April
9, 2006: Perverted-Justice
to be paid more than $100,000.00 by MSNBC for most recent "Dateline"
Sting. According
to a Washington
Post article published this morning, Xavier Von Erck, the owner of the vigilante
group Perverted-Justice.com is being paid a sum of money in excess of $100,000.00
(One Hundred Thousand dollars) for the vigilante group's participation
in the recent "sting" operations carried out in Ohio on behalf of MSNBC's
"Dateline" program "To Catch A Predator" to be aired during
May sweeps week. The
apparent endorsement of the vigilante group by MSNBC's "Dateline" program
is somewhat tainted by extremely serious ethical issues being raised regarding
this and other "Dateline" 'news stories'. Stories in which it appears
that rather than reporting on crimes or issues, MSNBC is actually hiring individuals
and groups to help to "manufacture" the crimes in order film them for
their television programs. Further
evidence of MSNBC's use of ethically questionable practices emerged last Friday
when it was revealed that "Dateline" staffers had arranged for a group
of Muslims to attend NASCAR races at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, ostensibly
to provoke a reaction from racing fans which could then be filmed for an upcoming
"Dateline" program. It is not known whether or not the Muslims were
paid for their services. According
to the Washington Post article, the practice has been condemned by a number of
media ethics professionals. Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press, an Arlington-based group that advises journalists
on legal issues confirmed that it is almost unheard of for a media outlet to allow
its paid associates to act as law enforcement officials, even on a temporary basis.
Legitimate journalists virtually always avoid participating in such actions because
hiring people to instigate a potential crime completely eliminates any possibility
of operating as truly "independent news gatherers". An
online "straw-poll" carried out by the San Francisco Chronicle asking
"Should all forms of media refrain from the tactics 'Dateline' used?"
in reference to the issue of MSNBC paying vigilantes to create their news stories,
readers voted overwhelmingly for the response "Yes, it crosses a line that
journalists should never approach" indicating that for most citizens, this
type of "tabloid journalism" does not belong on a news program that
claims to be about legitimate news reporting. In
a similar story from 1993, Dateline NBC was sued by General Motors for fabricating
explosions in GM truck gas tanks during the taping of another exposé by
the program. NBC settled with GM the following day. Questions
about the vigilante group's legitimacy Very
serious questions have surfaced over the course of the past 3 years of operation
for the vigilante group Perverted-Justice, primarily regarding their methods,
motives, and qualifications. Very few of these questions have been adequately
addressed by Xavier Von Erck (formerly "Philip Eide") of Portland, Oregon,
the owner and "director of operations" of the vigilante website. A considerable
number of his public responses to questions and comments have been proven to be
outright fabrications. Rather
than responding to legitimate concerns, Von Erck generally appears to attempt
to personally discredit those who disagree with his group's vigilante methods.
In virtually every statement made by the senior vigilante, a false characterization
of "pro-pedophile" is used when referring to the group's many critics
although no evidence has yet been offered to substantiate this characterization.
This
organization, Corrupted-Justice is clearly "anti-pedophile" and
blatantly pro-law-enforcement, yet Von Erck continues to use the "pro-pedophile"
reference in the hopes that those seeking "unfiltered" information about
the vigilante group will overlook the seriousness of the allegations made by such
critics. Critics
report that Von Erck has gone so far as to create an alternate website and gathered
a group of anonymous individuals whose sole purpose is to harass and publicly
discredit any critics of Perverted-Justice. According to internal documents obtained
by Corrupted-Justice.com, Von Erck created the "independent" site to
"ensure our actions do not reflect negatively on Perverted-Justice.com".
The members of the alternate harassment site are reportedly all senior members
of Perverted-Justice.com and been accused by detractors of engaging in serious
threats, defamation and identity theft against critics of the vigilante site as
well as against journalists, attorneys and other child-protection organizations
who have voiced concerns regarding the group's vigilante tactics. To
date, the highly protected anonymity and secrecy of the members has allowed them
to successfully avoid prosecution for their actions. Participation
of minors When
asked by Linda Vester, the host of the "Dayside" program on Fox News
about his use of minors in his vigilante stings, Von Erck responded, "No,
we've never used minors." This was clearly proven to be false when it was
revealed that no less than three different members of Perverted-Justice were minors
when they began 'working' with the group, one as young as 13 years of age. Their
'work' included participating in sexual chats with men, as well as harassing their
targets, their family, friends, neighbors, employers, etc. repeatedly with threats,
'warnings', etc. The number of additional minors currently participating at Perverted-Justice.com
is unknown. In
addition, a number of complaints have been received by Corrupted-Justice staff
regarding the fact that the Perverted-Justice.com website does not provide any
automated age verification, thereby allowing viewers of any age access to their
"Wankers" area; the Perverted-Justice repository of disturbing and in
most cases pornographic webcam footage of masturbating men. All complaints lodged
with the Perverted-Justice staff have gone un-answered. Involvement
in hacking There
have been serious questions regarding the vigilante group's association with a
hacker group formerly known as "The Legends of Chaos". One of the group's
senior members, one Rafael Nunez, also a former member of the "World of Hell"
website defacement group was arrested and convicted on a number of hacking indictments
that involved NASA and the Department of Defense late last year. Xavier Von Erck
subsequently posted a number of public messages in Nunez's defense stating that
the vigilante group had a "close working relationship" with the hacker
group. The questions regarding the group's association came to light after the
website servers of a number of organizations critical of Perverted-Justice were
hacked and protected details from those computer servers appeared publicly the
following day on one of the many websites controlled by Von Erck. Mistakes
covered up Contrary
to Von Erck's assertions that the site only began in the summer of 2003, screen-shots
of Perverted-Justice web pages have been obtained which clearly show that the
site was fully functional as "Perverted-Justice" more than a full year
prior to that date. In addition, prior to replacement items coming available,
their "Perverted-Justice Merchandise" bore the logo "Busting Pervs
Since 2001". The
significance of Von Erck's historical "error" becomes apparent when
it is revealed that a considerable number of very serious mistakes in identification
resulted in severe harassment and terrorization of completely innocent people
in the early years of the group and has continued right up to the present day.
Upon
assessing the possible negative implications should evidence of these mistakes
be made public, Von Erck made, and continues to make efforts to delete all questionable
"busts" from his site and forums and has ordered all participants to
deny all knowledge. To further ensure there was no possibility of the incriminating
information being seen by the general public, shortly after removing the invalid
"busts", Von Erck modified his site files so as to disallow archiving
or caching of the site pages at the Internet
Archive, the foremost public historical repository of Internet websites. The
end result was that deleted Perverted-Justice pages which included details of
over 330 questionable "busts" carried out by the vigilante site's members
simply dissappeared. Questions directed to Von Erck regarding his reasons for
removing the site history from the web archive have gone un-answered. Discussions
with former Perverted-Justice members have revealed that by obstructing all archiving,
Von Erck's hope was that no evidence of these serious problems with the site's
activities could be publicized. Over the course of the past 2 years, Corrupted-Justice.com
has made a significant effort to ensure that the very serious mistakes made by
Perverted-Justice.com do not go un-publicized. Considerable details may be found
in the Corrupted-Justice.com forums. Lack
of qualifications or recognized training A
number of recent media articles have included quotes from the staff and owner
of Perverted-Justice stating that their contributors undergo "extensive training"
prior to engaging in their Internet "stings", giving the impression
that their staffers undergo some recognized training course or criminal/legal
education through legitimate law enforcement sources. Recent
information indicates that the only training their members undergo is instruction
from more senior members of the site. All Perverted-Justice contributors are simply
amateur volunteers and indications are that their "training" consists
primarily of instruction from more experienced members in methods of remaining
anonymous and unaccountable during their "busts". To date, no evidence
of any actual recognized or legitimate law enforcement training for Perverted-Justice
members has been made public. Working
with Law Enforcement The
airing of MSNBC's first two "Dateline" programs featuring Perverted-Justice
brought about a public outcry surrounding the fact that simply exposing potential
predators on a television program likely did little to help correct the problem.
Perverted-Justice had been working in exactly that manner for their first 3 years
of operation. Critics charge that their efforts resulted only in temporarily embarrassing
some potential predators, harassing and terrorizing the innocent along with the
guilty, and likely driving true pedophiles further into the shadows. For
their first 2 1/2 years of operation, Perverted-Justice had a very strict "rule
of no first contact", the breaking of which was punishable by the offender's
removal or "banning" from further participation with the group. The
primary tenet of the rule was that no group members were allowed to contact any
law enforcement official regarding anything that occurred during any of their
"busts". All in all, in over 600 "busts" many of whom had
virtually no legitimate or acceptable verification that they were actually targeting
the right person, "justice" was handled by the Perverted-Justice membership
in true vigilante fashion. The
"Dateline" episode, aired in February 2006 was the first time ever
that the vigilante group saw fit to involve any law enforcement officials before
the fact. In the few cases prior where there was police involvement, it occurred
only after the fact, generally resulting in law enforcement's inability to gain
a suitable conviction due to a lack of credible evidence. The
"convictions" for which Perverted-Justice claims responsibility include
very few for solicitation of a minor. The vast majority pled out to far lesser
charges, were for drugs or parole violations, pornography, and one for threats
against Von Erck. Regardless of the negative outcome due to the group's refusal
to involve law enforcement, Von Erck insists on attempting to boost the group's
apparent legitimacy by making statements touting their "convictions"
which are clearly inflated for that purpose. To
date, no official announcement has been made by the vigilante site owner or staff
indicating that Perverted-Justice will no longer operate without the full cooperation
of law enforcement, as has been the case for the preceding 3 years. All
indications are that they intend to continue to serve up their own form of "justice"
whether or not legitimate law enforcement are involved.
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