sharply critiqued<\/a> the tactics used by \u201cTo Catch a Predator,\u201d saying in a 2007 feature that it prioritized spectacle over responsible reporting: \u201cDateline hasn\u2019t so much covered a story as created one. In the process it has further compromised the barrier between reporters and cops that is central to the mission of journalism.\u201d<\/p>\nAfter \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d ended, Hansen resurrected its format for other projects, including \u201cTakedown With Chris Hansen\u201d on TruBlu, a subscription-based true crime streaming network he cofounded with Shawn Rech. The formula is so popular that it spawned copycats, which Osit examines in the film\u2019s second part. Unlike Hansen\u2019s projects, these social media vigilantes do not work with law enforcement \u2014 although they often contact police during their confrontations.<\/p>\n
Skeeter Jean has 2.36 million subscribers to his \u201cSkeet a Predator\u201d YouTube channel. He too works with decoys and tells alleged predators that he is with the \u201cPredatorial Investigation Unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one meta scene, Osit\u2019s documentary team is crammed into a small motel room with Jean, their cameras rolling while Jean\u2019s crew filmed his confrontation with a man who had arranged a meetup with a decoy.<\/p>\n
The man, whose face was blurred in \u201cPredators\u201d because he didn\u2019t sign the documentarians\u2019 appearance release form, sobbed in despair. The crews became so alarmed that they asked authorities for help, saying they were worried he might kill himself.<\/p>\n
Finally, the third part of the film focuses on a high schooler who was the subject of an episode of \u201cTakedown With Chris Hansen.\u201d He was 18, about to start his senior year, when he walked a few blocks to allegedly have sex with someone he believed to be a 15-year-old boy \u2014 actually an adult decoy \u2014 he had been talking to online.<\/p>\n
During an interview with his mother for the documentary, he can be heard weeping from his bedroom \u2014 just as he had done when he begged Hansen not to \u201cruin his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a conversation caught on camera for the documentary, TruBlu\u2019s Rech expressed the same concern to Hansen when they discussed an early cut of the episode, pointing out that in other states the three-year age gap would be legal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d Hansen is heard saying. \u201cI think people will be forgiving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t believe that they were actually going to air this 18-year-old\u2019s mistake \u2014 that Chris Hansen would be willing to stoop so low for his show. I just don\u2019t know how the worst day of my life could be something that people are getting snacks for,\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n
Her son, along with six other men arrested in the undercover child sex crime operation, was charged with four felonies.<\/p>\n
TruBlu eventually took down the episode after the court decided that if the 18-year-old \u201cdidn\u2019t reoffend, his record would be wiped clean,\u201d Hansen told Osit.<\/p>\n
True crime shows have traditionally ended with a criminal being arrested, tried and sent to prison. But for Osit, the story doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
In one scene, during the crisis in the motel, the man asks Skeet\u2019s team if they know of any \u201cprograms\u201d to help him, saying he wants to take the \u201cright steps\u201d instead of \u201cgoing backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
This has long been a question with pedophilia. Can people who are sexually attracted to children be rehabilitated? And if so, how?<\/p>\n
In another scene, Osit asks Greg Stumbo, a former Kentucky attorney general who partnered with \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d in several sting operations, whether he\u2019d ever asked himself, \u201cHow can we stop this from happening? How can we fix the problem? How can we rehabilitate these men?\u201d<\/p>\n
Stumbo interrupts him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job\u2019s not to rehabilitate \u2019em, my job\u2019s to make \u2019em be responsible for the act that they committed \u2026 I have absolutely no compassion for \u2019em,\u201d he says firmly.<\/p>\n
But Osit said he believes people experience empathy for others not because of their actions but rather by finding a way to relate to them and \u201caccess their humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think that empathy is something that someone earns from you and then gets taken away based on what they’ve done. Empathy is just something that we choose to give out, something that we choose to provide. It’s whether we choose to basically see that someone is a human being or not,\u201d he told me. \u201cWhen we empathize with somebody, it’s not forgiving \u2014 it’s just seeing someone for the multitudes they have.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that in making the film, he set out to \u201cfind common ground with everybody\u201d and avoid the paradigm inherent in \u201cTo Catch a Predator\u201d and other true crime content that tells you \u201cwhat’s right and what’s wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to avoid that, because to me, that’s part of the paradigm that shows like \u2018To Catch a Predator\u2019 created: there’s good guys and bad guys, and those binaries don’t leave room for how completely and horrifically complicated we are as people,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us are part of that cycle of hurt and inability to heal,\u201d Osit said. \u201cAnd I tried to make a film that showed that the audience was as much a part of that cycle as I am, and as much a part of that cycle as any of the people who we call predators.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPredators\u201d is divided into three parts, with the first focusing on the case that presaged the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397,125563,125564,4054,125565,14229],"class_list":{"0":"post-230917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-suspicious-circum","13":"tag-suspicious-circumstances","14":"tag-timely","15":"tag-to-catch-a-predator","16":"tag-true-crime"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}