Man accused of being a pedophile for snapping a picture of his son at a mall

[Macgyvercas]

Right, the world is going insane at a faster rate than I could have predicted.

Time for another week of stockpiling food in my attic and sitting bolt upright with my rifle in my hand!

Send me a PM when it's all over.

Mind if I join you?
I'll bring lawn chairs and buttered popcorn!

Can I come too? This country and planet are driving me insane. I can bring chicken wings and soda.

OT: This is just plain sad. You'd think the guards would have enough sense to ask him what he's doing first before they jump on the "He's a pedophile" train.

 

[Steagony]

Every Vlogger is annoying. Every single one.

That being said, I think people are getting way too soft/cautious. Everyone's suing everyone for every little stupid detail, everyone's accusing everyone of being a pedophile, racist, rapist etc.

Society needs to loosen up.

 

[Shanecooper]

He's only a pedo if seedy music comes on and he starts walking in slow motion.

 

[Frequen-Z]

Security guards get bored. Cops get bored.
Besides that I remember reading about an experiment a little while ago. They took two groups of people and set them up as prisoners and guards. Within days the guards were forcing the prisoners to humiliate themselves and beating them. After the experiment they were shocked at their behavoiur.
Power does weird things to people, they like to excercise it.

I remember that! I studied it in Psychology, it was conducted by a husband and wife if I recall, the experiment got cancelled early due to the extreme response of the 'guards' and the wife split from the husband.

On topic: Yeah that's fucking crazy. I would have gone ballistic if I was that father, probably would've tried to take it to the media as well. Bullshits gone on long enough, you can't assume everyone is a pedo over such small things. The guy in the youtube has hit the nail on the head. I am afraid to smile to a chatty kid or anything like that because you just don't know who's going to flip out and assume the worst.

 

[aPod]

Wow.

On the one hand, if the guy was a Pedophile then we'd be praising this guard for being so perceptive.

Sadly it was the guys kid so this is a case of are you all fucking insane?

Its a slippery slope, i cant really be upset with the guard for this, but i can be upset at how idiotic everyone must have been for it to go as far as it did.

 

[CincoDeMayo]

I am afraid to smile to a chatty kid or anything like that because you just don't know who's going to flip out and assume the worst.

I feel the exact same way, I barely have the guts to go outside with my younger siblings anymore because people might suspect that I'm a predator.

I think the media has much to do with it. Just because we're born as men we have to live with the fact that we (according to the media) are predators, assholes, serial killers, rapists and sexual harassers at work. I can't stand the direction this world is going in, I'm a decent guy and I want to be treated as one, not as an asshole just because some guy before me was one, or because the news just show the assholes of the male race instead of the good guys.

 

[ace_of_something]

eh, it's not like he actually got arrested. If they let some random weirdo take pictures of kids in the malls I bet everyone would be up in arms. People expect guards and the like to have 100% perfect and sometimes supernatural judgment.

Here's how it lays out:
Err on the side of caution: Some guy gets harangued by the cops for a half hour.
err on the side of recklessness: some weirdo begins his stalking habits when he is left to his own devices with a camera in a public place.

Yes, those evil evil security gaurds.

Security guards get bored. Cops get bored.
Besides that I remember reading about an experiment a little while ago. They took two groups of people and set them up as prisoners and guards. Within days the guards were forcing the prisoners to humiliate themselves and beating them. After the experiment they were shocked at their behavoiur.
Power does weird things to people, they like to excercise it.

I remember that! I studied it in Psychology, it was conducted by a husband and wife if I recall, the experiment got cancelled early due to the extreme response of the 'guards' and the wife split from the husband.

[a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment]that would be the Stanford Prison Experiment[/a] By Dr. Zimbardo. Who has done other wacky stuff too. Just an FYI if you go for pretty much any sort of human behavior degree expect to see this video like 10-12 times.
Don't remember the part where anyone got beat up. Think you might be remembering that wrong Z.
Some judgements on the expariment were how the Observer Dr. Zimbardo took part in the events and might have pushed things one way or the other. Which after watching it umpteen times and having actually WORKED in a jail am inclined to believe. Few modern jailors are going to be that nasty to people because it tends to make their jobs a lot harder. It's easier to get someone to do what you want when they like you or at least respect you.

 

[Break]

He's only a pedo if seedy music comes on and he starts walking in slow motion.

Of course, if he's walking at normal speed and carrying a file, then he's undoubtedly an expert.

I remember the furore caused when a physicist slowed his gait for too long - the police were all over him in seconds. He had to flip through a book for hours before they believed his story.

 

[Nikajo]

I am afraid to smile to a chatty kid or anything like that because you just don't know who's going to flip out and assume the worst.

I feel the exact same way, I barely have the guts to go outside with my younger siblings anymore because people might suspect that I'm a predator.

I think the media has much to do with it. Just because we're born as men we have to live with the fact that we (according to the media) are predators, assholes, serial killers, rapists and sexual harassers at work. I can't stand the direction this world is going in, I'm a decent guy and I want to be treated as one, not as an asshole just because some guy before me was one, or because the news just show the assholes of the male race instead of the good guys.

Yeah I always feel a bit awkward around kids these days, you just have to be near a child to be accused of being a paedophile. While I feel that children should be protected from sick individuals it's easy to go too far.

I can't believe that story about the guy taking the picture of his own son, that's just ridiculous. If somebody accused me of being a paedophile for taking a picture of my (hypothetical) son I think it would take all my self control not to head butt them. Surely if the guard came over and accused him and then the dad explained that "actually, that's my son" that should be the end of it....right? But no, he calls the police. What a fucking idiot. And then the police try to get him to delete the pictures?! Christ imagine if they found the photo album my parents have full of pictures of me as a kid, they'd be banged up for life these days!

I honestly cannot fathom what is wrong with some people. I hope that guard felt like a complete moron afterwards.

 

[Keepitclean]

I facepalmed when I read the OP. But this is all to common occurance. Parent are no longer allowed to film thier children at school sprts carnivals and such. Society has gone pedo crazy. It's quite sad really.

 

[Steve Dark]

Obviously this is a case of the guard seeing what is known to the experts as a "phantom pedo smile". Normally the Pedo smile is the law's best tool to catching these people out, but sometimes a trick of the light can cause one to appear fleetingly on a innocent man's face. These things happen.

 

[TOGSolid]

When I first read the thread title I was like "wait...what," but it's a pretty sad statement that when the OP said that it was in the UK I was not surprised in the least. This says nothing about global society, but EVERYTHING about England. This is the same fucking country that is on a steady march to becoming everything Alan Moore described in V for Vendetta. Their trash cans have even have microchips that detect when their are trash in them now.

No, really: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1832760/uk_privacy_group_says_govt_spying_through_trash_bins/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/05/rise-of-microchips-in-bins

The UK is becoming saturated with the police state mentality. It's no surprise that some rent a cop moron would do this there.

 

[DigitalSushi]

[a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment]that would be the Stanford Prison Experiment[/a] By Dr. Zimbardo. Who has done other wacky stuff too. Just an FYI if you go for pretty much any sort of human behavior degree expect to see this video like 10-12 times.
Don't remember the part where anyone got beat up. Think you might be remembering that wrong Z.
Some judgements on the expariment were how the Observer Dr. Zimbardo took part in the events and might have pushed things one way or the other. Which after watching it umpteen times and having actually WORKED in a jail am inclined to believe. Few modern jailors are going to be that nasty to people because it tends to make their jobs a lot harder. It's easier to get someone to do what you want when they like you or at least respect you.

Chinese whispers, that story gets worse and worse over time.

I recall hearing (from a psych student) about the Nazi white coat theory that was supposed to be gruesome, where people will take all sorts of orders from someone in a white lab coat, i.e. authority.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

The UK is becoming saturated with the police state mentality. It's no surprise that some rent a cop moron would do this there.

Because you're in such a position to know, Mr Alaskan.

But yeah, this is ridiculous. People seem to have been scare-mongered into believing that there is a pedo behind every blade of grass.

I also agree with the White Caucasian Male thing mentioned above somewhere. Stand up to a nonwhite, you're a racist. Stand up to a woman, you're a sexist etcetera, etcetera.

Summary: society sucks.

 

[AnarchistAbe]

Seems a bit much to me. Someone could have tried to figure out if a crime was actually being commited.

But that would be logical! How many times do we have to stress it...common sense has no place in this world.

 

[HuntrRose]

There are no more sexual predators around today than a 100 years ago (percentage of population obviously). The only difference is that it is easier to see and stumble across on the internet, and so there have been several major cases about it in the media the last 5-10 years.

This has caused a mass hysteria where every person you see smiling at your kid (if you have any) is a potential pedophile. Ever man smiling at a beautiful lady is a potential rapist, or at least he's a schauvinist and should be sued for sexual harrasment.

Standard example of media caused mass hysteria. People who don't have shit for brains see through it, problem is most people have shit (or less valuable substance) for brains.

 

[TOGSolid]

The UK is becoming saturated with the police state mentality. It's no surprise that some rent a cop moron would do this there.

Because you're in such a position to know, Mr Alaskan.

But yeah, this is ridiculous. People seem to have been scare-mongered into believing that there is a pedo behind every blade of grass.

I also agree with the White Caucasian Male thing mentioned above somewhere. Stand up to a nonwhite, you're a racist. Stand up to a woman, you're a sexist etcetera, etcetera.

Summary: society sucks.

Thanks to Eve Online I got to know a lot of brits, plus I actually, yanno, bother to read global news on a regular basis.

DEM KIDS AND THEIR CRAZY INTERNETS