Chilliwack 'superheroes' must stop vigilantism: police

[Swede]

Four young Chilliwack men who dressed as superheroes to confront potential sex offenders have drawn public kudos but are being criticized by police, who say crime-fighting should be left to the proper authorities.

Police say the vigilantes - two are 17, one is 18, and one is 20 - put themselves in danger by posing online as underage girls to lure men for sexual encounters, only to confront the men publicly dressed as Batman and the Flash. The encounters were videotaped and posted in recent weeks on YouTube, under the title To Troll a Predator.

Police have spoken to the young men and their parents, said Cpl. Tammy Hollings-worth, spokeswoman for the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP, Wednesday.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Chilliwack+superheroes+must+stop+vigilantism+police/5724697/story.html#ixzz1e6FQ8uwE

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Gone, gone, gone: That's what those Chilliwack men want to be

able to say about sex offenders!

[Xithras]

2. Lol. I looked up the videos. Pretty funny.

Though they certainly went to far in the one video I watched when he claimed to be the police, I still have to disagree with the argument that this is some sort of vigilantism. They never tried to capture or attack the men, but simply lured them into a public place and exposed them. I liked the video where Batman points to the guy in the park, turns to the parents playing with their kids in the background, and yells, "Do you know why he's here? To sleep with a 15 year old girl! He's a pedophile!" It was classic.

It's certainly risky on their part, but I don't have a big problem with anything they did. If they can do it without breaking any laws, more power to them.