Lots of people in the comments are failing to see the issue with this, so allow me to illustrate. Fair warning, this will not be an easy read.
So let’s imagine you really hate trans people, gay people, and liberals. Unfortunately for you, none of these are crimes (yet), so you can’t just go around assaulting and killing these people indiscriminately, as much as you’d like to. So what are you going to do?
Well, the best hate campaigns start with a shared enemy, and nobody is more hated than a child predator. Best of all, you can do pretty much whatever you want to them with no recourse. What are they going to do, call the police? Nobody is going to speak out against what you’re doing, because if they do, you can just say that if they don’t support you, then they must be defending child predators!
Now that we have a precedent for violence, it’s time to expand our scope a bit. Since hunting pedophiles is a-ok, now you just need to label anyone you don’t like a pedophile. You could say gay and trans people are pedophiles and groomers. And again, if anyone opposes you, just call them a groomer too!
But maybe that’s not enough for you. No, you want to make sure that you can target anyone who disagrees with you. Well good news, because you can just join a group of people who believe that anyone who dislikes Donald Trump is a deep state pedophile. You don’t even need evidence anymore, and there’s a good chance the cops will be on your side! Happy hunting!
Seriously though, this vigilante “justice” should not be celebrated. Yes, we need to take child predators off the streets, but there is a process for that. Denying anyone due process opens the door to denying it to everyone.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
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 in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.
Senseless@feddit.org 2 days ago
I wouldn’t even be surprised if most of them are pedophiles themselves.
VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
‘I sit online all day pretending to be a teen girl and getting into dirty chats with strangers, it’s OK though because I’m doing it to stop the creeps…’
quack@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
There’s been a ton in the UK outed as predators themselves. It’s projection.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Well, there’s this case.
brusselstimes.com/…/fake-pedophile-hunter-convict…
yggstyle@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I have this questionable material for use in my honey traps.
Doom@ttrpg.network 2 days ago
100%
Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee 2 days ago
In Norway last year we had a case where 5 16-19 yo set up a sextrap for a guy in his 40s.
The teens claimed he’s a pedo, beat him, filmed it and posted it online.
All of the “pedohunters” involved were found guilty on all accounts. The guy is free and getting a big pay out from the teens.
It’s really unfortunate, but these kinds of people aren’t in it to prevent child abuse. They’re in it for themselves.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
There was a similar case that happened on a college campus in America. Five 18 year -old students, all of whom can legally consent, lured a guy toward the dorms through a dating app. When he arrived, the students swarmed him with phones out calling him a pedophile. They are now being charged.
kktv.com/…/5-college-students-charged-case-stemmi…
KneeTitts@lemmy.world 2 days ago
you just described all republican politicians
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 days ago
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.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
There are cases of arsonist fire fighters which is an even stronger analogy.
Those who claim to fight fires are often the ones setting them, so they can be seen as the heroes who extinguish them.
ameancow@lemmy.world 2 days ago
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.
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.
scarabic@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I see it as people wanting to commit righteous violence. People have violent impulses, but we usually control them. Some people with extraordinary violent tendencies go looking for a place where it’s “okay” to let them loose. This is not the only example.
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 2 days ago
Exactly. They’re violent & hateful peple who found a way to justify it.
demunted@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Normal healthy people don’t plan to commit violent offenses on other people, unless there is a direct connection to the 3rd parties actions. Hunting people they have no connection to for fame and fortune is sickening.
sleen@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
There is an excessive usage of the word ‘hunting’. What all those people are doing is admitting that they consider people as animals, or an “acceptable” way of harassment. And just like people who where in the kkk they don’t care who that person is, but that they’re the most vulnerable minority.
KneeTitts@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I find it suspicious that they dont just go for the low hanging priest fruit in the catholic church… this does seem to be a largely religious group of people who conveniently ignore this behavior from their own kind.
afronaut@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
The problem is, they are going for low hanging fruit by targeting unknowns with little to no representation.
Catholic priests have the full force of the Catholic Church to protect them from legal attacks that some dinky YouTuber will not be able to combat.
Also, Catholic priests do not need to go on dating apps or websites where they could potentially get lured because they are most likely targeting the children in their parish, under their direct control.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 days ago
There may be some angry former victims.
SulaymanF@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This type of people exist in every generation, whether forming a mob to enforce segregation or engaging in pogroms.