http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/creep-catcher-katelynn-mcknight-vigilante-justice-1.3794017
Creep Catcher vigilantes under fire over death of mentally ill woman in video
Tragedy has members of the self-styled pedophile hunting group speaking out about controversial tactics
By Sheena Goodyear, CBC News Posted: Oct 11, 2016 3:00 AM MT Last Updated: Oct 11, 2016 3:00 AM MT
Katelynn Ariel McKnight's life was turned upside down in April when a man showed up on her doorstep in Edmonton, pointed a camera phone in her face and accused her of trying to lure a 14-year-old girl online.
"I can't believe that you would accuse me of this," she told him through gritted teeth, her hands shaking. "I was sexually exploited when I was a child."
She told him her phone had been stolen four days earlier and that she'd just been released from the hospital after a suicide attempt.
Five months later, on Sept. 7, McKnight died. Her friends and family say she took her own life. She was 27.
Edmonton police say her death has been ruled non-criminal but that an investigation into the circumstances surrounding it is ongoing.
The man who took the video of McKnight is John Doep, president of the Edmonton chapter of Creep Catcher, a national network of self-styled pedophile hunters who pose as minors online in order to bait would-be sex offenders and share videos of the encounters online.
The McKnight video was one of Creep Catcher's biggest hits, racking up millions of views across multiple websites and YouTube channels, with headlines like "Man Confronts A Dude Who Was Allegedly Trying To Hook Up With Him After Pretending To A Be 14-Year-Old Girl Online!" and "Creepy Child Predator Confronted!"
McKnight, who used to be known as Joe Dunn, identified as female.
Reached for comment, Cathy Dunn, McKnight's mother, told CBC News: "I don't agree with the tactics of vigilante justice. It wasn't right in the old Wild West, and it's not right now."
Trouble in the Creep Catcher ranks
The McKnight video has created rifts within the Creep Catcher network, which has chapters spread across 19 cities in six provinces.
Three former members told CBC News they quit the group because of it.
"That video was a red flag for me as far as targeting people — targeting people for fame," said Mira, who asked that her real name not be used because she fears reprisal from Creep Catcher supporters.
"I really felt that Katelynn was an extremely vulnerable person … mentally."
Mira brought her concerns to Doep and Dawson Raymond, the group's president and founder, but says she was dismissed.
Another former member, who uses the online pseudonym Dylan Massett, said the video was not up to Creep Catcher standards because Doep went to McKnight's home instead of meeting in public.
"There's a reason that you have the meet in public, right? It shows that it's actually them, and they have come with intent," he said.
Mira shared screenshots with CBC News showing her and Massett asking Doep to take the video down.
He responds: "I don't think you guys have any idea what it is to be a creep catcher."
Doep did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Dawson, when asked about McKnight, replied: "The one that pulled the suicide?" He did not provide further comment.
Christian Ruckus, a member of the Lloyminster, Alta., chapter of Creep Catcher, told CBC News that he is a relative of McKnight's and he believes posting the video was the right thing to do.
"I still stand by the decision 100 per cent," he said. "The fact of the matter was there was a potential predator trying to lure a minor. And regardless of any state or being, that needed to be exposed."
Ruckus said the video has since been removed from all Creep Catcher-affiliated sites "out of respect for the family" and that Creep Catcher has asked other sites to do the same.
'Judge, jury, executioner'
Publicly shaming people without due process is dangerous, says Michael Seto, who researches pedophilia and sex offenders.
"There is so much stigma and anger about sexual offending, and I worry about the unintended harm this public identification can have on vulnerable accused," said Seto, who is the director of the forensic research unit at University of Ottawa's Institute of Mental Health Research.
Members of vigilante groups have no training, accountability or resources at their disposal, says Staff Sgt. Stephen Camp of the Alberta Integrated Child Exploitation Unit, which includes investigators from the RCMP and municipal police forces.
"They publicly shame them, and they pretty well act as the judge, jury, executioner at that point, and they wash their hands of it and walk away," he said.
"Let's look at the vulnerable people that get caught up in Creep Catcher's methods. McKnight is an example. There's other examples out there."
'A human, with loved ones, with dreams'
R.L. Daikin started the Facebook group "Creep Catchers Harassing Mentally Ill and Disabled People" after her own daughter, who has bipolar disorder, appeared in one of the group's videos.
She said McKnight reached out to her on Facebook, and the two often chatted about McKnight's mental health struggles and the time she spent living on the street and in group homes.
"It was so apparent that this woman was in desperate need of help," Daikin said.
She says McKnight was harassed because of the video and often talked about taking her own life.
"It's very painful to have somebody who might be dying right in front of you, and you can't do anything about it," Daikin said.
Still, there is a lot of support for Creep Catcher.
Dozens of people have taken to the Creep Catcher Facebook page in the wake of McKnight's death to voice their support for the organization.
Some even say McKnight deserved to die.
"Have you people no respect?" said Vicky Penny, who stepped down as Creep Catcher's webmaster over the McKnight video. "She may or may not have been trying to meet [someone]. Either way, she was a human, with loved ones, with dreams, feelings, life."
A memorial was held for McKnight on Oct. 1 in Spruce Grove, Alta., where her parents live.
"There were many comments from people about how she had been very caring and giving of people in her community," her mother said. "She will be sorely missed."
17 comments:
Why the hell is it always disabled people being targeted by vigilantes who accuse the victims of being a child rapist? And this shit always happens in rich countries like USA, UK and Canada when vigilantes want to allegedly protect children and women from rapists. Now the horseshoe theory has came into play and now its the vigilantes thats abusing disabled people. Look at not just the Creep Catchers in Canada, its also happening to Adam Goodridge who killed a disabled person he accused of being a rapist and Bijan Ebrahimi a Iranian refugee in the UK who was later declared disabled for what ever reason the victims is always targeted and the vigilante is never charged with abuse? Its abuse but hiding behind something good??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8kXWgomQEU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwDxe4GXj1s
http://www.koco.com/article/2-arrested-in-connection-with-street-justice-killing-of-sw-okc-man/8601073
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/17/she-had-her-boyfriend-kill-her-half-brother-for-street-justice.html
Now we have an Oklahoma vigilante incident that resembles more of Jungle Justice Africa where people are tortured and killed based on an allegation
http://politicsngr.com/two-female-thieves-narrowly-escape-jungle-justice-rivers-state/
http://dailypost.ng/2017/01/31/chaos-hausa-trader-kills-yoruba-driver-n30-lagos/
This shit is straight outta Nigeria. Only difference here is that in Nigeria vigilante action endup being about tribal politics. .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rJU_LvwL-Kc
Update Vice Films looks at a canadian vigilante group.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rJU_LvwL-Kc
Update Vice films does a doc on vigilantes!
http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/w5-s-creep-out-are-online-pedophile-hunters-catching-the-innocent-1.3290547
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/02/18/canadas-self-proclaimed-pedophile-hunters-doing-more-harm-than-good-police-say.html
Update on Creep Catchers! They are now being exposed on a CTV Canada Film.
http://www.dw.com/en/duterte-paid-for-killings-including-radio-host/a-37628787
http://davaotoday.com/main/human-rights/farmer-activist-in-north-cotabato-is-9th-victim-of-extrajudicial-killing-after-end-of-ceasefire-karapatan/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/phillippines-rodrigo-duterte-extrajudicial-killings-death-squad-officer/
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/874050/duterte-not-cleared-on-davao-extrajudicial-killings-says-chr
Former Vigilantes all point finger at President Duterte for summary executions. This is very Kim Jong un to do though
http://www.630ched.com/syn/112/285494/surrey-creep-catchers-facing-third-lawsuit
http://www.surreyleader.com/news/416353054.html?mobile=true
I place a bet here that Creep Catchers has just trolled us now that a new lawsuit over civil rights abuses are at play here. one of these Creep Catchers was a fugitive in Canada for another charge and its assaulting Drug Dealers and Robbing Drug addicts. And another person was being accused of arson.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/teen-scared-after-vigilante-apparently-uses-her-photo-to-lure-predators-1.3355057
http://www.cknw.com/2017/04/03/surrey-creep-catchers-president-arrested-following-sting/
Apparently Creep Catchers is also being accused of stealing facebook photos according to CTV News
A Toronto teen was shocked and frightened to find that an online vigilante was luring child predators with what appears to be a picture of her.
The teen says she didn’t give Justin Payne -- the first person in Canada to make a name for himself hunting pedophiles -- any permission to use photos of her in explicit chats designed to excite his targets.
“He’s hand-delivering them to the worst people in the world,” said the teen, whose identity CTV News is choosing not to divulge so as to not do further damage.
“He portrays these girls as stupid airheads. They don’t even spell right in these conversations. Someone’s going to see me and think, ‘She’s stupid, she’s vulnerable, I can take her if they see me on the street.”
Payne is part of a wave of vigilantes who are taking justice into their own hands. They pose as vulnerable girls and boys to see who will approach them for sex. Then they use chats with those people to arrange online confrontations.
Under the brand “The Payneful Truth,” Payne has dozens of video confrontations with his targets on a YouTube page that have a reach of millions of views.
He has been featured in a major documentary and his antics have inspired others across the country to use similar tactics. A W5 investigation questioned whether those “Creep Catcher” networks were doing more harm than good.
But Payne denies the picture is of that specific teen, who is the daughter of an ex-girlfriend. He says he’s using photos of two girls who have given him permission.
“I’ve been using the same photographs for well over, well, almost three years. I have consent for that,” he said.
Payne does not post screenshots of his chats publicly without blacking out profile pictures.
But CTV News has obtained screenshots of chats without the photos blocked. There seem to be at least seven different girls used in the screenshots.
Payne believes those could be elaborate fakes designed to discredit him.
The story of these photos came out through one of Payne’s favourite platforms: Facebook. When the teen wrote a comment on a public Facebook page about Justin, Payne’s former partner recognized her picture.
Her pictures, I’ve seen all over his profiles,” said Gerry O’Brien. “She’s 17 years old. If he’s been using those pictures for the amount of time I’ve been with him she’d be 15 or 16. To me that’s exploiting an underage person.”
O’Brien had quit working with Payne already, and only had one photo of her from that time. But others who had worked with Payne put O’Brien in touch with the teen’s aunt, Lisa Gaudet.
Judging by the background and the type of phone in the picture, Gaudet told CTV News that photo could be older than that -- even when the teen was 12 or 13.
“That’s her, 100 per cent,” Gaudet said.
“God knows what they’re doing with her picture,” she said. “My biggest fear is for her safety,” she said. “He needs to stop.”
The teen and Gaudet made a complaint to Toronto Police last week. A spokesperson confirmed the force is investigating, and cautioned against people taking the law into their own hands.
“These investigations are best left to officers who are trained to conduct proper, evidence-based child exploitation investigations that follow stringent legal and ethical guidelines,” a spokesperson said.
CTV News showed O’Brien the other photos. He said he recognized some as having been used while he was working with Payne, but he wasn’t sure about others.
He said Payne had varying stories on the picture.
“I’ve heard two stories of the same girl. One is that the girl is a daughter of a friend who is now old enough and they had permission. The other story is that this girl is a friend who is now in her early 20s. The story changed a little bit,” he said.
Payne said he hasn’t yet been called by police. He told CTV News he believed that any screenshots obtained by CTV News could be elaborate fakes to discredit him.
“Someone could have made a profile, put that picture up, then screenshotted it and sent it to people to pretend that it was me that did it. It’s that easy to be able to falsify evidence like that,” he said.
The teen admitted that didn’t see eye-to-eye with Payne during and after her mother’s relationship. But she said she wouldn’t fake something like this.
“I don’t want to live the rest of my life in fear. I don’t want to get a job and hear someone say, ‘I’ve seen your picture on a website,’” she said.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/teen-scared-after-vigilante-apparently-uses-her-photo-to-lure-predators-1.3355057
Damn Now a new scandal comes out for Creep Catchers an innocent girl's photos are being used to go after "bait"
Well the dictator of Creep Catchers are going to end up more damaged psychologically than any real abuse victims they claim to save or any real "offenders" they claim to take down. Has any of these Canadian Creep Catchers ever heard of Edgar Welch and Pizzagate here in the USA. Welch was going to do a mass shooting at Comet Ping pong to rescue victims that didn't even exist and Welch ended up more damaged psychologically after his verdict because he believed he was going to be a hero.
Heck these Creep Catchers Canada crew including the dictator plus Edgar Welch will end up more damaged than the victims of Bill O'Reilly's , Ailes, Sandusky, Fogle and Cosby combined oddly enough.
These Creep Catchers people would have to end up making arguments like "But this is Hero Blaming", But Alex Jones said "there's a human smuggling ring in this area and that's why I did it." It's basically the same stuff that got Edgar Welch convicted for the Pizzagate scandal.
http://www.npr.org/2017/04/06/522783564/states-find-other-execution-methods-after-difficulties-with-lethal-injection
Updates
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2017/04/australian-tv-reporter-arrested-in-child-pornography-sting.html
http://www.thenownewspaper.com/news/418543943.html?mobile=true
Now Creep Catchers update
SURREY — Surrey Creep Catchers is poising to expand its operation into small-town B.C., flat-out undaunted by lawsuits and complaints to the privacy commission recently lodged by the people they target and “blast” online.
Surrey Creep Catchers is a local chapter of a Canada-wide online movement that, according to its Facebook page, "focuses on the apprehension and media publication of predators spreading awareness about an ongoing epidemic, pedophilia."
The organization’s aim is to weed out "potential predators" by posing as children online, arranging to meet adults who think they've been communicating with a child, confronting them, filming them and then posting the videos on Facebook.
The group is considered heroic to many and the vigilante equivalent of a bull in a china shop to others. It’s run by Whalley resident Ryan LaForge, 34, whom the Now-Leader’s predecessor, the Surrey Now, first introduced to readers last summer.
Since then, LaForge said, he’s learned a lot.
“Oh lots, patience,” he said in a sit-down interview this week at a Surrey shopping mall. “I learned a lot about myself, but the most is that there is always different ways of skinning a cat. You always hear about how the media is the devil, the media is this. It’s true. But I alway realize it’s true that any publicity is good publicity and when you’re doing something like this it needs to be out there and put out there for the people to make their own decisions whether the media twists it or whatever.
“The people who see it for what it is, that’s all who we need. They have our back, they support us and that’s all we can ask for," LaForge said. “The only thing that keeps me up is creeps. The media, the police, the government, the haters, none of that fazes us. We have a mandate — our mandate is to catch as many creeps, expose as many as we can, keep our community safe as much as we can and make as much noise till we can eventually make some changes in our government.”
Despite their critics among the media, the police and in legal circles, these groups have nonetheless thrived and collaborated with one another in Canadian cities coast to coast.
“There’s a problem out there and hiding from it, pretending like it's not there, pointing fingers and pointing blame on other people who are trying to do something about it isn't going to fix it," LaForge said. "It's real, it's happening, and we're just doing the best we can with what we've got. Something that no one else is willing to do right now. We just need everyone's support and if you don't support it, then like my mom taught me, if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all."
http://www.thenownewspaper.com/news/418693133.html?mobile=true
http://www.cknw.com/2017/04/07/man-allegedly-assaulted-in-creep-catchers-sting-charged-with-child-luring/
http://www.am730.ca/syn/112/291722/steele-drex-creep-hunters-director-says-not-all-vigilante-groups-are-created-equal
Update on Creep Catchers
http://www.rappler.com/nation/166508-arturo-lascanas-philippines-singapore-bureau-immigration
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/887799/davao-death-squad-witness-arturo-lascanas-leaves-ph-for-safety
Update Lascanas leaves Philippines for fear that other vigilantes will kill him.
MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) confirmed that self-confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) member Arturo "Arthur" Lascañas flew to Singapore on Saturday, April 8.
BI Spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang told Rappler that Lascañas left for Singapore at around 5 pm on Saturday.
"As reported by our Port Operations Division Chief Marc Red Mariñas, a passenger by the name Arthur B Lascañas presented himself yesterday, 8 April 2017, for immigration departure clearance on or about 1701H," Mangrobang said in a text message on Sunday, April 9.
According to Mangrobang, there is no lookout bulletin or hold departure order for the retired Davao City cop, who had implicated President Rodrigo Duterte in killings attributed to the DDS. (WATCH: Rappler Talk Investigative: Arturo Lascañas, Duterte loyalist no more)
"Mr Lascañas did not have any immigration lookout bulletin order or hold departure order issued against him that could have delayed or prevented his departure. Hence, he was cleared to depart on board Tiger Airways flight to Singapore," Mangrobang said.
Lascañas appeared in a press conference at the Senate last February 22 to corroborate the claims of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato about the DDS. (READ: Duterte admits he knows Lascañas)
The former Davao City policeman had initially denied the existence of the DDS, but said on March 6 that he had only been forced to lie. (READ: Lascañas affidavit: Grisly stories 'just tip of bloody iceberg') – Rappler.com
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a54240/creep-catchers-canada-pedophile-hunters/
Update on Creep Catchers.
The adrenaline starts to kick in before the creep even shows up. There's the surreal moment of seeing him in the flesh after hearing his most lurid and intimate thoughts. Then they rush headlong into the unknown: He could be armed. He could be violent. Some run. Others shout. But so many of the guys just stand there, frozen in shock and fear.
That power—the potential to crush someone who seems willing to do the same heinous things that happened to them or someone that they love—can be bracing. It empowers them to change the course of a stranger's life, perhaps irrevocably, because they alone decide that it needs to happen. "It's the thing that actually put value to my life," said Kyle Welsby, a factory welder and the head of Creep Hunters Ontario. "Every job out there, everyone can be replaced. This is something that I could not be replaced in."
But DIY justice can be a messy business. Exposés have quickly morphed into bullying, harassment, and torch-wielding mob justice, fueling a backlash from Canadian media and law enforcement. Critical of what they see as irresponsible behavior by their competitors, Creep Hunters are now trying to clean up the renegade movement and turn it into a more responsible, respectable enterprise: No screaming, no shouting, no profanity-laden diatribes. "We're not a bunch of thugs running all over the place trying to get famous," Brady insisted. In recent months, the group has started distancing itself from the shaming videos that have been the hallmark of the movement, and now turn all their evidence over to the police before posting anything about the catches online, according to Brady; increasingly, they're not meeting their targets at all. The Creep Hunters want to prove that it's possible to be ethical avengers—venturing out of normal civilian life to rid the world of darkness without crossing the line themselves.
What an expose
https://nowtoronto.com/news/vigilante-pedophile-hunter-justin-payne-accused-identity-theft/
New scandal from Canada a Creep Catcher member is being accused of Identity theft.
A 29-year-old GTA man who gained attention as a vigilante pedophile hunter is denying accusations of identity theft and the use of photos of minors without their permission. Justin Payne, a construction worker by day in Burlington, spends his evenings luring child predators by posing as kids on dating apps. Eventually, he confronts these predators in person and holds them accountable for their actions, catching the whole thing on videotape.
He’s become a bit of a celebrity online. Under the name The Payneful Truth on YouTube, Payne’s videos have amassed over 60,000 subscribers and several million views. The comments below videos range from, “You’re a hero” and “Good job, man,” to accusations that he’s a fraud and shouldn’t be doing amateur police work.
But now, another kind of allegation has surfaced. On April 4, a Toronto teen told CTV she was shocked and frightened to discover that Payne has been using a photo of her to lure predators. She claims she never gave him permission.
“That’s her, 100 per cent,” Lisa Gaudet, the 17-year-old’s aunt, confirmed to CTV. “My biggest fear is for her safety. He needs to stop.”
However, Payne denies the allegations, telling Vice, “What is being said is lies and rumours. I’ve had consent for the pictures I use. Same pictures for the past few years.”
He told Vice that the teenage girl’s mom is his ex-girlfriend.
Tianna Gerrior, a woman in Oakville who who says she dated Payne from 2015 to 2016, told NOW that she’s concerned he’s been using photos of her children, too. Gerrior has a teenage daughter and five-year-old son.
“There have been five pictures confirmed of children that he knows,” she says. “Me and a few other women he’s dated are trying to identify the rest.”
Gerrior says she met Payne online and initially thought of him as a hero. But after some months passed, she realized he had cheated on her and ended the relationship. She began connecting to his other ex-girlfriends and discovered that Payne had maintained at least 17 relationships over 10 months.
“He would ask people for money. He would say he couldn’t pay his phone bill and a woman would send him $100, or his car broke down and someone would send him $200,” she explains. “It’s like catfishing. He literally plucked these women out of his fan base and manipulated them.”
She says if it wasn’t about cash or helping him pay bills, it was giving Payne a place to stay, an ego boost, or in some cases, access to children.
“My daughter was 13 and he recorded her voice to use in his chats, saying things like, ‘Hi I’m at Tim Hortons’ because he wasn’t able to mimic a young girl’s voice. He didn’t have my consent,” she alleges.
Payne says he doesn't want to comment any further on the accusations, stating through Facebook that he’s hiring a lawyer given the situation.
According to Gerrior, who hasn’t had contact with Payne since January 2016, there are more women – and their children – waiting to come forward. She wants people who might be fans of his vigilante work to know he has another side to him.
“He’s hurting people in every form,” she says. “He’s a complete fraud.”
All it took was the lies of some 19 year old p.o.s to get hundreds of other local trailer trash to spread around that i am a pedophile, which i am not. The first Sunday in March 2017 i counted 28 attempts by people going out of their way to incite me enraged. I try to buy coffee or shop for shoes and 20 year olds see me, who i have never met before, eyes lught up as the rrun off to tell others more rumours with me in earshot. I understand Belleville ON is a disturbed small town, however, it is no excuse for local losers to facilitate relationships at my expense. I have sympathy for creep catchers own risk of saftey for going further then they say they go by just making shight up and spreading around lies to create monsters... They are the monsters.
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