Predator Catcher Arrested

[WolverineLogan2020]

It finally happened. After years of watching these idiots setting up pedophiles and physically assaulting them, Jay Carnicom, one of the predators catchers from Dads Against Predators, was arrested and charged and now is facing 40 years in prison. Years ago, this same idiot was shot in the leg by a pedophile. I have been waiting for years for this idiot to be arrested. Now, he will get to put his fighting skills to the test every day in prison, lol. He will easily be a target in prison and many inmates would love to test him just because of who he is. Now, I am just waiting for the other idiot to be arrested and charged. In the mugshot, he looks like he wants to cry. I don't know how the hell this idiot lasted this long assaulting people in different states and only until now he gets arrested and charged. I hope he gets many beatings in prison to teach him a lesson.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2026/05/04/influencer-accused-of-extortion-deputies-warn-vigilante-predator-catcher-videos-can-hurt-cases/

[Frogblossom]

It's good that he was arrested, but I have my doubts that a jury will put him in prison. I'd expect him to get a suspended sentence even if he's convicted. This bastard might even view it as good publicity for his "predator hunting."  Whether or not he does to prison, the judge should forbid his use of the Internet: that would hit him in the pocketbook, if he hides his little games behind a paywall.  Scum of the earth.

[WolverineLogan2020]

It's good that he was arrested, but I have my doubts that a jury will put him in prison. I'd expect him to get a suspended sentence even if he's convicted. This bastard might even view it as good publicity for his "predator hunting."  Whether or not he does to prison, the judge should forbid his use of the Internet: that would hit him in the pocketbook, if he hides his little games behind a paywall.  Scum of the earth.

I think he will go to prison for at least 3 years. He is fucked. This is called karma. I hope he gets beat up and killed in prison.

[Frogblossom]

I think he will go to prison for at least 3 years. He is fucked. This is called karma. I hope he gets beat up and killed in prison.

Well, we can hope!

Thank you for your reply.  I'm glad to see that other members are actually alive and kicking; since joining this forum less than a week ago, I've seen maybe three posts, other than what I've written myself. I don't know what's happened to this place.

[LikelyHuman]

I think he will go to prison for at least 3 years. He is fucked. This is called karma. I hope he gets beat up and killed in prison.

Well, we can hope!

Thank you for your reply.  I'm glad to see that other members are actually alive and kicking; since joining this forum less than a week ago, I've seen maybe three posts, other than what I've written myself. I don't know what's happened to this place.

There's traditionally always been a bit of a lull in activity around this time of the year, but I think the downtime we've suffered hasn't helped.

As per the topic and what amount of jail-time the guy will or won't get, I think you can look at a few notorious cases:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jeffrey_Doucet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_Velasquez#Attempted_murder_conviction

The case of Jeffery Doucet is obviously an utter miscarriage of justice, but one could argue that Cain Velasquez was given a pretty typical sentence that any of his peers would have received and without regard to what prompted the shooting. However, one has to take into account that the person actually harmed by Velasquez was basically a bystander and not the person who actually perpetrated any abuse. If he had actually harmed the man accused of the abuse then I have a feeling he would have been granted much more leeway under the guise of mitigating circumstances.

One thing that doesn't work in the favor of these "predator catchers" is that they're operating purely as vigilantes. It's a lot harder to claim that they were driven to temporary insanity or something like that. Plus, it's also easily argued that far from being virtuous or altruistic acts, that they could be motivated by notoriety or monetary incentives as "content creators". Citizens taking the law into their own hands is not looked upon favorably in the first place, but with ulterior motives like just getting more clicks, it's even less likely to be viewed in a positive light. The court of public opinion would likely back them, but the actual court of law will likely see them as acting out of turn. It would be nice to see the law come down hard on them as a deterrence to others, but even if that happens I do not think it will really be in service to the victim of the crime as much as the court wanting to assert its own authority over would-be folk heroes.

[Lillab]

What the predator catchers do is absolutely horrible, and they need to be stopped. I understand feeling intense amount of hatred for these people. What I don't understand is wanting them to be beat up and killed in prison. I really don't see how this helps anything. It's just continuing the same retaliation cycles. It's a big circle of people hurting others in hopes that it helps prevent other people from getting hurt. That's what drives the vigilantes, and the vigilantes against vigilantes. That's what drives the justice system. While it can sometimes help, it is definitely adding to the problem. Vengeance is a horrible motivation. Hurt people hurt people. Thus continues the cycle of abuse.

I am definitely in favor of shutting down all prisons. They are a very disruptive solution to crime, and it is the go-to solution. Punishment is a horrible way to deal with corrections. The natural consequences are good enough. The focus should be on repairing the damage done, and preventing future problems from occurring. Some people are unstable and may need to be hospitalized. Some need restraints or supervision. It's not punishment, it's more like medical treatment. Some people have a hard time following certain rules, and we are helping them compensate for their issues, so they too can function properly in society.

Applying this to vigilante content creators, well, they should definitely be stripped of their profits. It's not okay to make money off of crime. They should have to pay reparations to the people they have harmed. They should be put through classes and workshops and one on one discussions about what they did and what harm it causes to others. Restraining orders might be appropriate, or requiring supervision in certain circumstances. But otherwise, they should continue to take care of their other responsibilities through this process, not sitting bored in a small room. Jails are so stupid. Trying to maximize someone else's suffering is a distraction from solving the root problems. Just simply apply restrictions that stop them from causing problems, then give them a path to graduate from these restrictions over time. Trust me, they won't want to have to go through this process again. We don't want to turn criminals into hardened criminals, instead let's treat them with respect and help them become better people. And sure, some people are better people when they are in restraints. It's medical.

[on the rocks]

Throw the book at him!

Who's the real predator in these vigilante situations; the fool looking for love or the shitbag looking to hurt someone they think deserves it?

[NotPennysBoat]

Throw the book at him!

Who's the real predator in these vigilante situations; the fool looking for love or the shitbag looking to hurt someone they think deserves it?

Exactly. Enough of these self-righteous fuckheads. I honestly tried watching some videos of theirs, but they are all awful. Some of them assaulted the alleged "preds" by slapping them. HUH? What am I missing?

[LikelyHuman]

What the predator catchers do is absolutely horrible, and they need to be stopped. I understand feeling intense amount of hatred for these people. What I don't understand is wanting them to be beat up and killed in prison. I really don't see how this helps anything. It's just continuing the same retaliation cycles. It's a big circle of people hurting others in hopes that it helps prevent other people from getting hurt. That's what drives the vigilantes, and the vigilantes against vigilantes. That's what drives the justice system. While it can sometimes help, it is definitely adding to the problem. Vengeance is a horrible motivation. Hurt people hurt people. Thus continues the cycle of abuse.

I dunno who said it, but the phrase, "...an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind," is one I believe. Except I think it's gone far beyond the religious philosophies that once justified/motivated the penal system, into just being a profit-driven venture. The moment prisons became a private endeavor it became its own industry, and now there's an incentive to create more recidivism instead of less. Rehabilitation might put more money back into the hands of many, in terms of a person being able to contribute to society, but as long as there's more money going into the hands of a few, those few will continue to take advantage of the old notions that first popularized the punitive system in the first place. They'll do that by proposing that things like deterrence is effective when most evidence shows the contrary, or more simply appeal to people's baser emotional and philosophical/religious instincts for vengeance.

I think when it comes to pedophiles in particular, it's even easier to take advantage of a public with a thirst for vengeance, and thus affects pedophiles more severely than common offenders. When a normal offender leaves prison on something like parole, they usually have to pay out of pocket for various things like mandated treatment of various types--drug and alcohol, mental health, anger-management, etc. It's similar for people who are placed on probation. If they don't pay into this system for these "classes" then their probation/parole is revoked, and they're sent to/back-to prison. Similarly a lot of the conditions for probation and parole are very difficult to meet. A parolee often must have gainful employment, a stable place of residence, etc. and so forth and there's many hurdles society places in front of them to obtain these things because most jobs and housing are very discriminatory. This keeps them in low-paying jobs, in low-income housing, often times in an environment that is primed to push them towards recidivism, and that's even if they don't simply "violate" the terms of their probation/parole. A lot of prisoners have simply decided to serve out their entire sentence rather than play into this system, but for a pedophile put on the Sex Offender Registry, even if they serve the entirety of their sentence of incarceration, they're mandated to undergo most of the same conditions a parolee would for an indefinite amount of time, if not for the rest of their lives. They're then subject to the same, and arguably much worse, types of discrimination related to housing and employment. In fact there's now many communities in some areas of the U.S. that are full of sex-offenders because it's the only area they can live not close to schools and where land owners will rent to them, and once again it just increases the odds of them re-offending by forcing low-risk offenders to be surrounding by a community of high-risk offenders and simply be "punished" without thought to rehabilitation. Not to mention increasing the risk of low-risk offenders becoming the victims of high-risk offenders.

I think that it's worth making an appeal to empathy and understanding for these "predator catcher" vigilantes too. If pedophiles can't stow away their disgust and desire for vengeance and to see these people get their comeuppance, then it is sort of silly to expect that society would ever do the same for us in turn. However, in the light of how things are, and how they'll likely remain, the other side of that coin is that in a society where pedophiles are likely to remain unjustly persecuted and preyed upon by the system and these vigilantes alike, it's kind of hard to argue that there's no immediate benefit of seeing them prosecuted harshly. It might not be the most beneficial to all people and society in general in the long run, but if it would effect a level of deterrence in other would-be "predator catchers" then it's probably greatest level of relief from persecution that pedophiles will ever see the justice system in its current form uphold--or at least the justice system relevant to the case(s) mentioned in this thread so far. It depends entirely on just how effective "deterrence" really can be though whether that's worth feeding the prison industrial-complex.