Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral: With the rise of loosely moderated social media platforms, a fringe vigilante movement is experiencing a dangerous evolution.
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What we see in this article appears to abandon that sort of rigor to manufacture more opportunities to confront someone.
Aka entrapment.
Yes, though legally that's a bit of a grey area. It's only really entrapment if law enforcement or informants entice the offender to commit a crime they weren't predisposed to commit. I imagine it would be an uphill battle to convince a judge or jury of that when it comes to meeting minors for sex.
The decoys were careful so that it would never even be a question.
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Yes, though legally that's a bit of a grey area. It's only really entrapment if law enforcement or informants entice the offender to commit a crime they weren't predisposed to commit. I imagine it would be an uphill battle to convince a judge or jury of that when it comes to meeting minors for sex.
The decoys were careful so that it would never even be a question.
It is not technically entrapment because they aren't police, but they are cosplaying as cops so the label gets the point across.
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Yes, though legally that's a bit of a grey area. It's only really entrapment if law enforcement or informants entice the offender to commit a crime they weren't predisposed to commit. I imagine it would be an uphill battle to convince a judge or jury of that when it comes to meeting minors for sex.
The decoys were careful so that it would never even be a question.
The article says that they would just lie too.
Like, they claimed one guy (18) was there to meet a minor (17). When the reporter reviewed the logs it was clear that he was there to meet an 18 year old.
Getting views is more important than catching a bad guy
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This crew also confuses homosexuals with pedophiles, so be careful on Grindr, k?
Exactly. Some of these vigilantes are using this act as a cover to conduct violence against LGBT people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_grooming_conspiracy_theory
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That's not the only problem. They're making content, so finding "the right person" will inevitably be less important than finding a person. Can't fall out of the Almighty Algorithm's favor, amirite?
So ... What you're saying, it's that there would be less oversight when it comes to choosing their targets. Almost exactly like OP said. Almost like they were speaking in broad strokes and you failed to notice any nuance.
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Let’s be real- we know who they’re catching. I’m fine with this. Keep on doing whatever to MAGA trash.
"We know who they are. We don't really need due process. I'm not one of those people so nothing bad could ever happen to me so I don't care"
Seriously, the amount of times I see violations of civil/human rights being acceptable because they're "the enemy" is really sad. Do you have no self awareness? That's EXACTLY what they're doing to you. Stop being a pot of crabs pulling us back in. Be better.
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I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.
Also, these ‘hunters’ probably have something shady going on in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.
I wouldn't even be surprised if most of them are pedophiles themselves.
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I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.
Also, these ‘hunters’ probably have something shady going on in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.
Ding ding ding
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Let’s be real- we know who they’re catching. I’m fine with this. Keep on doing whatever to MAGA trash.
we know who they’re catching.
No. No you do not.
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I’d make a guess they’re getting violent because the legal system can’t do anything with their compromised evidence. Instead of realizing they’re not the people qualified to do this work, they’re just doubling down and “handling it themselves.”
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paedophiles are horrible people but dateline culture was the worst thing to happen to pop culture lexicon
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In Austria the 'pedophile hunters' targeted gay men who were not pedophiles. If 'paedophile hunters' would actually care about their care, they would storm the next church...
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This is a symptom. If police won't do it's job there will be some guys who will take it into their own hands. The problem is they have even less oversight than police.
"less oversight than police." A bar so low you need a shovel to get under it.
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I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.
Also, these ‘hunters’ probably have something shady going on in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.
100%.
There is an old trope about arsonists, they either become criminals or they become firefighters.
At least with firefighters, we don't have to worry about if the firefighter is going to get the fire in a room alone later.
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Let’s be real- we know who they’re catching. I’m fine with this. Keep on doing whatever to MAGA trash.
You think they are going after Maga? Most of them aren't even going after pedofiles!
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They see them everywhere except in their own home
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You think they are going after Maga? Most of them aren't even going after pedofiles!
Sounds like an opportunity, then
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I'm completely with you on this, and I'm surprised your comment is so highly voted because this community is quick to endorse vigilantism. Just the other day I was scrolling through a thread full of comments about how a guy who was arrested should have been more brutally assaulted by an angry mob.
Vigilantism is just a sign that government has become too corrupt to deal with problems effectively. It can be good or evil, it can be effective or a complete nightmarish excuse to get rid of hates minorities or people the majority simply fell out of favor with.
But if you're a victim under that corrupt government, it's the only solution you have, so its hard not to cheer. No one is shedding tears for torched tesla's in dealerships or the dead ceo Saint Luigi was framed for killing.
Its just harder to trust and justify clout chasers attacking essentially random people they themselves labeled with a crime that no one can reasonably defend themselves against.
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I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.
Also, these ‘hunters’ probably have something shady going on in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.
Also, the almost universal knee-jerk response that we have as a society broadly to child predation makes a helluva mask for trampling on the rights of others and making a scapegoat that will be condemned in the public court long before any charges are brought up. Creative editing and a thirst for views can make the producers of this content work harder to portray events out-of-context.
I'm sure there are plenty of actual predators who are worried about being hit with a sting, but I have seen more than a handful clips of these rogue pedo-hunters going after like, 21-year-old boys and their 17-year-old girlfriends, and people who looked genuinely confused and seemed railroaded into meeting someone.
I know this message will never stick with the wildly reactionary and emotional viewership who needs to hear it, but we make vigilantism illegal for a damn good reason, and just because Dateline managed to stay above the waterline for the most part, that doesn't mean some operation of randos you know nothing about on youtube have both the best intentions and the legal acumen to actually make a difference. They may well be making the problem worse by setting up situations where stings against child predators could become outlawed.
