It’s time for law enforcement to step in and stop vigilantes and opportunist “predator hunters”
They give themselves names like “Dads Against Predators”, “Predator Snatchers”, “Predator Patrol” or “POPSquad”. They are groups of vigilantes who admittedly intentionally stage bait operations to lure individuals to locations thinking they are meeting a minor for sex, so they can film them. The videos are then posted to social media sites, such as YouTube, where the vigilantes cash in on advertising revenue.
Predator Poachers, a group started just last year now has over 160,000 subscribers, Dads Against Predators boasts that it’s videos have more than 800,000 views and POPSquad has put up more than 160 videos. The groups think of themselves as guardian angels for children, but law enforcement is strongly opposed to them. The reasons their tactics are a very bad idea are obvious.
First, the public only sees the “take down” but knows nothing about the tactics that were used to bait their targets. Were they in an adult site where there would be no expectation they would be chatting with a minor? Did they pull a bait and switch, pretending to be an adult and then introduce a pretend minor who the target had no interest in meeting? Did they induce, encourage or entrap the person into conduct they had no interest in? Or, did they manufacture the entire “crime” to begin with just to produce a video? Second, there is no concern for the safety of the target or themselves for that matter. What if the confrontation turns physical? What if unrelated bystanders get hurt in an altercation? What happens if someone pulls a gun? Also, these stings are almost always useless to law enforcement or prosecutors because they don’t follow required protocols.
This article discusses one group’s tactics and you can see clearly where the bait and switch is:
Around mid-December, about two weeks before Christmas, Bee and Austin began the usual process, starting with a Grindr account with Bee’s picture (“I’m 19, but I look 15,” he says). In minutes, a 49-year-old man named “Adam” hit up Bee looking to meet Bee and “his brother.” “You gonna suck my dick tonight,” “Adam” messaged. “I’ll do whatever you wanna do hahaha,” responded Bee. “What about a threesome,” “Adam” said. “I’m sure he’ll be down,” Bee said.
They would meet in the bicycle section of the Walmart, as Bee suggested, where they had hid a camera on a nearby shelf. In the video it captured, a white-haired, bespectacled “Adam”—really an Akron-area teacher—strides up to Bee, hands pocketed. “Are you the guy? Adam?” Bee says, visibly anxious. “Do you wanna head outside?” Adam whispers. “So, what do you wanna do?” Bee, says, rubbing his chin.
Twenty seconds later, Bee’s crew rushes “Adam,” sticking their phones in his face. “What are you doing here, bro?” Bee shouts in a deeper voice. “You know I’m fifteen, right?” Adam scowls, aware he’s been busted. He throws up the hood on his windbreaker to hide his face and walks coolly to the exit. As he does, Bee screams to shoppers in the aisle, “Watch out, everyone! He’s here to meet a 15-year-old boy!”
Wait… did he say the “usual process” is to go on Grindr (a site whose Terms of Service state in capital letters, “NO USE BY UNDERAGE PERSONS. NO PERSONS UNDER THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS (OR TWENTY-ONE (21) YEARS IN PLACES WHERE EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS IS NOT THE AGE OF MAJORITY) MAY DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY VIEW, POSSESS OR OTHERWISE USE THE GRINDR SERVICES. YOU MUST BE A LEGAL ADULT.”? Did he also say “I’m 19, but I look 15”? So he baits someone to a Walmart under the guise that he’s meeting an adult, but then accuses him of coming to meet a minor?
The article continues that when the school district saw the YouTube video the put him on administrative leave and removed him from the classroom. So an individual who was on an adult site, thinking he was meeting a consenting adult, gets accosted in a supermarket, shamed online and his career placed in jeopardy, What if he wasn’t out as gay? That’s a personal choice that should not have been taken away from him and forcibly outing someone is a violation of their privacy.
The article also continues to tell of another situation:
A few weeks after Jake’s video was posted on DAP’s Youtube channel, Joshua called me panicking. The day before, he did a catch with a man who was a well-known driving instructor in the Fremont area. The catch was surprisingly quick: He was waiting in his car outside Jay’s old house—waiting for sex with a 14-year-old—when Joshua rushed him with his camera on. The man sped off. “He told me, ‘I’ll be dead in the morning,’” Joshua says. The next day, Joshua received a frantic call from the Fremont Police: The man had hung himself in his living room.
There’s enough wrong with police stings that amateurs shouldn’t be conducting them and posting them to social media for profit or to become “internet famous”. It’s time that law enforcement stepped in to stop them.
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This article is BULL!! All the major groups follow all the same rules police do when they perform a sting. They never message first. They always inform them of their true age (under 16), and they never start a sequel conversation. They never suggest meeting, they let the predator do that. As for the offenders not having legal repercussions… it depends on the county. Some of the groups have DA’s and detectives that actually prosecute these cases, and DO have these guys arrested. Other groups have police departments in their area that absolutely just won’t arrest for it. Alot of it depends on the laws in that county. And MOST of these groups, by far, either break even, or lose money and fund it themselves. Nobodys getting rich off those views. Get ur facts straight.
You are absolutely right. A lot of times, the predators will claim that they were entrapped. They clearly don’t have any idea what entrapment is. Entrapment would be if they were minding their own business and someone reached out to them at random, posing as a minor and enticed them into meeting up. The predator catchers do not reach out first, as doing so would greatly muddy up the waters. All the predator catchers have to do is sit back and wait and these lowlifes will come to them. Of course, a lot of the predators claim that they honestly thought that they were meeting up with another consenting adult. But, if that were really the case, they would pull out their phones and say “hey, let’s have seat and look through this together and clear this up right now”. Which of course, they never do LOL
Typical of those who’ve been in charge. IF the police don’t do what they SHOULD be doing….you get vigilante groups..which you then ATTACK. How about y’all persue the real criminals and leave common folk trying 5o help ALONE. Just like 2hat we are seeing on a large scale in our Presidential race….happens at local levels too.
MOST police are just as corrupt as high level politics we see playing out now.
They go after and attack the PEOPLE ….NOT criminals. They are not there to help us, they are there to enforce Corporate policies…(which many of …ARE NOT LAWS)
Stop attacking people when they begin to fight back.
It’s kinda clear what team they are on NO?
Those that claim to be helping law enforcement are still vigilantes. They aren’t preventing crimes. I’m not a big fan of law enforcement,
but I’m unsure as to what corporate policies that law enforcement defends.
Dutch teen ‘pedophile hunters’ convicted in fatal beating
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dutch-teen-pedophile-hunters-convicted-131148810.html
“THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court convicted five teens Tuesday for their involvement in the fatal beating of a 73-year-old man in what they described as a “pedophile hunt.””
“The youths, whose identities were not released, were given sentences ranging from six months to a year in juvenile detention. Their ages ranged from 15 to 19 years.”
You are all insane. They never message first. The predators are told they are talking to a minor even if the profile says 25. Many young minors use adult sites for dating. Posting the terms of service lol what the hell you think 12 year old very hormonally frustrated girl or boy is going to care about the TOS? Police do not do enough to catch child predators. There are tens of thousands of confirmed predators caught by these brave people. You are a virus who would sleep soundly if thousands of these kids were to find a way to a man who will close and lock the door behind him, and that kid will never see the sky again. You are evil. Please let’s hear your excuses why exposing child predators is a bad thing. Then explain to me who will catch them? Because they are not being caught.
You don’t even know of a single case—not ONE— in which a minor met an adult stranger for sex using an adult dating site.
You live in your own fantasy world and are a fake-ass “predator catcher” as you have accomplished no such thing.
Meanwhile people like you remain silent allegations of actual abuse go in uninvestigated and rape kits sit on the shelf.
At best, like you give the community a false sense of security, help them get their guard down while actual sexual abuse continues to happen.
Your entire premise is flat out wrong. Actual child predators would not be on adult sites on the off chance of running into minors there any more than they would in a bar. Absent proof to the contrary – and your presumptions and opinions are not proof – your targets are only guilty of poor judgment influenced by you.
Try running your stings from child forums; there might actually be something to that. Otherwise, you’re nothing but self-righteous publicity whores.
You clearly have not idea about social media. these children DO get on adult sites and forums. my family had to discover that my 13 yr old cousin was selling nudes on instagram and skout. if you think kids see a “are you 18?” and stop, you’re either naïve or willfully ignorant.
I am so sorry that these vigilante groups proved incapable of protecting your cousin from that awful situation.
Only a Pedophile would want to put a stop to this. How about commend putting a stop to predators?
Obvious Predator Author.
Do you want to protect children, or do you want to keep playing make-believe?
I’ve always had my suspicions about this whole thing. How is it that so many predators are using ADULT sites specifically to look for underage kids to hook up with? I’ve always wondered if some bait and switch underhandedness was going on. Now, of course, I’ve also wondered that if their catches were really innocent and thought that they were going to meet an adult, why didn’t they pull their phones out and say “hey!! Wait a minute….I was under the impression that I was talking to an adult the entire time….so let’s sit down and review the chat logs together and you show me where I was told that whoever I was talking to was in fact a minor”. So…really and truly….who knows what the real story is.