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One thing is clear in the aftermath of the charges last week against a social media personality for an incident in which the personality was stabbed – there need to be some rules for social media's "To Catch A Predator" crowd.
Nicholas Attalla, better known as Niky Sal, was charged with second-degree criminal nuisance and endangering the welfare of a child. Two other men involved in the altercation at Tim Hortons in December were also charged with second-degree criminal nuisance and endangering the welfare of a child after an attempted sex predator unveiling in a public place ended up creating a scuffle that left one person stabbed, ended up affecting a woman and 1-year-old child in the restaurant and closed the restaurant for a day.
What's worse is the public incident, according to police, didn't need to happen in the first place because the two men Attalla said were sex predators had never spoken with Attalla at all.
Attalla and those who use similar tactics are trying to help police departments that typically have too many cases and too few officers. We understand why they are moved to take action. Their intent is pure. We understand frustration when it appears child sex predators are not being charged quickly enough or, at times, not at all. No one wants to see a child sex predator walking among us – especially parents. One can make a convincing argument that existing punishments aren't nearly enough for those who are convicted of child sex abuse.
But December's incident is exactly why we should wait for the police rather than taking matters into our own hands.
Identifying child sex predators who are using the internet in attempts to solicit underage children should lead to arrests and legal prosecutions, not on-the-spot punishments. Investigations should lead to jail time and sex offender registration, not public shame that operates outside of the legal system and without the due process guaranteed to everyone – even the worst felony among us. Private investigations certainly shouldn't endanger possible criminal cases by contaminating the chain of digital evidence, contaminate investigations, or establish successful entrapment defenses for suspects. And a meet-up gone wrong shouldn't end up placing a mother and a child in danger.
A lot can go wrong in these sex predator sting operations. Everything went wrong with the December case.
The rise of citizen action against child sex predators is creating a Wild West type of atmosphere on social media. It's time, in our opinion, for the state Legislature to set some rules and guidelines so that an incident like the one that happened in December in Jamestown doesn't happen again with more severe consequences.