to know like what broadly occurred, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:37.120 you know cases that is important. Um, the p files 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.840 at least were something. Um, so it's better than certainly 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.400 doing nothing at all. But as a barrier to the 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.800 assault of boys in care of the Boy Scouts of America, 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.600 they were incredibly porous. To illustrate this, let's start with 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.320 an illustrative case of abuse among the Boy Scouts from 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.199 a little more than a generation after Baden Powell's death. 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.160 Stephen Field was a troop leader in southern California. The 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.360 B s A started investigating him in nineteen seventy one 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:03.880 after a scout in Santa Monica reported that he had 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:08.200 been sexually abused by Field. A troop committee which included parents, 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.000 B s A officials, and a psychiatrist. So that's good, right, 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.200 You're bringing like, not just parents but a professional in Um, 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.520 that's a positive way to look at things, right. Uh 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.319 this I feel this feels like the doctor thing for 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:24.040 last episode. I don't trust that. I'm quite so this 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:26.160 this committee is convened and they look at the evidence 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:27.760 and they conclude that the story was truth. This kid 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:29.840 had been abused. What Field had done with sexual abuse. 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.160 Their investigation, in fact, found not only to abuse this kid, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:35.720 but he had a pattern of what could credibly be 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.520 called criminally sexual behavior, including forcing his boy scouts to 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.720 play strip poker and run around naked after losing games, 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:47.480 which is not ever like there's there's that's not even 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.960 like a gray air. Yeah, strip poker is not really 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.760 inside the boy scouts milieu, you know. And also like 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.440 running around naked is not part of it. That's never 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.760 you know, you can play well, I mean it kind 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.559 of is from the start actually, but it shouldn't have been. 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.520 We're just finding new and clever ways to get kids 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.840 to run around naked. Yeah, And it's what it is 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.439 when we talked about like naked swimming, running around naked, 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:17.360 Like I believe very strongly that like nudities, there's nothing 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.319 wrong or inherently sexual about nudity. It be like this 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:22.880 thing where the idea that like people are doing things 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:27.480 naked is like lascivious. Clearly Baden Powell and a number 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.160 like the men and like found it lascivious, and so 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:32.960 that's a problem. Like, yeah, it ended up being one 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.679 of their favorite things. Yeah, that's an issue. That's going 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.800 to be an issue, you know. Um yeah, Um, So 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.200 they find out. This guy not only molests this kid, 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:45.599 but he has a history of very like criminal. I 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:48.760 suspect it as illegal to make children play strip poker. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.240 Like I think that is a crime. Not a law knower, 0:13:52.520 --> 0:14:00.359 but that seems crimy. It's I don't know the exact number, shoot, 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.960 but like that seems not legal. It seems like like 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.120 a thing you would use. That seems like a thing 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:08.920 we don't allow. Like I happen to think that's against 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.360 some law. It's got to be in there somewhere, probably 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.679 the delinquency of a miner or something. I don't know, 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.800 um whatever, some something not right about that, um. But 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.600 the Boy Scouts don't report him to the police. They 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.520 don't report him to anyone. In fact, they remove him, 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:27.920 they kick him out of the Boy Scouts. But the 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.600 only report they make about this is from a regional 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.680 Boy Scouts employee who fills out a form on Field 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.000 and sends it to headquarters, and that form is placed 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.720 in the p files. So that's all that happens. National 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.920 officials told the regional official that this meant that Fields 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.840 would never be able to work in or volunteer for 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.840 the Boy Scouts again. And yet from a report in 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.440 the Los Angeles Times quote. He was involved with several 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:56.000 Southern California troops over the next seventeen years. According to 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.800 his file. Contacted recently by The Times, Field explained that 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.480 he failed a light detector test required by the Santa 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.480 Monica Troop committee. He was encouraged to transfer to another 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.920 troop in the city, where he served as scout master 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:12.080 for four years. They sent him he fails a light 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.720 detector and they're like, you just gotta go to another troupe. Bro, 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.200 Oh my god, what the fuck? Just do what they 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.920 do at the corner liquor store when someone has fucking 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.240 put a picture of him up on the wall. What 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.840 a picture on the wall? Just say not that guy. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.960 That's It's so easy, dude, Oh my god, your job 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.520 is protecting children. Show at least as much care as 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:41.160 a liquor store clerk over a bounced check. Like fuck, 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.600 So the fucking Field tells the Los Angeles Times. They 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.680 said it had all been cleared up with the scouts, 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.080 Like I don't how do you clear this out? In Valencia, 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.640 he joined his brother in law's troop, but left after 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.200 a parent intercepted a love letter he had written to 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.320 a Scout. The file shows. At one point, the file 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.800 says Field was caught watching pornography with naked scouts in 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:11.360 his jacuzzi. Jesus, fuck one. Seventeen years of this, come on, 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.160 seventeen years. This isn't like, you know. Twenty years later 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.720 he changed his name and his identity and moved across 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.240 the country and he just stuck his way into it. No, 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.080 he just shows up. One group is like, yeah, you 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.880 failed the I promise not to molest kids part of 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.840 the light detector. Here, go to this other group. Bring 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:33.840 your jackuzy with you. You're out of the Silmar chapter 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.560 of the Scouts. And you know what Glendale's recruiting. Yeah, 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:46.760 oh my god, super fucked up. Like again, there were 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.360 in it's height, like seven million boys in the Boy Scouts. 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.400 Some of them were always and I'm not being callous here, 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:56.040 it is inevitable in any population of seven million boys, 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.920 some of them will get molested by adults. Right. The 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:00.800 fact that this is a thing that happens is not 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.040 inherently the fall of the Boy Scouts, But as this 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:07.440 example shows, they are criminally irresponsible in taking any attempts 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.680 to stop it. That's the problem. It's not that like 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.720 there are some bad apples. It's that they're kind of 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.480 like the cops. They just like they enable the bad apples. Yeah, 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.720 it's like they literally have a basket of like with 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.119 a with a foundation of poison and they're going on, 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.040 some of these apples are bad. It's like you're poisoned 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:28.720 the best you poured cyanide into an apple basket and 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:33.720 then you're pissed in it. This is directly your fault. Yeah. Now, 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.400 among other things, that story is why I think Jacuzi 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:41.000 ownership should require a license. Um. But besides, that's another 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.800 two part. Now, despite the fact that this guy had 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.680 repeatedly engaged I think we can agree it's pretty outrageous 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:51.119 and public abuse of children. The s A National office 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:55.160 didn't realize he'd snuck back into the organization until nine again, 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.640 almost twenty years, and they only realized this because another 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.040 local scouting official reported that Steve Field, who was at 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.040 that point chairman of a local troop committee, had been 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.760 arrested for masturbating in front of a child. So he 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.720 doesn't get kicked out by the boy Scouts, he gets 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:14.159 arrested by the cops, and a local scout is like Hey, 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.000 you guys should know this guy. Turns out he was 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.400 a child molester. This local official doesn't know this guy 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.000 as a record, but he sends this in to report 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.119 this guy. And the people who run the PEA files 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.399 are like, oh, Steve Field, it's the same as Stephen Field. 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:35.240 How could we have known? Because ingenious criminal mind. They're 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.760 just like the cop comes and goes like, oh, this 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.560 you know this guy he's got arrested, you know, for masturbation, 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.520 and they're like, oh, you mean creepy Steve. Steve the rapist. 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:52.000 Steve the rapist is yeah, he's been doing that. He's 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.000 been doing that for a while. Why we call him 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.840 creepy Steve? Yeah, wacky Steve don't leave alone with your 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:05.840 kids anyway, is in charge of the kids. So, for 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.040 what it's worth. Once the Sheriff's department actually got involved 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.280 with Steve's case, which should have fallen into their lap 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.960 around twenty years earlier, they launch a serious investigation. Um 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.439 and again all of the police aside. One of the 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.040 things they have a better record of taking seriously, although 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:21.719 not a perfect one, because a lot of cops are 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.760 child molesters, generally detectives who find out the kids are 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.480 being raped, are like, well, this is probably important. It's like, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.400 it's just the thing. Even if you're a fucking cop. 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.680 Most people you hear a child as being abused and 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:39.840 you're like, well, yeah, we gotta about this. Yeah, most cops, uh, 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:44.080 you know, obviously a cab, but not a you know, 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:50.760 can all cops students deliberately enabled child molestation whatever that 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:53.800 they hear about this guy And generally this is the 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.200 case like twenty years in like with these abusive adults. 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.960 And that's when finally ship happens. This guy gets arrested, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.160 and it's because like the b s A can't hide 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:06.439 it anymore. Um. Child pornography was found in fields as 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.840 home of photos he'd taken of nude boys. Nude boy 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:11.359 scouts as far back as fifteen years ago are found. 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:13.560 And when the cops realize this guy has been praying 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.480 on boy scouts for more than a decade, they asked 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.399 the National Office, you can have a file on this guy, 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:20.840 and the B s A sends the p file for 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.480 for Fields to or for Field to them, but they 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.320 send it along with a request. And here's the a 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.040 cab part. Because the cops abide by this request. We 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.639 hope you will use this information with discretion. Since we 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.400 have tried to maintain our files, they cannot be subpoenaed 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.480 in any legal action. Wow. If again, if you're of 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:39.240 cops are better people than they are, if you're a 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.120 decent person, my first question would be, this guy raped kids. 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.440 Why don't you want this subpoena? Like why why why? Why? Why? Why? 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:47.720 And any why are you not like throwing your doors 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:52.280 open to to this, Like why why not let this be? 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:57.600 He's raping kids? Like God, I mean, so the cops 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:02.399 they abided by just an arbitrary like, oh, if you 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:04.919 could do us a favor, and like they're probably all 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.199 boy scouts, a lot of cops, Like fucking half of 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.480 congress people were boy Scouts, Like have congressmen or whatever, 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.760 like a huge percentage, Like all almost all of our 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.320