Well done to Aaron RoachBridgeman on his excellent Vigilante Brits documentaries. However, I was deeply disturbed by paedophile hunters and the way in which they have touched upon a public nerve that takes us back to the dark ages.
Firstly, these are not educated men. And I am not saying that out of a sense of snobbery, I'm saying it because they know nothing whatsoever about their subject, and nothing whatsoever about psychology and criminology. In pretending to be 12 year old girls, they are putting real 12 year old girls at risk. What on earth are they saying to these predators to keep them hooked for months on end? Clearly the Lolita they are chatting to online is not instantly available, but there may be other young girls who are. Is it ever a good idea to lead a paedophile on to the point where they bring condoms and a rope? What if they got the rendezvous mixed up and the pervert thought, well I'm here anyway.
The problem with vigilantes is that they, the leaders especially, usually have unresolved issues. That is they have been personally affected in some way, either themselves or someone close to them. Their rage is understandable, but their self prescribed cure of vengeance won't make it go away. They believe if they 'get' every 'paedo' the pain will stop. Their judgement and sense of reason is warped by that stage of their development when they were traumatised. No legitimate law enforcement agency would or should ever use them, they would be psychologically unstable and totally unqualified.
Because their goal is punishment, in the form of public shame and crucifixion, they have completely caste aside any form of reason or humanity, and justice doesn't even get a mention. Informed that one man had committed suicide, the hunter replied, it's not because of what I did, it's because of what he did. Absolving himself completely of the tragedy while the crowd cheered on.
Ye Gods, what kind of justice is this in the 21st Century? It's a crowd pleaser is what it is. No doubt in former lives these men were the hangmen or the groupies who followed them. They are all about the punishment, they want someone, anyone, hanging at the end of the rope, the paedos draw a good crowd when they get bored with the Muslims.
It angers me because it feeds into the same crazy philosophy that created 'All men are rapists', only this time round, it's much dirtier and nastier. This assumption that all men who like, or who even really really like children, want to harm them is ridiculous. In most cases the opposite is true, men who genuinely like kids and enjoy their company are rare, and to be treasured! Assaulting a child is the last thing on their minds, they want to protect them, like an auld dawg passing tips onto the young 'uns. It breaks my heart that the wonderful bond some men seem to have with kids is now seen as suspicious. All those cheeky compliments and wise words, held back for fear of being misinterpreted.
But returning to those Paedophile Hunters. I can't help but wonder what it is they say to their 'prey' to keep them dangling online for 7 months? Do they keep producing pictures of a '12' year old girl? What are they offering to entice dirty old men to come and meet them in a car park? Judging by the samples of the conversations, their alter egos aren't saying anything a 12 year old girl would say. 12 year old girls are excruciatingly embarrassed by everything, I know, I was one! I sometimes wonder if the only dirty talking going on online is between the hunters and the hunted. Real 12 year olds would laugh their socks off.
What terrified me the most with the paedophile hunters, was the amount of support they had from the public, and the media. It was a bit like a Trump winning the presidency moment, where you ask yourself 'is this for real?' 'Should we take it seriously?'. Unfortunately, as the Trump result showed, 'hell yeh'. Because unfortunately, once you approve small armies to go out there beating the shit out of those they hate [figuratively speaking, or not], you are on the road to anarchy, or tyranny, take your pick.
Again absolutely agree with you, once they got rid of every paedophile, who or what next will be on their target list as it won't stop there. Again it's mob mentality, when something horrendous happens they scream bring back the death penalty. (I'm not anti Capital Punishment). I hate to say this but Jimmy Saville & Cyril Smith are in the eyes of the law innocent, as neither of them have been convicted of their crimes. The problem with the vigilantes they would bypass this important process and then become judge, jury and executioner on a say so. With reference to the McCanns again they are innocent until proven guilty. My view is that this case has nothing to do with paedophilia or abductions for that matter. I do have a theory in mind though.
ReplyDelete26th, March 2012
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anorak.co.uk/317017/technology/using-ashleigh-hall-to-create-a-facebook-paedo-panic.html/
You can buy their Child Protection DVD – Matters2Me. Buy your copy now for just £9.78... ”A must have for every parent & teacher”. Oh, and they offer a course in “policing the internet”.
'It might be summed up on three words: “Call the police.”'
I very much appreciate Rosalinda, that you keep on discussing, what needs to be discussed on many levels.
ReplyDeleteHere are just a few thoughts regarding the “mob mentality” (John 100), and how it comes about, though I’m not a Psychologist.
When a male paedophile hunter plays the role of a 12 or 13 years old girl, he probably does so in a very perverted and imaginative way, not just because he wants the potential abuser to reveal his intentions, but also because he really believes, that everything he says and suggests, are quite normal things in every young girl’s life. So the whole act of inciting an interlocutor to commit a crime, becomes a kind of dialogue between this potential offender and a person of the same sort, that is the paedophile hunter himself, who conceals his own shortcomings and his tendencies to commit sexual crimes by projecting them onto “the other”
Many men who join vigilance committees in order to chase criminals, do not have a deeper self-understanding and do not really know, that it is often their own wickedness they are trying to bring out in other people, who are not really so much different from themselves. By punishing them, it becomes somewhat easier to keep their own underlying tendency to commit crimes under control, such as sexual offences and other crimes. So one should not at all be too surprised to find criminals in such committees.
Hi Bjorn, great comment as mentioned before if you want to stay hidden, join the group that's looking for you.
DeleteI agree John, Bjorn's post is very insightful.
DeleteThe hunters are motivated by hatred, they are demonstrating that they hate paedophiles more than anyone else. It is not too dissimilar to gangs of thugs who beat up gay guys to prove how heterosexual they are. It is such basic psychology text book 1, I am astonished at how many supposedly educated people take the actions of the hunters at face value, and even consider them heroes.
And its not just volunteer hunters who are suspect. I, and indeed I am sure many careleavers will have memories of creepy child protection officers and social workers trying their utmost to get graphic details of sexual abuse.
Unfortunately, this paedophile hunt, both official and unofficial, puts hundreds if not thousands of kids at risk. Those kids seized and placed in care for their own protection because their parents have been accused.
Is now the right time for you to blog about your own childhood experience of sex abuse Ros? I remember you saying a short while ago that you would write about it some time.
DeleteI wondered if it is connected with your close relationship with an adult man when you were 4 years old. You also said you would blog about that.
You know what, I think it probably is 23:51,
DeleteIt's been a work in progress for quite some time, I really need to stop tweaking and just bleddy publish!
Many thanks for the prompt! :)
A few final tweaks and we will be there!
@ Rosalinda, Cristobell Hutton22 December 2016 at 00:24
DeleteIsn't it in your book?
Vigilante committees are a last resort. In an ideal world, there wouldn't be a need for a last resort. I agree that some are just hunting for hunting's sake, it's a biological throwback unfortunately. Today we live in a world were children are an endangered species. The problem is compounded by the inaction and cover ups involving people in the highest places and the police rather than them waging war on it . If they won't protect them who does it leave ? If so many of them are actually involved in the crime then what ? I see a lot of personal experiences disccussed here. I recall two 'gay' men living around the corner from me in the 90s. They suffered abuse and window smashing from the local kids. I heard one of the kids was mine and i read him the riot act. He called them 'paedoes'. He was 13 at the time. I gave him a lecture on how gay men were not dangerous or sick and should be left in peace like anyone else. He said i was wrong.He said they may well be gay but they're trying to entice kids into their flat by looking out of their window and calling a phone box as kids walked by. The next (dark) night i was watching that area as talking to somebody and i witnessed it myself. The kids were right and the police were informed. The next night they were on the front page with sad 'persecuted' faces in the company of local gay MP. The story of homophobia enraged everyone. They were moved to a new place soon after, but not before a 'vigilante' had burned the phonebox to the ground. he did that as his son was one of the kids they tried to entice. I witnessed both. had the full facts been investigated and charges made, no vigilantes would have been spurred into action. And no further attempts at enticing little boys would have taken place anyway. Not all 'hunters' or vigilantes are running around with burning torches looking for Dr Frankenstein. Some are, but they're easy to spot and easy to stop. Programmes like 'to catch a predator' were supposed to highlight a pandemic and alert parents- good parents and good families- to dangers.
ReplyDeleteThere's some good sub-headings at the top of the page of this site.
https://theukdatabase.com/