Latest news with #ToCatchaPredator
Hindustan Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Of online voyeurs and offline vigilantes
True crime squirmed under the spotlight of two documentaries at Sundance 2025, earlier this year. Charlie Shackleton's Zodiac Killer Project opened up the genre playbook to dismantle the codified conventions that go into choreographing an investigative spectacle for the screen. David Osit's Predators charged the stakeholders of a booming industry on multiple counts: for the genrefication of tragedy, for inviting voyeurs to play moral arbiters, for galvanising vigilantes into enacting DIY justice, for feeding a singular and collective appetite for the macabre, and for seeding an adverse parasocial mania. The schadenfreude-pilled addicts searching for their next fix are put under scrutiny, same as the opportunistic peddlers of grisly stories. In recent times, true crime has gotten more confrontational, more introspective, more aware of its shortcomings, more committed to addressing the system, not just the individual. The two Sundance docs examine our relationship with stories which in so many ways have become our modern myths in this internet age. Predators reviews the legacy of a popular NBC show that delivered a uniquely American brand of public spectacle. For three years, the Dateline spinoff To Catch a Predator (2004-2007) became a rating sensation with its ambush journalism. Dubbed 'Punk'd for paedophiles,' the programme was built on a winning formula: actors posing as minors online would lure potential predators to a house rigged with cameras; on arriving at the house, these older men would be cornered by host Chris Hansen with chat transcripts and difficult questions; outside, local police would be waiting to swarm the man and charge him with online solicitation of a minor. This humiliation routine was broadcast on national television. However, bypassing due process left a majority of the cases unprosecutable. Not to mention this extralegal enterprise undermined the legitimacy of the criminal justice system. Especially when it turned out it wasn't so much the show working with law enforcement as law enforcement working for the show. NBC cancelled To Catch a Predator when one of the targets, a Texas assistant DA, shot himself after his house was surrounded by police and Hansen's production crew. But by then it had left its mark. It spawned enough copycat sting operations targeting suspected predators online to become a YouTube phenomenon. Vigilante groups began to surface around the US with their own participatory true crime iterations. As Osit finds out following one crew, it is less justice that incentivises these operations, more the righteous satisfaction of catching someone with their pants down. It is social cleansing for clout, for subscribers, for our viewing pleasure. It is mass-mediated dehumanisation peacocking as public service. It is gotcha TV premised upon revelling in others' ignominy. To Catch a Predator capsuled the spectacle of public shaming via subterfuge into 20 episodes. But what happened beyond the runtime? The show had no interest in the family left behind: the betrayed wives, daughters and friends who had to endure through their shock, anger and grief. When Osit sits down with the distressed mother of an 18-year-old decried by Hansen for dating a 15-year-old in the ongoing web series Takedown, the ruinous cost of public shaming becomes glaring. Interviews with some of the young actors hired to play underage decoys on To Catch a Predator reveal the toll it took on them. Hansen would always confront his targets with the statement: 'Help me understand.' Osit confesses his own childhood trauma as a survivor of sexual abuse made him keen to understand why some adults would prey on children. But Hansen was never interested in the why. When he is interviewed in the film, it only confirms to Osit the aim was never to decode the minds of predators. Nor was it to alert parents to online dangers. It was to grant audiences the feeling of a moral order briefly restored coupled with the pleasure of self-exoneration from disorder. But by making a spectacle of shaming predators, the show became predatorial in its own way. Zodiac Killer Project is a quasi-documentary filmed in a conditional mood: a feature as it might have been but couldn't be. Director Charlie Shackleton had set out to adapt The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up, a 2012 book by ex-cop Lyndon Lafferty. Just as he was locked in research and scouting locations, the negotiation for securing the rights fell through. Thereupon he decided to make a film about an unmaking, his abortive bid to hop on the true crime bandwagon. Much of the film comprises long static shots of unpeopled streets, buildings and homes, accompanied by Shackleton's sometimes wistful, sometimes tongue-in-cheek descriptions of how he would have recreated milestone scenes from the book in these nondescript locations. As the camera slow zooms in on the locations, their emptiness invites us to envision the ghosts of a past when the Zodiac Killer haunted San Francisco and the ghosts of a documentary that almost got made. The opening scene takes us to a highway rest stop where Lafferty came face-to-face with the man he suspected to be the killer. So that it doesn't feel like we are watching a podcast remodelled for the screen Shackleton adds insert shots and 'evocative B-roll': bullet casings dropping, blood pooling on the floor, overhead lights swinging in the interrogation room. For an illustration of how he might have gone about assembling the title sequence and dramatizing events, he pulls in footage from series like The Jinx and Making a Murderer. Shackleton is quite forthcoming about the deceptions of true crime. He shows us a library that would have been recast as a police station. He admits to the liberties he would have taken and the facts he would have withheld to make Lafferty's conclusions more persuasive. Lafferty claimed to have unmasked the Zodiac Killer. But the evidence he laid out was circumstantial. And as his book title suggests, he accused local officials of stymying his investigation. Shackleton confesses he himself doesn't buy Lafferty's claims but it wouldn't have stopped him from selling the same as highly credible to the viewers for the purposes of making engaging true crime. There is a sense of playfulness and bitterness to Shackleton's narration. We hear a filmmaker reluctant to probe his own ready indulgence in the deceptions of a genre he is eager to anatomise. We hear a fan more amused than alarmed by the mechanics. We hear someone whose desire for closure becomes a comment on our own denied by cold cases. Last year, Canadian filmmaker Pascal Plante interrogated our cultural fixation on serial killers and true crime with an entirely different approach in Red Rooms. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) is a model by day and hacker by night obsessed with the case of Ludovic Chevalier, a man accused of killing three young women on camera and livestreaming the crimes on the dark web. On the days of trial proceedings, she forgoes the luxuries of her Montreal high-rise to sleep in a back alley near the courthouse, just so she can secure herself a seat in the gallery. Gariépy is sphinx-like as Kelly-Anne. Her dispassionate poker face crystallises her ambivalence. It is impossible to gauge her motives beyond a restless need for certainty that pushes the curious to play detective. It is hard to read her moral compass, or if she even has one. If she is alone, it feels like a choice. It is disconcerting to watch her so airily dart back and forth between playing hold 'em online and bidding on a snuff film of a 13-year-old girl (definitive evidence linking Chevalier to the crimes). Parasocial mania reaches a fever pitch when Kelly-Anne turns up to court, dressed in a school uniform like the victim. She gazes fixedly at Chevalier seated in his glass booth as if willing him to return the gaze. Early into the trial, Kelly-Anne befriends Clémentine (Laurie Babin), a Chevalier groupie convinced of his innocence. When Clémentine learns Kelly-Anne has access to two of his alleged snuff films, she insists upon watching them. Plante holds the camera on the two women staring at the screen, faces aglow in the blood red of the kill room. The horror is relegated off screen. All we hear are piercing screams of agony. Clémentine, sickened, breaks down in tears, the reality of Chevalier being guilty catching up with her naive delusion. Kelly-Ann, unruffled, looks on with the numbed expression of someone who has presumably seen the video several times before. The two make for parallel but contrasting portraits of pathological fixation. Ostensibly a fan of Arthurian tales, Kelly-Anne calls her jailbroken AI assistant Guenièvre and goes by the online handle 'Lady of Shalott,' named for the noblewoman cursed to only see the outside world reflected in a mirror. The Tennyson poem she inspired speaks to Kelly-Anne's own condition: alone, confined to a tower and engaging with the world through (digital) mirrors. Red Rooms adds a wrinkle to the true crime genre by situating us both behind and front of the camera to confront how easily we are lured in by the promise of voyeuristic opportunity. We as consumers are bystanders shielding our eyes while still peering through the fingers at the scene of a fatal car crash, our reptilian fear instinct and our deep-rooted curiosity caught in a tense parley. We observe from a safe remove while staying unobserved. We wish to be anonymous yet belong. We suit true crime up in academic garb, style it with artistic flourishes, call it victim-centred, all so we feel less queasy about consuming trauma repackaged as entertainment. Prahlad Srihari is a film and pop culture writer. He lives in Bangalore.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Chris Hansen speaks on Alabama sting operation resulting in arrests
BLOUNT COUNTY, Ala. (WIAT) — A recent Blount County undercover operation to catch online predators landed two men behind bars. The Blount County Sheriff's Office arrested Chase Andrew Abercrombie and Kody Ray Smith. Investigators said they were working with Chris Hansen. He hosts 'Takedown with Chris Hansen' and was the face of 'To Catch a Predator.' Abercrombie and Smith were charged with human trafficking, electronic solicitation, sex offenses involving minors and traveling to meet a child to perform a sexual act. Woman found dead outside Birmingham residence The men thought they were speaking with an underage child online. When they arrived at a sting house, however, deputies met them. Hansen said he found one detail of the sting disturbing. 'What surprises me about this particular sting is that one of the men, who is 30 years old, Kody Ray Smith, had just gotten married two weeks before he showed up at the sting house to try to sexually exploit, allegedly, a 15-year-old girl,' Hansen said. Abercrombie posted bond, while Smith was in custody as of Tuesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Boca Raton Middle employee fired after being accused of trying to meet minor for sex
The Palm Beach County School Board has terminated a man who worked at Boca Raton Middle School following his arrest earlier this week on a charge of traveling to meet a minor for unlawful sex. Stephon McCray, 44, was a 'non-instructional staff member' and was removed from the middle school in February when McCray was initially reported to Delray Beach Police, the school said in a message to parents on Wednesday. The School Board voted to fire him on Wednesday. Officers were called to Sprouts Farmers Market in Delray Beach on Feb. 26 about a 'suspicious incident.' They met with Dustin Lampros, who runs a social media account called '561 Predator Catchers,' according to a probable cause affidavit for McCray's arrest. The account is similar to the 'To Catch a Predator' series from NBC's 'Dateline,' where adult men ran sting operations and confronted those who believed there were meeting up with minors for sex in the early 2000s. Lampros told police that McCray had been inappropriately communicating through the dating app Grindr and through texts with someone who posing as a 14-year-old boy named 'Jordan,' the affidavit said. In reality, McCray was messaging with someone else, a 'decoy.' Lampros showed officers all of the messages. McCray and 'Jordan' messaged for several hours on Feb. 26, and several were about meeting up for sexual activity, the affidavit showed. 'Jordan' early on in their texting purported to McCray that he was a minor. It is not clear in the affidavit who was actually texting McCray. 'do u care if im younger or nah,' the person pretending to be a minor wrote. 'Are you legal?' McCray replied. 'im bout to be 15 just being honest its hard af being gay nowadays hope u not madd,' the person wrote back. 'I'm not mad… but being under age can get someone like me in prison if it were to become anything but clean and clear conversation,' McCray replied. In the messages that followed, McCray told the decoy that their conversations had to be 'PG-13 or better,' according to the affidavit. They talked about meeting up at a store, and 'Jordan' asked what they would do if they were to meet. 'Not sure yet. I'm still trying to figure out and decide if you're an undercover law enforcement agent or not,' McCray wrote. 'What store would it be?' McCray in one message to 'Jordan' described exactly the situation he did not know he was in; he wrote that he had a friend who works as 'a child predator victim agency' and had told him about how people pretend to be minors online 'and then try to catch adults who setup meetings to 'abuse' them,' the affidavit said. 'bruh I aint got time for that,' the decoy replied. After McCray allegedly messaged that he was hoping 'Jordan' would engage in sexual activity with him and went to the supermarket to meet up, Lampros confronted McCray inside the store and recorded the encounter, a video posted on YouTube showed. Lampros's stings have resulted in numerous arrests in Palm Beach County. The probable cause affidavit was signed by an officer a week later. McCray was booked into the Palm Beach County jail earlier this week and has been released after posting bail on a $20,000 bond and must follow certain conditions, including not using the internet, social media, a computer, a smart phone or emailing or text messaging. His defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge. The message sent to Boca Raton Middle School families on Wednesday said that McCray had not been allowed to interact with any students since he was removed from the campus in February. 'The safety of our students is our utmost priority. Following an internal investigation, the School District is proceeding with the termination of Mr. McCray's employment,' the message said. 'We were informed (Tuesday) that Mr. McCray has been arrested. Current information suggests this incident did not involve any students from our campus.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Outside defense lawyer: Judge made right call in Assumption case
WORCESTER — The judge who dismissed kidnapping and conspiracy charges against five former Assumption University students April 8 made the correct ruling, a longtime Boston defense lawyer who has followed the case believes. 'The judge absolutely made the right decision,' William A. Korman, of the Boston firm Rudolph Friedmann LLP, told the Telegram & Gazette. Korman, who offered commentary on the case recently for the Law & Crime Network, opined that police, while correct to pursue a case, did not issue appropriate charges. Assumption Police charged five students — all of whom, the university confirmed, are no longer enrolled — with felony kidnapping and conspiracy charges after an Oct. 1 incident at Alumni Hall. Video entered into court records shows dozens of students confronting and chasing a 22-year-old man out of the building, where he is hit with his car door upon leaving. Police say the students lured the man to campus and falsely labeled him a sexual predator in order to confront him on video, part of a growing online trend based on the decades-old NBC show, 'To Catch a Predator.' They alleged the man was restrained and had to 'break free' — which they argued constituted kidnapping — but defense lawyers argued video of the event contradicted that claim. Central District Court Judge Michael Allard-Madaus, after considering the video, dismissed the kidnapping and conspiracy charges for all five former students. Allard-Madaus, as is not uncommon in district court, did not offer a written opinion explaining his ruling. Korman said he believed defense lawyers, who argued their motions to dismiss March 28, did a good job of arguing their clients didn't keep the man from leaving and didn't have a plan that would meet the definition of a conspiracy to kidnap. Korman said he didn't see any evidence the students had all agreed on what to do, other than lure the man to campus and confront him, which he opined is not a crime by itself. Korman said while there may have been charges for police to file — a simple assault charge might be one option, he said — the kidnapping and conspiracy charges were a stretch. 'I think this is a perfect example of police officers needing to be very careful about the language they use in police reports and applications for (charges),' he said, adding that language used to describe events should be 'more direct and clear, not a charitable interpretation of events.' Korman said while he believes police missed the mark on specific charges, he does see why charges were necessary. ''I think the important takeaway is that this could have gone in so many directions, each of which is tragic,' he said. Korman noted the alleged victim could have been armed and inflicted violence out of fear, or could have been badly injured had a mob mentality set in. He could have slipped and injured himself running out of the building, he said, or struck someone when hurrying to leave in his car. 'There's a thousand ways this could have been worse,' he said, calling what ultimately happened the best outcome one could have hoped for. Korman said the judge's ruling is one prosecutors could appeal, or that police could try and bring charges again. Neither prosecutors nor Assumption University has offered comment on next possible steps. Prosecutors have said their professional rules of conduct bar comment, since two of the former students are still facing charges. One of the students, Kelsy Brainard, faces a charge of misleading police, while a second, Kevin Carroll, faces a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Police allege Brainard initially gave a false story about what happened, while Carroll, they allege, admitted to shutting the man's car door on him as he left. Brainard and Carroll are both due back in court May 9 for a status hearing. Reached via text, the 22-year old, a member of the Army from North Carolina, referred comment to his lawyer, Richard Rafferty, who did not return requests for comment. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Lawyer says right call made in Assumption 'Predator' case
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Yahoo
New social media trend could hinder police investigations and land instigators in jail
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) – Local law enforcement agencies are sounding the alarm about a new social media trend. They hope to warn people of the risks before it gets out of hand. The West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force says people are trying to take the justice system into their own hands by creating their own traps for suspected child predators and confronting them. In some cases, these confrontations get physical, and the fights are filmed and put on social media. The task force says there's one local case of this trend happening but because it's actively being investigated, no further details can be shared at this time. The task force is calling it 'vigilante justice' and warns it can have serious risks. 'You don't know if this person is coming armed, you don't know if this person is actually the person that you're trying to entrap, you don't know the backstory,' said the task force commander Philip Simpson, a captain in the Tuscaloosa Police Department. The task force says child predator investigations are complex and must follow a lot of state and federal laws. 'We do several operations a year here in the greater-Tuscaloosa area. We work with other agencies outside of our county here in west Alabama and any other agency that asks for our assistance,' Simpson said. 'It's something that happens regularly; we're just like every other place in America. We're not any worse off than anybody else is.' If people try to take matters into their own hands, the task force says it could end up with the suspect not being able to be prosecuted. 'We have the ability to go after these people and make a real difference. We can do it right so that they can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and the actions, the penalties that they need to face, they can face,' Simpson said. 'This is a full-time task force. We constantly have investigations going, and I would be really, really upset if we had spent a lot of time working on a particular predator and somebody messed that up.' Not only can this social media trend hinder official investigations, but the task force says the 'vigilante' could catch charges as well. 'Unlawful imprisonment…you could end up being charged with that crime simply by infringing upon their freedom to move. Harassment charges can be brought. What we're seeing in a lot of these videos are felony-level assaults,' Simpson said. He says TV shows like 'To Catch a Predator' can have an influence on these kinds of trends. 'People see that on TV and think, 'I can do that.' They also see it on TikTok and Instagram and the other social media places, and they go, 'I'm smart enough to do that, I can talk to this person,'' he added. We reached out to the host of 'To Catch a Predator', Chris Hansen, about the trend. He provided the following statement: 'I think there is an important role for citizen journalists who use social media to share their work. Unfortunately…. when it comes to some 'vigilante' Predator catchers, violence is used, laws are broken, and some criminal activity goes unprosecuted because of the tactics used.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
