Pedo Hunter in Area

[Noluckcatchingthemswansthen]

Not sure if this really is an AIBU just looking for some insights if anyone has any!

In the last couple of days a fairly well known ‘Pedophile Hunter’ group has made it known via social media etc that they are in the area where I live. It is a very small rural community and of course rumours have spread like wildfire!

I don’t really have much knowledge about these types of groups - I remember hearing something years ago about them on the news but never really looked into them. A quick google search shows a lot of debate about whether they are helpful or harmful
On the face of it it would seem like they have the best of intentions?! But they can become very violent and do sometimes get it wrong, target the person or wrong address etc

Some people locally are very excited about their presence and some are very concerned

I suppose I am just wondering really if anyone else has had any experience of this in their area and how it turned out?

for AIBU purposes

YABU - they are no threat to the community and only want to help protect children

YANBU - they are vigilante groups who hinder police investigations and often act on local gossip and end up targeting innocent individuals

Thanks for any insights 😊

If they were investigating anonymously and handing evidence to the police when they had built a case then it could only be a good thing. However strutting around like they are Batman, courting as much online attention and pats on the back as possible and risking getting it wrong as they are not trained as law enforcement is dangerous. I question the integrity and intentions of these people. I wonder if it’s more for them and their ego rather than protecting anyone.

Yeah this is definitely what’s making people upset/nervous.. but of course he’s framing it as
‘ anyone who is uneasy that I’m here obviously has something to hide and that’s the kind of person I’m going to investigate’
and all his followers are giving it ‘yeah check their hard drives they must be a beast’

I don't doubt some of them mean well, but some are almost as disturbed as the people they are hunting.

Racist and xenophobic flag shaggers who follow Tommy Robinson etc

Many of them exposed as sex offenders, domestic abusers and violent criminals whilst protesting about Muslim grooming gangs.

Wow that is terrifying, and a very effective way to intimidate people into compliance.

It is isn’t it
as a PP said though it has been illuminating to see who in the community has had no hesitation in falling in with him and would clearly be happy to turn on friends and neighbours in the name of being one of his followers..

Oh ok.

Do they find time to do this between shinnying up lampposts, painting roundabouts, and trying to set fire to hotels ?

Yes that's spreading like a cancer alas. Would a 'pedophile' not be someone who loves feet? The misspelling leads to mispronunciation...peddo - file.

Vigilantes are often dodgy enough themselves. 41% of the men arrested after the Farage riots had records of domestic abuse iirc?

Sorry if my spelling caused confusion.. no I am not referring to someone who loves feet ( although I do also find that disturbing 😂)

I think these groups often do great work considering how under resourced the police are. The problem I have with them though is the way they name and shame the pedos on social media. No consideration for the families, the person’s kids, who may well have their lives made total hell at school after everyone finds out daddy’s a pedo. They should just hand them over to the police without the social media outing. Or at the very least don’t put them online until they’ve been 100% proved guilty

Exactly this

I swear every MN thread I’ve read about peadophiles (I’m probably spelling it wrong!) descends into a discussion or argument about the correct way to spell it, as if that’s the most important issue 🙄 who cares!

I'm sure they sometimes do good work.

The risks are obvious though - no checks on who they are or what bias they hold, little come back if they make false accusations, and the incentive to do so due to the addictive nature of social media likes and the monetisation of their channels.

The ones I've heard about tend to operate online in 'sting' type operations where they pretend to be kids online- the guy you have sounds more worrying if he's just 'investigating' people- sounds like a recipe for accusing people because they're a bit odd and they sometimes sit in the park on their own, and there's kids in the park, and clearly 2 and 2 must make 5.

I'd pretty much guarantee some of them are child abusers hiding in plain sight too.

Yeah my bad though I’ve been around mumset long enough to know I should have triple checked the spelling of every word of my OP!

They’re vigilantes which goes against what I believe is important in a modern justice system.

But where's the glory in that.
As you said some of ones caught have clearly got learning disabilities and obvious low mental age.

Well it is nice to know wtf ppl are talking about isn't it? Mind you , a paediatric clinic was attacked a few years ago by some nutters.

Perhaps a new word is needed for the hard of thinking.

Yes that is what’s scary about him - he has said he’s here ‘taking to lots of people’ and he’s made it clear he’s happy to talk to anyone who might have ‘info’ - so basically he is stirring up and listening to local gossip and I assume trying to get some names so he can ‘take action’
he also talks about ‘sting operations’ but given his lack of stealth I’m doubtful

Because police don't / wont't / can't do much anymore people will have to take the law into their own hands.
Where we live there are a lot of break ins, doorstep theft and drug dealing. If we know something is going on we will all chat on the group WhatsApp and anyone home will go a check... we had a situation with a woman trying to grab peoples phones so a few of the lads on the street went out and told her where to go... we know we are only moving the problem on - but what else is there!

he has said he’s here ‘taking to lots of people’ and he’s made it clear he’s happy to talk to anyone who might have ‘info’ - so basically he is stirring up and listening to local gossip and I assume trying to get some names so he can ‘take action’

More likely it's to create more interest for himself so he can sell more drugs

As you can probably tell I just looked at the FB page, and let's just say his appearance was no surprise ...

Vigilantism is frightening!

Just remember they are using your community to raise their own profile. If they cared about catching anyone they wouldn’t be plastering their presence over social media for “likes”.

It wouldn’t be something I’d do personally, but I’m very happy for the information. I have 2 convicted paedos in my family and we are NC with them. We had them come to our village and now I know where the paedo lives on the estate where my dc have some friends, so grateful to have that information.

I saw they caught someone near here by pretending to be a 12 year old old girl. Didn’t know anything about it until after.

Wow well he’s made right mugs of some people here then who think he’s some kind of guardian angel come to save us all from ‘the beasts’