Vigilantism is on the rise *because* people no longer trust law enforcement to either do the right thing or indeed do anything at all. Telling them to stop and just trust the police instead is toothless.
I mean, if police can’t protect the public and catch criminals, and the courts won’t properly sentence the criminals that are caught, then people will naturally establish their own justice system.
You want to get rid of vigilantes? Make then unnecessary.
I don’t trust these groups at all.
I bet it’s like the anti-gay religious nuts who get caught with rent boys
At least one high profile case here happened where the guy was setup by an ex partner.
He left an iPad or similar at her house after they split, and it was still logged in as him to various social media accounts which she then groomed kids with.
He got harassed by a gang, but when the police investigated they could trace all the communications back to his ex’s internet connection – which got the ex some prison time.
We’ve all seen the gotcha videos they post, and you know I might be inclined to support them more if all the people they exposed didn’t clearly have learning disabilities and were not all there. It’s not a good look, making spectacles out of low hanging fruit.
Vigilante groups just do not work for anything other then street justice and we know that doesn’t always end with them getting the right person.
Even if they catch actual predators, the justice system is so backed up due to lack of funding, lockdowns and strikes. That it may takes years to get legal justice, even in the most clear cut cases.
vigilante groups sound horrifying probably thugs wandering around trying to harm people for fun in the name of “justice”
vigilantism in this context is literally just bullies who pick on the absolute weakest and easiest target that nobody will defend, and they just film themselves being bullies, getting cases thrown out before any legal intervention can even happen because their main objective is self promotion
People are bashing the police for letting these vigilante groups become more popular by their inefficiency and rightful so, but this”Paedo Hunters” stuff would be produced anyway.
People love this content and people love being seen as local heroes. One of our local “Characters”, who’s served jail time himself, has hopped on the trend and started posting this stuff and people are acting like he’s a saint.
It’s dangerous for both parties, you can’t just walk into a room and denounce somebody as a paedo and, judging by the video by one of the more popular channels where the guy tried to kill himself, these people are in trouble if their target decides to lash out
whenever i see those videos they always look like the most bigoted mfers you can imagine. you can tell they’re itching to have a go at their local minorities.
Vigilante groups could start with the littering, whilst picking it up themselves
They’ve got a huge tendency to jeopardise ongoing investigations
I don’t advocate for vigilante groups at all.
However, just for some perspective. It’s been over a year since I reported the abuse that happened to me as a 13 year old. All that is happened so far is that they have interviewed me. Not interviewed any of the 7 witnesses I said could back up my story, not confirmed the identity of the man (though I gave them many details including full name, birthplace, DOB), not interviewed to the guy. No sign whatsoever as to whether there will be charges, even with some serious evidence in the form of chat logs.
The waiting is killing me every day and destroying my mental health. You’ll have to forgive me for laughing at the thought of leaving anything to them. I have a complete lack of hope in our justice system.
Police budgets slashed and vigilantes rises. Who would have thought?
And so they should these pedo hunter groups are a joke that tar innocent people and disrupt real investigations.
They should be arrested themselves.
Official vocab guidelines state we need to stop being called the force as its too aggressive.
I mean this is good news, no it’s great news as the Police are going to do their job properly from now on right? Right?
They are right. Anyone who backs them is pretty backward thinking in my eyes and I don’t tend to get on with their views. They don’t care about the collateral damage, jeopardising a case etc. They care about the clicks, the rush and rpercieved righteousness of what they are doing.
Its a sad state of affairs. The police don’t have the resources to properly deal with nonces, but the paedo hunter vigilantes can often cause more problems than they solve with false accusations, assaults and forcing police to have to step in to protect the nonces from lynch mobs.
The people who run them always seem to be pretty… Off… If you know what I mean. You know how they say the biggest homophobes are closet homosexuals, I wouldn’t be surprised who base their whole personality around paedo hunting are trying to prove something…
Having been part of the process, where I helped to put two offenders behind bars I can not emphasis this enough, do not get involved. Often there are very complex issues and dynamics involved and it is not as simple as outing an offender. The vigilante groups that may have some ‘success’ actually drive people further underground. It is causing changes in behaviour which actually makes it more difficult to identify people. Also it can invalidate police investigations as its about collecting information to put the offenders behind bars. Survivors need justice not violence in their name.
The vigilante groups have little understanding of the law and most of the time they pretty much guarantee CPS won’t go forward with a case because they go about it all wrong.
Investigations take time – and they rightly should. The police need sufficient evidence before they can justifying an arrest that is worth CPS taking forward for a conviction.
That is how due process works.
We don’t get to pick and choose where due process is applicable. Either it applies to all of us or it applies to none of us.
The videos where these groups catch guys always make me uncomfortable. It seems so unprofessional and easy for them to fuck up, even if a lot if not most of the time I don’t feel bad for the guys they catch.
Nonce catching as a form of broadcast content was mastered by Chris Hansen in the 2000s. A team of professionals organising the operation and in full cooperation with the police, with the production value of real TV journalism. Also entertaining as fuck. Would be totally alright with someone starting up a new show in that format, rather than these groups of randoms doing it for the rush.
You mean the police force that’s overworked, underbudget and takes 4h on hold to get through to anyone? Hmm can’t imagine why anyone would take the law into their own hands right now.
I sometimes wonder how many of these groups have also transitioned into Q Anon and related conspiracies with their “Protect the children” angle.
​
They’re also just so predatory themselves but in a different way, all doing it for the views and the thrill of catching someone and making it public.
So many cases of suicide through them as well.
The comments are always the same too, people calling for the death penalty back, lynching, castration and more horrific stuff. It’s almost a fetish in itself to some people I think.
Honestly with a lot of these groups I have to wonder if they aren’t just a front for collecting indecent images of children to masturbate over. You see these groups constantly advertising and asking for decoy pictures to use in “operations” and It just seems a bit dodgy to me. I know the police are not great but people exposing “peadophiles” in live streams isn’t the solution (The reason I put peadophiles in quotation marks is because a lot of the people caught on these live streams are often not peadophiles cause people do make shit up for clicks online).
It doesn’t make the community safer as they have no power and are just taking advantage of most people’s gut reactions towards harm to kids for money. That and when they get it wrong people can get killed.
These vigilantes are usually anti Vax, anti government, fake news right wing nutters
Just Neanderthals looking to boost their ego. Live streaming which prejudices any potential case. If they were doing it for general good they would go about their business quietly and hand evidence over.
Yet again.
Even on the US “To Catch A Predator” they had to work directly with Police and set up the “stings” in such a way that they could be admissible in court. Even then they lost a fair few cases because of errors in handling.
These types of “Stinson Hunters” are just pure vigilantes, out to bully and harras. And get themselves social media clout (and a bit of cash)
They don’t care about any victims, about any perpetrators.
28 comments
Vigilantism is on the rise *because* people no longer trust law enforcement to either do the right thing or indeed do anything at all. Telling them to stop and just trust the police instead is toothless.
I mean, if police can’t protect the public and catch criminals, and the courts won’t properly sentence the criminals that are caught, then people will naturally establish their own justice system.
You want to get rid of vigilantes? Make then unnecessary.
I don’t trust these groups at all.
I bet it’s like the anti-gay religious nuts who get caught with rent boys
At least one high profile case here happened where the guy was setup by an ex partner.
He left an iPad or similar at her house after they split, and it was still logged in as him to various social media accounts which she then groomed kids with.
He got harassed by a gang, but when the police investigated they could trace all the communications back to his ex’s internet connection – which got the ex some prison time.
We’ve all seen the gotcha videos they post, and you know I might be inclined to support them more if all the people they exposed didn’t clearly have learning disabilities and were not all there. It’s not a good look, making spectacles out of low hanging fruit.
Vigilante groups just do not work for anything other then street justice and we know that doesn’t always end with them getting the right person.
Even if they catch actual predators, the justice system is so backed up due to lack of funding, lockdowns and strikes. That it may takes years to get legal justice, even in the most clear cut cases.
vigilante groups sound horrifying probably thugs wandering around trying to harm people for fun in the name of “justice”
vigilantism in this context is literally just bullies who pick on the absolute weakest and easiest target that nobody will defend, and they just film themselves being bullies, getting cases thrown out before any legal intervention can even happen because their main objective is self promotion
People are bashing the police for letting these vigilante groups become more popular by their inefficiency and rightful so, but this”Paedo Hunters” stuff would be produced anyway.
People love this content and people love being seen as local heroes. One of our local “Characters”, who’s served jail time himself, has hopped on the trend and started posting this stuff and people are acting like he’s a saint.
It’s dangerous for both parties, you can’t just walk into a room and denounce somebody as a paedo and, judging by the video by one of the more popular channels where the guy tried to kill himself, these people are in trouble if their target decides to lash out
whenever i see those videos they always look like the most bigoted mfers you can imagine. you can tell they’re itching to have a go at their local minorities.
Vigilante groups could start with the littering, whilst picking it up themselves
They’ve got a huge tendency to jeopardise ongoing investigations
I don’t advocate for vigilante groups at all.
However, just for some perspective. It’s been over a year since I reported the abuse that happened to me as a 13 year old. All that is happened so far is that they have interviewed me. Not interviewed any of the 7 witnesses I said could back up my story, not confirmed the identity of the man (though I gave them many details including full name, birthplace, DOB), not interviewed to the guy. No sign whatsoever as to whether there will be charges, even with some serious evidence in the form of chat logs.
The waiting is killing me every day and destroying my mental health. You’ll have to forgive me for laughing at the thought of leaving anything to them. I have a complete lack of hope in our justice system.
Police budgets slashed and vigilantes rises. Who would have thought?
And so they should these pedo hunter groups are a joke that tar innocent people and disrupt real investigations.
They should be arrested themselves.
Official vocab guidelines state we need to stop being called the force as its too aggressive.
I mean this is good news, no it’s great news as the Police are going to do their job properly from now on right? Right?
They are right. Anyone who backs them is pretty backward thinking in my eyes and I don’t tend to get on with their views. They don’t care about the collateral damage, jeopardising a case etc. They care about the clicks, the rush and rpercieved righteousness of what they are doing.
Its a sad state of affairs. The police don’t have the resources to properly deal with nonces, but the paedo hunter vigilantes can often cause more problems than they solve with false accusations, assaults and forcing police to have to step in to protect the nonces from lynch mobs.
The people who run them always seem to be pretty… Off… If you know what I mean. You know how they say the biggest homophobes are closet homosexuals, I wouldn’t be surprised who base their whole personality around paedo hunting are trying to prove something…
Having been part of the process, where I helped to put two offenders behind bars I can not emphasis this enough, do not get involved. Often there are very complex issues and dynamics involved and it is not as simple as outing an offender. The vigilante groups that may have some ‘success’ actually drive people further underground. It is causing changes in behaviour which actually makes it more difficult to identify people. Also it can invalidate police investigations as its about collecting information to put the offenders behind bars. Survivors need justice not violence in their name.
The vigilante groups have little understanding of the law and most of the time they pretty much guarantee CPS won’t go forward with a case because they go about it all wrong.
Investigations take time – and they rightly should. The police need sufficient evidence before they can justifying an arrest that is worth CPS taking forward for a conviction.
That is how due process works.
We don’t get to pick and choose where due process is applicable. Either it applies to all of us or it applies to none of us.
The videos where these groups catch guys always make me uncomfortable. It seems so unprofessional and easy for them to fuck up, even if a lot if not most of the time I don’t feel bad for the guys they catch.
Nonce catching as a form of broadcast content was mastered by Chris Hansen in the 2000s. A team of professionals organising the operation and in full cooperation with the police, with the production value of real TV journalism. Also entertaining as fuck. Would be totally alright with someone starting up a new show in that format, rather than these groups of randoms doing it for the rush.
You mean the police force that’s overworked, underbudget and takes 4h on hold to get through to anyone? Hmm can’t imagine why anyone would take the law into their own hands right now.
I sometimes wonder how many of these groups have also transitioned into Q Anon and related conspiracies with their “Protect the children” angle.
​
They’re also just so predatory themselves but in a different way, all doing it for the views and the thrill of catching someone and making it public.
So many cases of suicide through them as well.
The comments are always the same too, people calling for the death penalty back, lynching, castration and more horrific stuff. It’s almost a fetish in itself to some people I think.
Honestly with a lot of these groups I have to wonder if they aren’t just a front for collecting indecent images of children to masturbate over. You see these groups constantly advertising and asking for decoy pictures to use in “operations” and It just seems a bit dodgy to me. I know the police are not great but people exposing “peadophiles” in live streams isn’t the solution (The reason I put peadophiles in quotation marks is because a lot of the people caught on these live streams are often not peadophiles cause people do make shit up for clicks online).
It doesn’t make the community safer as they have no power and are just taking advantage of most people’s gut reactions towards harm to kids for money. That and when they get it wrong people can get killed.
These vigilantes are usually anti Vax, anti government, fake news right wing nutters
Just Neanderthals looking to boost their ego. Live streaming which prejudices any potential case. If they were doing it for general good they would go about their business quietly and hand evidence over.
Yet again.
Even on the US “To Catch A Predator” they had to work directly with Police and set up the “stings” in such a way that they could be admissible in court. Even then they lost a fair few cases because of errors in handling.
These types of “Stinson Hunters” are just pure vigilantes, out to bully and harras. And get themselves social media clout (and a bit of cash)
They don’t care about any victims, about any perpetrators.