I remember watching Chris Hansen's "To catch a predator" on MSNBC a few years back and I was totally fascinated by it, there was something repeatably entertaining about watching an endless supply of seemingly innocent looking, inconspicuous family men overcome with warped, illegal carnal urges, walking headfirst into a hornets nest of reporters, setup by Paedophile hunter group "Perverted Justice"
At the time I remember thinking "Only in America" but now it seems this is becoming a bigger thing over here too, obviously we're a way off having the TV show - but there now seems to be a number of these groups springing up;
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-41281122/southampton-paedophile-hunter-sting-captured-on-video
The official word from "The Man" over the last few decades has generally been along the lines of "Please don't take part in vigilantism, because it gets in the way" but the police seem to have changed tact slightly and are, albeit rather reluctantly agreeing to work with paedophile hunters and use their evidence in court.
What do people think about this?
I'm in two minds, one part of me thinks it's bad, because it's only a matter of time until "some blokes down the pub" decide to go and beat up a local paediatric surgeon,
I also think it's a symptom of more and more cuts, not enough services to catch, treat, prosecute, deal with these people, so the community starts raging and starts to take matters into it's own hands.
But it could be a good idea if done properly, get the community to look after itself - I don't mean bored, unemployed, angry men chasing down suspected nonces, but more along the lines of officially offloading some of the detective work to the community, so that it can police itself, gather evidence - then present that to the police when a sufficient dossier has built up.
That said, the latter would require competence on the part of the government, and so far the government seems to utterly excel at ******** things up.
At the time I remember thinking "Only in America" but now it seems this is becoming a bigger thing over here too, obviously we're a way off having the TV show - but there now seems to be a number of these groups springing up;
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-41281122/southampton-paedophile-hunter-sting-captured-on-video
The official word from "The Man" over the last few decades has generally been along the lines of "Please don't take part in vigilantism, because it gets in the way" but the police seem to have changed tact slightly and are, albeit rather reluctantly agreeing to work with paedophile hunters and use their evidence in court.
What do people think about this?
I'm in two minds, one part of me thinks it's bad, because it's only a matter of time until "some blokes down the pub" decide to go and beat up a local paediatric surgeon,
I also think it's a symptom of more and more cuts, not enough services to catch, treat, prosecute, deal with these people, so the community starts raging and starts to take matters into it's own hands.
But it could be a good idea if done properly, get the community to look after itself - I don't mean bored, unemployed, angry men chasing down suspected nonces, but more along the lines of officially offloading some of the detective work to the community, so that it can police itself, gather evidence - then present that to the police when a sufficient dossier has built up.
That said, the latter would require competence on the part of the government, and so far the government seems to utterly excel at ******** things up.
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