Nov
22, 2006: Perverted-Justice
Implements Another Corrupted-Justice Demand On
April
29, 2004, Corrupted-Justice.com was born in its current incarnation. Since that
day, many things have changed about the organization - The look and feel of the
site, the faces of members and staff - Like any significant organization, we have
evolved and adjusted over time to more effectively try to meet our mandate...
One thing that has not changed since that day is the mandate itself. Our
steadfast resolve to force the cyber-vigilante group perverted-justice.com to
either cease their vigilante tactics or shut down all together has been a constant
since our very beginnings. Among the first posts in our forums were our messages
explaining and clarifying our position on the methods used by the vigilante group.
Our two primary demands have never wavered. 1)
We demanded that they cease performing their "busts" without
the prearranged involvement of legitimate law enforcement, and; 2)
We demanded that they dismantle the "Follow Up Forum" - The primary
tool used by their members to harass and terrorize those who had been accused
only by anonymous vigilantes and had never been dealt with by legitimate law enforcement Efforts
Rewarded - perverted-justice Begins Involving Police In
February of this year, we orchestrated a public outcry regarding the fact that
perverted-justice and "Dateline" had done yet another of their pseudo-news
programs wherein they set up numerous "sting" operations with absolutely
no law enforcement involvement whatsoever. (More can be read about that operation
here.) We were horrified
when each potential predator was allowed to simply walk away after merely being
embarrassed by Chris Hansen, an entertainer from the Dateline program. Shortly
after our 'call to action' wherein our members were asked to ensure that MSNBC
and perverted-justice were clearly made aware of our opposition to allowing potential
criminals to simply walk away, Phillip Eide (pseudonym "Xavier Von Erck")
the owner of the website announced publicly that the group would, after almost
three years of doing so, no longer perform "busts" without police
involvement before the fact. As
a face-saving measure, Eide justified the significant change in policy by attempting
to convince his members that PJ's goal all along was to work with police
and to become in his words, a "conviction machine". Unfortunately, his
earlier words, repeated over and over on his website and in media interviews since
day one show conclusively that his intentions have always been somewhat different
than what he claims today: "See,
that's why we're not calling the police to have these people arrested... there's
a difference between that and just ostracizing these people for attempting to
hook up with someone they believe to be 14." - Xavier Von Erck Follow
Up Forums Gutted - First Attempt On
two previous occasions, as a result of very public criticism initiated by members
and staff of Corrupted-Justice.com, significant changes were brought about in
the perverted-justice "Follow Up Forums". One
of our most vocal complaints against the vigilante site's activities in the beginning
surrounded the fact that when we first came into being, perverted-justice made
no attempt to verify that the person being "busted" had used their own
name. They would chat on-line, then without any attempt to ensure the person was
actually who they claimed to be, would proceed to destroy this person's life -
Merely on the basis of the name the "bust" gave during the conversation.
Although
this glaring issue should have been apparent to Eide from the outset, we found
ourselves having to focus our efforts on publicizing the inherent and glaring
flaws in this policy. Shortly thereafter, an announcement was made by Eide that
from that point on, all subsequent "busts" would be "voice verified"
before being posted. In addition, all posted "busts" that had not been
voice-verified to that point were removed from the site. A step in the right direction
thanks to Corrupted-Justice.com, but not enough yet... Xavier's
First Cover-up Attempts After
our first unsuccessful year of almost constant efforts at having the Follow Up
Forums at perverted-justice dismantled, we changed tactics. In speaking with journalists
who were interviewing us while preparing stories about the vigilante group, it
became apparent that virtually none of them were even aware that the Follow
Up Forums existed! Eide, no doubt keenly aware that the forums in their current
incarnation would not be looked upon favorably by many, ensured that the topic
of Follow-Up Forums and the like were seldom brought up with reporters. Most
journalists were only aware of the main perverted-justice front page. We assisted
in that regard by ensuring that EVERY reporter we spoke to not only knew about
the forums, but had access to them via a number of accounts we had created at
perverted-justice specifically for that purpose. Similarly we directed them to
Eide's personal blog, "angrygerman.com" as well as the site he created
to attempt to discredit and intimidate critics, corrupted-justice.net. Initially
Eide thought he could simply sweep the glaring Follow-Up problems out of the public
eye by manufacturing the "Follow Up Clean Up Crew" - A group of volunteers
who were charged with making anything that revealed the seedy underbelly of perverted-justice
"disappear" by deleting the offensive posts before anyone started asking
the difficult questions. Less than a year later, Eide began to realize that his
attempted revisionism of their past wasn't having its intended effect. To counter
his efforts all along, we had been ensuring all questionable material was
quickly captured, archived and made available to the public before the sanitizers
got to it! With
more visitors to perverted-justice as a result of the Dateline partnership, with
more media spotlight being focused on them, with more journalists coming from
informative interviews with Corrupted-Justice staff, with more tough questions
being asked, it was inevitable that Eide would tire of trying to explain why,
if they "always worked with police", there were 600+ "busts"
still posted in their Follow-Up Forums that had never had any law enforcement
involvement whatsoever... 600+ "Follow-ups" with all manner of personal
information about their targets, his neighbors, friends, family, employers, etc.,
all made public on the basis of an accusation made by a vigilante group with no
involvement from legitimate police at all. This count doesn't even include the
approximately 180 "busts" that were removed due to zero voice verification as
well as 63 posts removed out of spite which were credited to the site's co-creator
Frank Fencepost, after his messy dismissal. It was inevitable that he would tire
of trying to explain away the incredibly repugnant viewpoints voiced on his personal
blog. The
Clean Sweep The
ever-increasing difficulties associated with trying to explain away and cover
up more than three years of blatant and completely indefensible vigilantism finally
took their toll. First, with the typical Eide flourish for revisionism, he took
his personal blog off line. Then, on Friday, November 17 2006, the announcement
was made by Phillip Eide that officially, after almost three years of constant
pressure from Corrupted-Justice.com, perverted-justice.com would no longer
participate in accusing people and posting their personal details in a public
forum without the participation and supervision of qualified, accountable law
enforcement! In
keeping with this new policy, as of November 17th, all perverted-justice "busts"
which had been carried out without participation from law enforcement personnel
have been expunged from their Follow-Up Forums and main "Busts" pages.
The names, address, phone numbers, etc. are no longer publicly displayed to act
as a catalyst for harassment and terrorization by dozens of amateur cyber-detectives,
self-appointed do-gooders, bored soccer-moms and and cop-wannabes. This
change is exactly what Corrupted-Justice has been demanding since the beginning.
It is unfortunate that more than 1100 "busts" had been carried out by
perverted-justice in total before they realized that we were correct all along
and finally decided to implement this change. What
will the members do now? Knowing
that his announcement has likely removed the impetus for many of his members to
even bother coming to the site, in a bold move aimed at attempting to maintain
a following among the huge majority of perverted-justice members who were primarily
there for the blood-sport, Eide has decided that the Follow-Up Forums will remain,
but will be used to dig up and post information about only those who have already
been convicted. As
Eide describes it, the Follow Up Forums will become a for-profit perverted-justice
sex-offender's registry of sorts, where perverted-justice members are openly encouraged
to "contact" all those who, no matter how tenuously, may somehow be
associated with anyone who has already been convicted of soliciting a minor
and is likely already serving prison time. One can only surmise that the members
of the group feel that our justice system is not sufficiently punitive and have
determined that we would all be better off if the self-appointed "protectors
of the children" did whatever they felt was necessary to ensure everyone
who has been convicted suffers the maximum amount into perpetuity. Public
opinions on the new policy run the gamut from "Who cares what PJ does to
them? They're convicted pedos..." to head-scratching and incredulous utterances
of "What the... They are now going after people who have already been
convicted? What's the point in that?" along with the inevitable references
to "cowards shooting fish in a barrel". In the end, it all comes down
to Eide ensuring that the only source of personal power most of his "followers"
have ever experienced continues to exist for their personal gratification, no
matter how loathsome such activities appear to the rest of the sane world. With
Dateline moving on to find the next big "news" story to manufacture
and perverted-justice members relegated to tracking down school-yard acquaintances
from the childhood days and third-cousins twice-removed of men who are already
serving time for their crimes, one might wonder how much longer Eide will be able
to keep them sucked into his ego-driven empire. Where
does Corrupted-Justice go from here? Experience
has shown that simply accepting Eide's "pronouncements" at face value
would very likely be a mistake. His fabrications of facts and revisions of history
have been an unchanging constant since we became involved with this cause and
like the zebra, it is unlikely that he has changed all of his stripes just be
cause he says it is so. While
he will certainly do his utmost to convince his followers that all of the changes
that we have been demanding were "in the works for ages" and that we
have had absolutely no impact, anyone with a hint of intelligence knows better.
His massive ego wouldn't allow him to even hint at the possibility, let alone
admit it. No matter - We are not here for the recognition. It doesn't matter if
he admits why they have changed - Only that they have changed. Unfortunately
that won't stem the inevitable flow of PJ supporters coming to our forums to argue
that we're deluding ourselves. Sometimes their predictability, if not their gullibility,
is almost entertaining. It
is patently obvious to even the most casual observer that were it not for the
continuous efforts of Corrupted-Justice.com over this past three years, perverted-justice
members would still be giggling and swearing and using people like Frank Fencepost
and his baseball bat to "bust" 17 year old kids based on an incorrect
name given during an Internet chat with no attempt at even verifying their identity.
They would still be posting incorrect information, attempting to harass his friends
and schoolmates and mistakenly publicly accusing completely innocent people. They
would still be using minors to have graphic sexual chats with grown men. They
would be harassing and terrorizing people who have absolutely nothing to do with
Internet chats. Just like they were doing every day when we started Corrupted-Justice.
For
now, we will continue to monitor, archive and identify PJers and generally keep
watch over their activities as we always have. Since the recent death in Murphy,
Texas that resulted after perverted-justice and Dateline's participation in a
"bust" there, we have been inundated with requests for information from
media and interested attorneys. Our intent is to continue to provide whatever
information we can - to continue to explain the truth about PJ's origins, to continue
to identify its key members who made it a sport to ridicule people online, to
maintain archived copies of the chats and "bust" details of the 600+ "busts" that
had no law enforcement involvement. Our forums will remain active and we will
continue to maintain open, honest discussions about perverted-justice, their vigilante
past and their tenuous future. Ultimately,
we would like to see members of perverted-justice be forced to take responsibility
for their reprehensible activities in the name of "protecting the children".
We would like to see justice done for the many innocent people who have been irreparably
harmed along with the guilty. Until
that happens, we'll be here, watching and acting in the interests of justice and
the law. | 
