What Do We Think Of These Guys?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24143991
They seem to be being useful at the moment but vigilantes generally drift towards becomming lynch mobs.

[sandyRoe]

Well, they can already claim one hanging. Whether that's something to be proud of is moot.

[woofgang]

I think that vigilantes are never a good idea.

[andy-hughes]

TTT - "They seem to be being useful at the moment ..."

Twas ever thus. A bunch of self-righeous bullies with too much time on their hands decide to entrap people and then dish out their own summary justice in the form of humiliation.

How long before the humiliation is accompanied by 'a slap', then a punch, then a beating, then lynching.

The idea that anyone feels they can take the law into their own hands just because they have an overwhemling sense of self-importance, and couldn't get voted onto the gold club committee is simply unacceptable.

These people need to be stopped, before someone gets hurt.

[Zeuhl]

Isn't this what the Police are already doing?

only better?
and with legal authority?
and the means to follow through properly?

[ichkeria]

Not useful. Not clever. And possibly in some cases only marginally less disturbing than their prey.
I can't think of a single good reason for their existence

[pixie373]

Probably causing more harm than good. If their methods are so effective at finding paedophiles and getting them charged, why aren't the police training employees to do it? I think they'll end up just warning criminals to be more careful.

[Butterbun]

There is a program on American TV just like this.

[ludwig]

It's difficult to say whether they're guilty of 'entrapment' or not because we're not privy to the online conversations they're having.

On the face of it I don't have any particular problem with what they're doing.

[andy-hughes]

Ludwig - you might if you were innocent, and they turned up mob-handed on your doorstep!

[ludwig]

I don't think there's much chance of that andy - I don't chat up 14 yr old girls on the internet.

[Kromovaracun]

I agree with Ludwig - I don't have any innate problem with what they're doing, especially as all they seem to do is hand over their evidence to the police. This approach has been used for a long time to capture sexual predators. As for the hanging - to be honest, I feel just the same way about it as I would if the man had been caught by the police - largely indifferent.

Exchanging sexual messages and agreeing with somebody you believe to be 12/13 is something which should warrant police attention. The only thing that bothers me about all this is that the police have issued a statement claiming that this activity does interfere with their existing covert operations:

http://www.channel4.com/news/vigilante-paedophile-claim-letzgo-hunting-ceop-nspcc

[ichkeria]

As a policeman was explaining on the radio yesterday any "evidence" collected by these people would not be admissible in court.
The correct thing for anyone to do if they suspect something is to contact the police.

[ichkeria]

"I don't think there's much chance of that andy - I don't chat up 14 yr old girls on the internet. "

You're assuming these people know what they are doing. Which I think was andy's point.

[ludwig]

// You're assuming these people know what they are doing. //

I don't understand how an adult can have sexual conversations with a child and arrange to meet them and then turn up for the meeting without realising what they're doing.

That may happen to me by accident one day, but it hasn't yet, and I doubt it ever will.

[ludwig]

I just realised you probably meant the vigilantes don't know what they're doing, in which case I don't understand the point you're making.

[andy-hughes]

A report on the radio this morning advises that so far, no prosecutions have been brought as a result of this group's information given to the police, simply because entrapment is a strong defence.

Aside from that, this activity will simply alarm anyone connected with 'the accused' and drive them underground, to say nothing of compromising ongoing investigations, which the police do not feel obliged to share with any amateur busybodies with high blood pressure and too much free time.

[Baldric]

What do I think of them?

Not a lot after reading this:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424756/Paedophile-vigilantes-Letzgo-Hunting-terrorised-sisters-Claire-Emma-Harris-criticising-them.html

[andy-hughes]

That's the problem with a self-righteous nature - it expands - until you feel that only you are right, and anyone who disagrees with you must be an enemy, and dealt with.

[Ellipsis]

It's about as good an idea as pretending to be a paedophile so that you can track down young children who are susceptible to paedophiles, meet them in the street and give them a good telling off and some brochures about staying safe online.

[andy-hughes]

Clint Eastwood's 'Dirty Harry' characater summed up the dangers of self-appointed 'law enforcers' back in 1971 - "What happens next? You execute your neighbour because his dog pi**es on your lawn ..." - We may be forty-plus years on, but the basis of his point is as sound as ever.