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This group is called Predator Catchers Indianapolis. Here's their Facebook page - they seem like an incredibly unprofessional outfit. https://www.facebook.com/
by mdoms 5y ago
This group is called Predator Catchers Indianapolis. Here's their Facebook page - they seem like an incredibly unprofessional outfit.
https://www.facebook.com/PredatorCatchersIndianapolis/ https://www.facebook.com/PredatorCatchersIndianapolis/
It sounds like they pose as minors and look for sketchy men to try to set up meets with them. Here's a news article with this quote from a female predator catcher,
> “Basically, I brought you out here ‘cause we know who you are, I’m definitely not 14, you’ve definitely been talking to a decoy,” the woman said while walking with Boyer into the nearby parking lot.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/25/indianapolis-predator-catchers-hunt-offenders-experts-urge-caution/4549340001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/25/indian...
More on their process (and even more detail in the article):
> Here's how it works: Members of these groups create fake, "decoy" dating or social media profiles and, once connected with someone, share their decoy age. The conversation either ends or continues and eventually becomes sexual, Spain and Schmutte said, at which point they'll agree to meet, only to reveal their true identities and confront the person while streaming on Facebook Live.
> Austin Spain looks at his Facebook Messenger inbox on his phone Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. He has two decoy pages that he uses in his search for sexual predators online.
> For Spain, it's as easy as creating decoy Facebook pages using photos of adult female friends who he said have given him permission to use their images. One decoy page reviewed by IndyStar shows a young woman who says she's a student at a Bedford high school who likes reading. There's nothing outwardly provocative about the page.
> Spain doesn't send friend requests, he said, nor does he initiate conversations. He lets the requests come to him. When he spoke to IndyStar on Jan. 22, Spain said one of his decoy pages had around 900 pending friend requests. Typically, he sorts through requests and messages, deleting those that are obviously fake or out-of-state. Then, it's just a matter of responding to that first message.
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To me the people running these groups seem very narcissistic. I have no doubt they think they're doing a good thing, but I am never in favour of vigilante justice.
- version_five 5y agoI think maybe they would be more effective by revealing themselves earlier on and hopefully scaring the offender out of doing what they are doing (I dont really know the psychology of this, I picture there are pathological cases that need real help and won't be deterred anyway and some borderline creeps who just need to be shocked into realizing what they are doing is not cool.) For the latter group, scaring the shit out of them may better serve the actual purpose of deterring crimes against children, vs going all the way to some kind of final sting operation that is only going to marginalize people further and maybe even push them to doing more of this. Unfortunately I think the vigilantes are more about getting a sensational result than actually trying to solve a problem