Surrey Creep Catchers head arrested after confrontation
VANCOUVER — Surrey’s controversial vigilante pedophile hunters might have gone too far.
Following the arrest Monday of Surrey Creep Catchers president Ryan LaForge, experts in child sexual exploitation and law say the group seems to have racked up enough controversy to have spurred its own downfall.
On Monday night, LaForge and group “soldier” Nicole Hunter were in a Surrey mall, where Hunter spoke with a man they allege was trying to arrange for sex with a six-year-old girl and her mother.
After LaForge confronted the man, he stood up and walked away before LaForge and Hunter cornered him.
Video posted to the group’s public Facebook pages shows LaForge pushing the man and threatening to knock him out if he tries to flee.
In a statement, Surrey RCMP spokesman Cpl. Scotty Schumann said officers responded to a call Monday at 6:40 p.m. on King George Boulevard, where two groups made allegations, including child luring and assault.
Schumann said one person was arrested and later released from custody on a promise to appear, but no charges have been laid.
Police are investigating the allegations and “are not in a position to discuss identity of the parties or details of the allegations at this point,” Schumann said.
Despite fierce support of such stings voiced on the Surrey Creep Catchers’ public Facebook page, there is concern that the group is doing more harm than good by damaging police investigations and falsely accusing innocent people.
“There’s just a litany of problems with vigilante justice, and [LaForge’s arrest] is exactly the kind of thing that we would expect to happen,” said Benjamin Perrin, an associate professor at the University of B.C.’s Allard School of Law.
He said such “justice as entertainment” through public shaming creates a volatile situation and “it’s only a matter of time before something much more serious happens.”
Last fall, LaForge apologized after sharing a photo of an innocent man the group wrongly identified as the target of a sting.
In February, the Langley Creep Busters ambushed a developmentally delayed and mentally challenged 21-year-old man at his work, costing him his job. Creep Catchers in Edmonton confronted a vulnerable 27-year-old woman who took her own life last September.
Perrin said he believes people wanting to help can best do so through educational outreach and by supporting groups such as the Children of the Street Society, a charity dedicated to preventing sexual exploitation and human trafficking of children and youth in B.C.