Crisis Actors for Virginia Gun Rally

[culater]

Can't make this shit up! Just have to find the CNN news Trucks and have cameras on them at every moment. Those going keep your head up and get their very early and tape everything.

 

[Maggot]

Or maybe you can.

Hoax AlertFake News: Casting Call For Crisis Actors Is NOT Coinciding With Pro-Gun Rally In Virginia

• by: Ryan Cooper
• 2 days ago (Fri, 17 Jan 2020 17:35:03 Z)

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STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Did a casting call go out for crisis actors to coincide with a pro-gun rally set for next week in Virginia? No, that's not true: The casting notice is for a project planned weeks after the rally, and role players will help non-governmental organizations (NGOs) prepare for "challenging international environments." The casting agent confirmed in an online message that his project is not associated with the January 20, 2020, protest in Virginia.

The claim originated from a video published by Hard News TV 2 on January 16, 2020, titled "Jan 16 2020 Call Out for CRISIS ACTOR in Virginia..As GOV Declares State of Emergency" (archived here). It opened:

Virginia has an open casting call right now for "crisis actors"...at the same time a massive pro gun rally is to take place.
AMISSVILLE. VA - SEEKING ACTORS FOR ONGOING "LIVE" ROLE PLAYING PROJECT - CURRENT - PAID

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In the video, the narrator read the casting call for a project based in Amissville, Virginia, for "Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT)." Here is the description from the January 14, 2020, posting (now taken down but archived here and also still available online here):

HEAT courses are designed to prepare NGO staff for operating in challenging international environments through in-person simulations. Actors take on varying roles (terrorist, IED victim, hostage, rescue team) throughout each workshop. The work can be intense (both physically and mentally) but also very rewarding.

The narrator claimed the casting director had a different intent. In the video, she said:

Every single time there has been a massive event, there has been a callout for crisis actors - so - but we're called conspiracy theorists. But here's the facts right here."

In response to this video, the casting director Shaun Irving told Lead Stories:

I'm doing a casting call for role-playing work for a company that does simulations to train aid workers in challenging environments."

Irving noted that this is similar to training simulations that are designed for doctors, soldiers, police officers and journalists. In these scenarios, actors will play a variety of roles to help recreate possible situations that participants may encounter in the real world. He called this role-playing "some of the most meaningful work an actor can do."

Indeed, crisis actors do exist. But in recent years, conspiracy theorists have hijacked the term to claim that mass shootings or other events have been staged. For example, some people claim the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 was orchestrated by actors to effect political change.

Irving went on to say:

It's appalling to me to see somebody take this good work we're doing and spin it into something that it's not.

Irving added that the next planned simulation would take place in mid-February, about three weeks after Monday's pro-gun rally. Amissville is located approximately 100 miles north of the capital, Richmond, the site of Monday's rally.

The submission form for the casting call has since been updated with following notice, Lead Stories has learned:

NOTE: This is a casting for an actual roleplaying project for professional actors--not crisis actors for a false flag operation. Project takes place in the Warrenton area (more than 2 hours north of Richmond, VA).

The casting agent posted this on his website: