January 28, 2025 1:51 PM ET
We live in a dangerous world. Crime seems to be everywhere, whether it be petty robbery, heinous rape, or murder. Even the cops are the first to admit their hands are tied. And yet many officials charged with leading our biggest cities ignore the chaos in the name of some sick sense of justice.
So is it any surprise that citizens with the power to do so increasingly take the law into their own hands?
The Daily Caller’s new original documentary, “Pedo Hunters,” follows two activist-vigilantes as they track down the nation’s sickest criminals: alleged pedophiles. But as they found out the hard way, taking the law into your own hands doesn’t always work out as you’d hope.
“Pedo Hunters” is available exclusively to Daily Caller subscribers. Catch a first glimpse below.
First, the Daily Caller uncovered the true cost of the Defund the Police movement in “Lawless.” Then “Rigged” exposed the issue Democrats fear most: how their political machine managed to secure Joe Biden the presidency in 2020. Now, with “Pedo Hunters,” the Daily Caller’s investigative team takes a wild ride-along on five “hunts.”
Meet Josh and Jay: their group, “Dad’s Against Predators,” is one of over 150 groups of vigilantes that have popped up in recent years to continue the fight against pedophiles when the law can’t or won’t. You’ve likely seen their videos on Youtube, which have racked up millions of views, where they stage elaborate stings to confront a would-be pedophile after baiting him with a decoy dating profile online. Josh was inspired to this work when he saw the man he said sexually assaulted his step-daughter walk free scot-free, while Josh was a victim himself as a boy. Both Josh and Jay are united in their love for their children, and can agree they’re “tired of waiting for the police.
This origin story is not uncommon, says Charles Adams, a former police officer turned judge and attorney who dealt with his own fair share of sexual assault cases. Adams explained to the Daily Caller’s investigative team how it’s often difficult to land a charge that sticks.
“There’s a very clear argument over the last three or four years that our criminal justice system is failing to police who they should police and punish,” he said. “I just don’t think that it’s being prioritized by anybody in power.”
“When you had these groups spring up,” he continued, “a lot of them were associated with victims, that either they had someone in their life who was victimized or they were a victim themselves and felt appropriately. They recognized that law enforcement wasn’t doing nearly enough to protect these kids. And they stepped in.”
Josh agreed.
“When we first started catching predators, we wanted to call the police on every catch,” he explained. “We wanted to, you know, not to touch ’em, not to hit ’em, just to get them in trouble for what they came to do. (RELATED: Vigilantes Show How AI Can Be A Powerful Tool To Fight Child Sex Crimes)
But that “changed a little bit over time,” he continued, “with [our] relationship changing with the police, with them telling us not to do it in many different cities, you know, getting mad at us and having press conferences on us . . . saying we’re vigilantes and messing up cases.”
So now, they just cut out the police altogether: “We’re just making a video. We’re just confronting you, we’re trying to get this out to your community. And then if you touch my phone, if you push me a little bit now, I’m gonna smack you and I’m gonna beat you up. Because we know you’re not going to get in trouble by the police. ”
This too often leaves Josh and Jay in the crosshairs of law enforcement themselves. Lucky for them, they keep a Get Out Of Jail Free card in their back pocket.
“Oh, you want to charge my client with assault for slapping around a child predator?” Adams posited. “Yeah, let’s go talk about that with a jury . . . because I’m guessing they’ll be more sympathetic to my guy than your victim.”
Join the Daily Caller for a wild ride as we uncover what it’s really like to be a Pedo Hunter.
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